The WITT Science
&
Technology Fair is organised by a dedicated team of volunteers.
Students of all ages have an opportunity to experience the true nature
of science and potentially see their inventions in mass production. New
from 2018, with the introduction of the Digital Technologies Hangarau
Matihiko curriculum, are the Robotics Competitions.
Robotics
competition builders guide - maze and sumo details with links
to kits and
examples of robots to build. Michael has a limited number of complete
robots built at cost, first in first served!
Why the Science and Technology Fair is a fun and authentic learning
opportunity
* A local primary
school student had no idea that in a few years time her project would
save the hearing of children across New Zealand...meet local hero Jamie Fenton, Young New Zealander
of the Year...
* We award around
$10,000 in prizes that students can use to continue their interest in
science, and around $72,000 in total has been awarded in Scholarships
for further studies at a tertirary level.
* School science earns an F. Research by local
scientist and Microsoft Innovative Teacher Michael Fenton indicates
that the state of New Zealand's science teaching is antiquated and
inadequate. What are some examples of 'best practice' when using ICT in
education, and how do science projects improve learning?
* Teaching and the f word: From the New Zealand
INTERFACE article....putting the fun back into teaching while dealing
with the competing tensions of assessment and covering the curriculum.
For primary and secondary teachers.
STEM/STEAM citizen science projects: real-world data via low cost
IoT smart devices
Build your own
Internet of Things (IoT) home automation, robotics or science data
collection devices for just a few dollars. Monitor data on your phone,
laptop or tablet, use automatic graphing tools to look for patterns or
trends, or even set alarms for txts and email alerts.
Environmental sensor1 (ES1) example...connected to Thingspeak...
Photo gallery of some
past projects
Technological
development: Bike indicator - the youngest
participant at the Fair was only seven (7) years old! Mikaela won a
Merit Prize, not bad when the other students in
her section were at least 4 years older than her!
Technological
development:The Laser Wars! Junior Technology project of Nick
Wells from Inglewood High School caught the attention of the Daily News
reporter visiting the Science Fair...
The project
is based on a combat game played in broad daylight instead of in the
dark The Pulse Rifle could shoot the Terminator from way up on the
second floor!
Science investigation:
Strategy: Observing trends and patterns in data
Lethal lunch boxes! How hot does your lunch box
get when left in your school bag? Kimberley Fenton found out with some
help from a PICAXE datalogger using a temperature sensor to monitor
food spoilage.
Technological development
and also used for
Science investigation:
Strategy: Observing trends and patterns in data
Great for Year 12 and Year 13 physics, but fun for primary students to
see a frictionless surface to model frictionless space flight in a
vacuum (no air). Once you
get moving with a push from your engine, you can coast without using
any more fuel to the end of the universe!
We don't want to
see any bare circuits or boring 'naked' robots...give your robot some
personality and a cool body!
Think
of this as adding a costume; it could be as simple as a cardboard
covering with hand drawn body parts and gadgets to scare off the
competition!
Here is an example of dressing up an Edison V2 robot (kindly supplied
by Tim Carr of www.Mindkits.co.nz)
How cool can you make your robot?
Scary R2 - the
original skeleton R2D2-style robot!
If you wait until the day AFTER Halloween, it is scary how cheap some
of the accessories and props are from local stores...perhaps use these
for your next Applied robotics/ STEAM project?
Creepy R2
uses LiPo batteries, a L298N motor controller connected to a Picaxe 14M2, and has a voice via a MP3
player
module. The robot is driven using a bluetooth module via an Android
smartphone (see
the Robotics competition main
page for parts).
Creepy R2 robot does a self diagnostic power check at start up, then
can be driven and tracks (phrases and music) played to suit the
occasion!
