Pinjarra Senior High School's year 11 and 12 Certificate II in rural operations students got a taste of the future of agriculture when they recently competed at the popular Drone Vs Dog Trials at the Muresk Institute in Northam.
The student group represented by year 12 Chade Woodhouse finished as runners-up in the contest.
The Peel school students competed in drone time trials against nine other schools from around Western Australia.
The 15 participants from Pinjarra were part of the 228 students in attendance on the day, which was aimed at making high school students aware of tertiary study options and future career opportunities in the agricultural space.
Pinjarra Senior High School's rural operations teacher Darryl Spargo said the trip to the Wheatbelt was a worthwhile venture and the students enjoyed taking part in the challenge.
"I believe the students benefited greatly from the experience," he said.
"It showed the students that there are many available options to further their learning such as day, weekend, or short courses.".
High school students from as far as Mount Barker and Morawa made the long trip to the Muresk Institute to attend the event.
Although the excursion for them involved a four-hour round trip and a long day, the students from Pinjarra saw the value in the event and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Student Chade Woodhouse echoed his teacher's sentiments and said it was an enjoyable experience.
"We found out some really interesting career pathways for the future, and overall we had a really good day up at Northam," he said.
Students were also treated to an agility dog demonstration by the Agility Club of WA.
The dogs then went on to challenge the times set by the students, but fell just short of the mark set by the fastest student drone pilots.
This was the third year of the Drone Vs Dog Trials at the Muresk Institute.
Adrian Toh is from Pinjarra Senior High School.
