Halton Engineering Challenge

The HEC Challenge is a unique coooperative effort between business and education developed by Halton teachers and professional engineers to meet many of the knowledge, skills and application expectations of the grade eight "Fluids" and "Mechanical Efficiency" units. The Challenge has been written as a useable curriculum unit in which teachers have the opportunity of teaching theory through lessons and activities that are engaging, fun, interesting and that meet required expectations. Professional engineers are paired with schools and visit teachers and classes as technical consultants and mentors.

By accepting the Challenge, grade eight students work in teams of four to apply the knowledge and skills learned in the theoretical portion of the Challenge to an authentic engineering problem presented by Meritor Automotive and the Professional Engineers of Ontario. They have the opportunity to design and construct a hydraulic robotic arm capable of transporting miniaturized automotive coils based on the coil manufacturing process at Meritor Automotive in Milton. The performance task becomes a competition each March (since 1993), as the top teams from schools throughout Halton meet to present their robotic arms to panels of professional engineers. Gold, silver and bronze plaques will be awarded to teams earning an appropriate position on the assessment rubric. The top three teams win a tour of the manufacturing facilities at Meritor.