STEM Correspondent, Jonathan Weir, reports on a STEM/Art challenge that captured our boys’ imagination during the July  school holidays- a creative alternative to screen time that saw a humble yellow bath toy transformed into an objet d’art.

At the end of Term 2, Ms Fox thought of a brilliant idea: how to reuse leftover ducks from the 2015 gala!

She created a competition for students to turn a duck into a ‘push’ or ‘pull’ toy and “Pimp it out” over the holidays.

The guidelines were to be creative and have fun! On the first few days back there were lots of ducks being brought in, and the students enjoyed checking them out during break times. Ms Fox said:

“It’s very cool to see so many amazing ducks. So much work has gone into all of them. I hope the boys and their families had fun creating them.”

On Wednesday  this week, our artist in residence, Natchez Hudson, Mr Jorna and Ms Fox judged all of the 65 duck entries. Apparently, it was too hard to pick 1st, 2nd and 3rd, so they decided to award three winners in each syndicate: Junior, Middle and Senior with  three ‘Highly Commended’ in each group.

Winners- Junior Syndicate:

• Sven Simonson “WereDuck”
• Finn Hurdle “Rock Duck”
• Lukah Smithson “Swimmer”

Winners- Middle Syndicate:

• Jack Jones “BuzzyDuck”
• Quinn Gillies “TrumpDuck”
• Reuben Stevens “Skateboarder Duck”

Winners- Senior Syndicate:

• Otto Smale “PunkDuck”
• Leon Court “Caesar Duck”
• Jericho Wharehinga “Gold Duck”

Staff, boys and parents were all very impressed with the creativity and perseverance that went into these pieces. Mr Jorna said:

“Everybody put so much effort into their ducks, and all deserved to win. There was so much creativity involved, well done boys.”

Photo Credits: Jonathan Weir

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