Freeport, Bahamas – Deputy Prime Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis opened the 17th Annual Southeastern Consortium of Minorities Engineers (SECME) Mousetrap Car and Bottle Rocket Competition which was held at the Jack Hayward High School grounds in Grand Bahama last weekend.
Deputy Prime Minister Davis gave the opening address and also launched the first rocket at the competition. This year’s event marked the first time that entrants had to submit a rocket patch design, technical drawings, posters and technical reports in addition to their cars and rockets for a total package of points.
Back as a major corporate sponsor was Grand Bahama Shipyard (GBS) joining the annual organisers the Rotary Club of Lucaya, Ministry of Education and the Bahamas Society of Engineers Northern Branch. SECME is the major event for budding engineers and has been an annual fixture on the island for 17 years.
Twelve high schools and nine primary schools entered this year’s competition. St. Paul’s Primary, Jr. High and Sr. High teams won 5 of the 6 divisions in this year’s competition with Bishop Michael Eldon Jr. High’s team preventing a clean sweep by winning the Mouse Trap Car competition in the junior high division.
This year was also the first year of the Corporate Challenge Bottle Rocket floating trophy with CONCEM Cement Company narrowly edging out the Grand Bahama Shipyard for the inaugural award.
The committee that helped organise this year’s competition included Dennis Knowles from the Rotary Club of Lucaya, which has coordinated this event from its inception, Herbert Marshall, Sr. Agriculture and Science Officer at the Ministry of Education, Ed Pavey, GBS Director of Technical and Planning, and Darius Williams, President of the Bahamas Society of Engineers Northern Branch. Kettering University is the advising institution for this school competition.
This year organisers also made the event more family friendly by adding free face painting, bouncing castle, popcorn and snow cones, with hot dogs and hamburgers for sale. By moving the event to Saturday and adding the fun factor, the competition received the largest parent turnout to date.The DPM noted, “This event transcended political lines in that members from both sides put their differences aside to support our children.”
Political attendees included the DPM, Deputy Opposition Leader Loretta Butler-Turner, Minister for Grand Bahama Michael Darville and East End MP Peter Turnquest. He also encouraged participants to “use this event to ‘Blast off to the Future’” as he looks forward one day to seeing a Bahamian astronaut.
Dr. Michael Darville acknowledged that this event is a major impetus in addressing the low levels of Bahamian students entering the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields. Deputy Leader Butler-Turner was also truly amazed by the operation and length of travel of the bottle rocket and mousetrap cars.
Ed Pavey, Director of Technical and Planning at the Shipyard commented, “Grand Bahama Shipyard is extremely pleased to be the Major Corporate Sponsor of the SECME science competition here on Grand Bahama Island. This is our second year of participation and we are pleased to support the Ministry of Education in preparing our kids for such a great program. I personally feel most pleased to be a part of this event as I have ties with all parties involved; the Rotary Club of Lucaya, The Bahamas Society of Engineers, Grand Bahama Shipyard and our favourite beneficiary The Ministry of Education.”
