An oven tray designed for people with arthritis, an AI application to help blind people recognise when a bus approaches their stop, and a longer lasting ice cube are amongst the ingenious creations that have come out of a new programme that Year 7 Selwyn House students are undertaking this year.
Ngā Huarahi Pūtaiao – The Science Pathways has been developed by Selwyn House Head of Science and Mechatronics, Simon Christie, to provide an opportunity for students to apply their creative and innovative thinking to a practical project in the science and technology field.
“For many years, our school has been participating in CREST, a national awards scheme that had previously been run by The Royal Society Te Apārangi, however this programme ceased to run a few years ago,” Selwyn House Principal, Julie Calder said. “That opened up an opportunity for us to purpose-design our own science and technology programme, which we have introduced for our Year 7 students this year.”
The programme asks students to identify a problem or an aim, and then to take the science path, Te Ara Pūtaiao, or the technology path, Te Ara Hangarau, to solve or achieve it.
“This is about our students proving to themselves that they possess the creative and critical thinking skills to solve the world’s problems. Ngā Huarahi Pūtaiao is nestled in between our Year 6 Exhibition and Year 8 Passion Projects, all of which are personal inquiries that allow the students to apply their learning in a practical way to a relevant issue,” Mrs Calder said.
“We are specifically targeting these year groups because these girls are at an age where they are starting to imagine what they could be in the future, and Ngā Huarahi Pūtaiao is important because we want them to know that there are many exciting possibilities in science and technology.”
Mr Christie said purpose-designing Ngā Huarahi Pūtaiao also presented an opportunity to make science and technology more relevant to the New Zealand and Te Ao Māori context.
“Students have been asked to identify how their project relates to any of four key concepts in Te Ao Māori – Rangatiratanga, Manākitanga, Kaitiakitanga and Kotahitanga. This helps the students view science and technology through a more holistic lens, and to recognise how they can harness their skills to impact positively on the world around them.
“Mentorship is another important aspect of the programme and the students are encouraged to seek assistance with their projects, either within or outside of their school community. We are fortunate to have excellent connections with the University of Canterbury that we can call upon and very grateful to Dr Marie Squire from the University’s Chemistry Department who will judge the final projects, along with some female researchers who will spend time speaking with the students about their inquiries.”
The final projects are being presented to the judges and the school community and eight projects will be selected to compete at the NIWA Canterbury-Westland Science Fair in September.
