Murray Bridge High School students win SA iAward
A group of innovative Murray Bridge High School students have won the senior students category of the 2016 state iAwards and have earned themselves a ticket to the national competition.
The school entered the competition for the first time last year and took out the student category, this year they entered again and won for the second year in a row.
The students have spent countless hours since the beginning of February creating a Virtual Reality Gallery.
They created the project with the concept of enabling rural students to visit galleries and museums in a cost effective manner without needing to travel.
IT Teacher Steven Barclay has been mentoring the students and said they have done a great job.
“It’s pretty good what they have done, it’s one of those things, the students have been the driving force, I’m just the passenger.”
“It’s just so good to see the students putting their skills to good use, I mean, I taught some of these students things in year 9 and now they’re doing this,” Mr Barclay said.
Student Joshua Davis said he was surprised when his group were announced winners.
“We had quite a lot of good competition, they had it set up like a science fair so we had a look around and could see what other schools had done and they looked impressive,” he said.
They are now looking ahead to the national competition at the beginning of September.
They students have until then to revisit their project and iron out any areas that need improving to increase their chances of taking out the national title.
To win the national awards, the group will travel to Melbourne to wow the judging panel by making a pitch for their project.
Joshua said although they didn’t win at nationals last year, the experience will certainly help them this year.
“Last year has given us an advantage, we know what to expect and what areas we need to cover,” he said.
They group said they are feeling quite confident about the awards, they know there will be some tough competition but think their experience will be invaluable.
Students from last year’s awards received feedback that their pitch met the standards, the group just fell short as they didn’t produce a physical prototype of their creation.
This is not a mistake they will make twice, they are currently working to produce a prototype to show the judging panel.
They are currently speaking with the Art Gallery of South Australia and the University of Adelaide to create partnerships for artwork and academic information for voiceovers.