Ross McTeir and Joni Baikie, who are both in primary six at Pulteneytown Academy, won the Junior Engineer for Britain K'Nex Challenge at the finals in Dundee last week.

The pair were competing against 94 others from 48 schools across Scotland at the city's Caird Hall, and will now go on to the UK finals in September, in either London or Manchester.

The challenge, organised by charity organisation TechFest-SetPoint, involved using the K'Nex construction kits (made up of interconnecting plastic rods and links) to produce a specific design solution for a real-life problem.

The finalists had to design a model hangar for a car belonging to project Bloodhound – the Richard Noble-led attempt on the world land speed record.

With two hours to plan and build their designs, the pupils had to include a mechanism to winch the car in and out of the hangar, as well as accommodation for the crew.

The designs were then judged by professional engineers who volunteered to take part.

Ross, who was a last-minute replacement in the challenge, said: "It was a surprise, I didn't expect to go to Dundee."

He added: "Building the model was hard because all the pieces had to slot together and we didn't have much time to do it.

n Pulteneytown Academy pupils Joni Baikie and Ross McTeir celebrate their victory at the Scottish finals of the Junior Engineer for Britain K'Nex Challenge.

"I didn't realise we had won until they said it a second time."

Louise McGregor, one of the organisers from TechFest-SetPoint, said the Pulteneytown pair had an "exceptionally good design".

As well as winning K'Nex kits, the pupils won £100 for the school, which head teacher Lilian Wark said would go towards construction and technology materials.

She said the two pupils were "absolutely thrilled" to win.

The challenge saw more then 19,000 children from almost 600 schools participate overall, with the first Caithness and Sutherland stages being run by Ruth Falconer, of Wick firm KP technology.

The project was supported by organisations including Talisman Energy (UK) Limited, Wood Group, Tayside Contracts, Scottish and Southern Energy and the Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology.

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