ST BEDE'S TECHGIRLS TEAM

Ms JENNY AITCHISON (Maitland—Minister for Regional Transport and Roads)—Congratulations to St Bede's Catholic College, Chisholm, year nine students Ariana Weddell, Isabella Frazer-Mesic, Paige Pannowitz and Ainsley Griffin, who have been named winners in the recent national Techgirls competition. The girls spent 12 weeks developing an original app Hydr8, in response to the challenge of solving a worldwide problem, the aims to improve access to clean drinking water. The app uses location data to inform users where bubblers or hydration stations are on their walking route, and if there are none it will suggest an alternate path. The girls designed, wrote and coded the app themselves. They created a budget, a business plan and pitch video to go alongside their submission, all great skills to learn. Congratulations to science teacher Rebecca Haines who coordinated the school's participation in the competition which is designed for girls from seven to 17-years-old. The team divided tasks with Ariana and Isabella on design and colours, Paige was on app development, using the app development platform Thunkable to code and build Hydr8. It is great to see Maitland girls achieving in STEM competitions on the national stage, congratulations to all involved.