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.

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," Selwyn House Principal, Julie 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."


For more information about Ngā Huarahi Pūtaiao and Year 7 at Selwyn House School please contact enrolments@selhouse.school.nz