Rotorua hosts Bay of Plenty students as they show off work at annual science fair

Bay of Plenty students have showed off all the hard work they have put into science and technology projects, presenting their findings and creations to a range of judges.

The Niwa Bay of Plenty Science and Technology Fair was held at the Harvest Centre yesterday and today.Mark Franken, chairman of Bay of Plenty Science Fair and chairman of Kiwanis Club of Rotowhenua, said 112 exhibits entered into this year's fair.

The exhibits represented 13 schools from around the Bay of Plenty region, with Rotorua schools including John Paul College, Rotorua Girls' High School, Rotorua Lakes High School and Whakarewarewa School.

John Paul College's Cian Hinton, 18, received an array of awards for his Alternating Rotation Converter (ARC) Generator.

These included Niwa Best in Fair Overall Winner, First Senior Secondary Technology, Special Prize Hayes International Technology Award and Special Prize New Zealand Radio Science Education Trust Award.

Cian said his project had been a work in progress for five years so the results from the fair felt pretty great.

The project had been trying to design a new type of electrical generator, and this one was for a hydropower station.

"Probably the biggest thing I enjoy with these projects is the creation of something new and solving the problems that pop up."

Cian said technology was something he would like to pursue further, and next year he would be going down to Canterbury to study engineering. He wanted to thank Kilwell Fibretube for their support throughout his project.

Franken said this fair gave students a great opportunity to explore science and technology, with a degree of mentoring if required.

"It may encourage them to go into these fields at a tertiary level and hopefully from there on to careers."

Franken said the schools run their own competitions and then submit the best entries into this regional science fair.

The schools can then nominate the best of these entries for the national competition.

He said each of the schools that submitted students were required to supply a judge, and the rest of the judging panel came from Scion and other organisations.

"We would like to have a lot more senior students entering, and more Rotorua schools competing."