Engineering students from nine NSW public schools have participated in a pilot project designed to provide a “real-life” experience and highlight engineering as a future career.

The RailCorp Making Tracks Schools Engineering Challenge, which ran last term, involved 215 Year 10 students. Working in small teams, students were presented with a scenario that required them to develop a railway system for a fictional town.

Julie King, senior project officer within the department’s technology unit, said RailCorp proposed the challenge last year to the curriculum K-12 directorate which “immediately saw its application to the Stage 5 [industrial technology (engineering)] syllabus”.

A team of technology unit staff, representatives from RailCorp, and teacher Peter Dawes from Northern Beaches Secondary College Manly campus, modified the original concept and developed teaching resources to support the project.

“We included things that were difficult for the students to get authentic experience of,” Mr Dawes said.

Students had to solve problems and accommodate new challenges, such as the “discovery” of a rare bird habitat.

Fairvale High head teacher industrial arts, Mark Dawson, said the challenge was an interesting way for students to get involved with a relevant, “real-life” situation.

“They are always asking ‘what do engineers do?’ It was good for them to get a practical insight,” Mr Dawes said.

Fairvale High teacher Lindsay Brockway said the challenge cross-referenced other subjects, such as maths and environmental studies, and provided a “sufficient variety of activities for the students to taste different aspects [of an engineering project]”.

“We saw very quickly they were going to be challenged,” Mr Brockway said.

“What was important was that they took up the challenge and were successful for their level of ability.”

The school, in Sydney’s south-west, won best overall achievement at the challenge’s presentation day last term and received a trophy, certificates and a Lego robotics kit worth $1,400.

Other participating schools received awards for outstanding achievement across a range of areas such as consideration of social impact, environmental factors, engineering design and outstanding model.