Over two days in May, Monday  21st and Tuesday 22nd Lifetime Lab hosted the regional finals of the K’NEX Challenge, teams from 70 schools all over Cork county competed for the honour of  representing Cork at the National finals in Dublin in June.

This year’s theme was the emergency services and competitors were presented with the task of building a fire engine from KNEX kits. The Cork final was spilt into two heats run over two days with Glounthaune NS pupils Mark Crowley and Cian Luddy emerging on day 1 and Jack Keane and Kevin Sheehan of Ballintemple NS winning on day 2.

 L-R Vivian Garde of Vivian Garde and Associates with heat 1 winners Mark Crowley and Cian Luddy, Glounthane NS and Denis Ring UCC.

L-R Robert Bohane Pfizer Ireland with heat 2 winners Jack Keane and Kevin Sheehan Ballintemple NS and Maria Lynch form Arup Consulting engineers.

Over the last six-months, pupils became engineers for a day and worked in teams of two, under time constraint, to design and build a specific engineered model using the educational construction toy, K’NEX. Over 1000 schools were visited and more than 25000 students were asked to use creativity and innovation to design and build a model based on this year’s theme, the emergency services. The ultimate winners will be crowned Junior Engineers for Ireland.

The competition is a joint initiative between STEPS to engineering, Engineers Ireland and Hasbro who manufacture K’NEX. Over 1000 schools took part this year. The STEPS to engineering K’NEX Challenge helps encourage young people to consider entering the engineering profession which is crucial as Ireland pushes to become one of the world’s Top 5 economies, as targeted by Engineers Ireland & the Irish Academy of Engineering in their joint report ‘Engineering a Knowledge Island 2020’.

L-R Vivian Garde of Vivian Garde and Associates with heat 1 runners up  Chris Dukelow  and David Rowell, St. James NS, Durras, Bantry and Denis Ring UCC.

L-R Robert Bohane Pfizer Ireland with heat 2 runners up Andrea O Callaghan and Clare Kennefick of Scoil Bhride Eglantine, Douglas and Maria Lynch from Arup Consulting Engineers.

Margie McCarthy, STEPS to engineering Manager said: “The STEPS to engineering K’NEX challenge is a fantastic opportunity for young pupils to dip their toes into the wonderful and exciting world of engineering. The competition makes engineering fun and opens up young people’s eyes to how engineering plays a part in everything around them from roller coasters to buildings to their mobile phones and many more exciting new technologies.”

For more information on the K’NEX challenge visit www.steps.ie/Knex.htm