The Transpower Neighbourhood Engineers Awards continue to be a popular and successful way of providing curriculum support to schools.

At both St Mary’s School in Rotorua and Royal Road School in Auckland, groups of students have shown they have what it takes to be young engineers, with some already seriously considering this as a career option as they move on to their high school years. Both schools won an Award in 2010 and now students have seen their conceptual designs realised with the practical outcomes being unveiled in 2013.

St Mary’s School, Rotorua

The school group was one of four to win major awards in 2010, with their junior playground design project. The students decided on this project after observing that their school’s junior playground was significantly smaller than the middle and senior school playground and that junior students were using the middle and senior playgrounds and getting injured. The money from the Transpower Neighbourhood Engineers Award was backed up by a sustained fundraising effort from the school’s PTA , and the junior students now have a brand new playground.

Neighbourhood Engineer Ros So-Beer, from SKM, says: “Being involved in this project was rewarding. Anne Cato, the Assistant Principal, allowed me to introduce engineering skills to her enrichment class. With her full support, the team was able to deliver an exceptional result which was a huge accomplishment.

“But the greatest reward to me as an engineer is I witnessed how the project awakened the students’ passion and thirst for knowledge, especially in Science and Technology. This project has even inspired some of the students, who are now in Year 10, to want to become engineers. However, the project’s ultimate achievement is the students can now see the project they researched, investigated and calculated is built and in use.

“With the help of IPENZ, Transpower, and the school’s PTA, this will give them a sense of fulfilment that they have made a contribution to their school and to the community.” 

Assistant Principal Anne Cato, agrees. “What started as a paper project became something that everyone realised should become a real project. Everyone is delighted with the new playground. We are very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with an engineer, who assisted with technical assistance, support and passion while helping our students create and realise a dream.”

Royal Road School, Auckland

Their wind turbine project was one of 13 merit awards made to participating schools in 2010. The project was developed when students brainstormed ways to make the school a more sustainable place and earn a Silver Enviro School rating. They decided they would be keen to grow fruit and vegetables in the school garden. Unfortunately, the tank used to collect rainwater for the garden was in a state of disrepair and could not be used for watering plants so they had to find a way around this to make it possible.

The students gained valuable understanding through their work and learning experiences and were disappointed when it could not be completed that year. It was not until 2013 that they would experience the satisfaction of the installation of the wind turbine. It is now an integral component of a system that allows the school to collect and grow seeds into plants and trees for the school’s large green belt area, as well as for food and decorative gardens. The power generated is used to power the pump for water from a large rain collection tank to irrigate gardens and water nursery plants in the nursery shade-house. Without the help and support of others the school would not have been able to experience this success and would like to acknowledge the expertise of Futureintech and the input and funding by The Auckland Council /Enviroschools and The Transpower Neighbourhood Engineers Awards.

Christine Abercrombie, teacher in charge of the initial project says: “From having the opportunity to work with Juan, his expertise and passion for our action project has really triggered a spark in our students. We have been very fortunate to work with someone like Juan and I am very proud of how much the students have accomplished and achieved.”

2014 TNEA senior secondary team awards

These two featured projects show transformations initiated by team participation in the Transpower Neighbourhood Engineers Awards (TNEA). Up to now, however, team entries in the Year 9-13 category have been a rarity.

This year being the IPENZ Centenary year, we’re going to have a go at increasing the number of senior team entries with a special focus on promoting and supporting schools entering in this category.

If you have a school- or wider community-based project you’ve been looking to have a go at, and a group of keen secondary students, at any year level or mixture of year levels, who would enjoy working with a mentoring engineer to realise the outcome, let us know what you’re thinking of doing and we’ll see how we can help.

Start the ball rolling by contacting Glynn at gmcgregor@techlink.org.nz