Pirongia School pupils earn awards at Niwa Waikato Regional Science and Technology Fair 2022

Pippa Earwaker, Sacha Mills, Samuel Sheridan and Liam Hodgson at the prizegiving at Sacred Heart Girls' College. Photo / Supplied

The award ceremony for the Niwa Waikato Regional Science and Technology Fair 2022 was held on Tuesday last week at Sacred Heart Girls' College, Hamilton, with a cohort of 75 Year 7-8 students. Pirongia School participants were awarded five prizes at the regional level, with one of our students winning the best project at the fair.

The fair was held on August 19-20 at the Hamilton Gardens. This year's themes were wall charts theme Medicine from Nature, photo category was glass, Observational Drawings of Gastropods and Echinoderms, and video theme Climate Change.

"We are, very proud of these students and their individual success. We have a fantastic team of Year 7-8 teachers and it proves that they are definitely keeping the love of science alive," says principal Kelly Bicknell.

Liam Hodgson, 13 years, placed first for his exhibit Battle of the Benthos.

Liam Hodgson is the winner of the 2022 Niwa Waikato Science and Technology Fair. Photo /Supplied

Liam took out many other notable prizes including the best in the fair. He was also awarded the NZ Statistical Association Award For Excellent Application of Statistical Methods And Reasoning, Best Year 8 Exhibit, and Niwa award for outstanding exhibit relating to water and/or atmosphere.

What Liam enjoyed most about his project is that he has always loved exploring the great outdoors, the massive area he covered exploring both Waipā and King Country water catchments, being in the water looking forward to seeing what "creatures" he would find in the bundles he had set.

Liam says he is really stoked about winning; after coming runner-up last year, it certainly didn't make him feel any more confident.

"It's really difficult to know what the judges are looking for, and when you see the other projects - you know that while you might be in with a chance, you can never be certain."

The one thing he took as a positive was his interview with the judge. He felt great being able to talk with the judge, he got asked lots of questions and the judge was really interested in what he had studied.

Science is absolutely his passion. He has always talked about following a pathway into practical science, and more recently has talked about becoming an environmental ecologist or a marine biologist.

Sacha Mills, 13, was highly commended for her exhibit on Barking Bacteria.

Sasha says that she "enjoyed gathering the information to research for my science fair topic, and the interesting results I got and learning how to write about them. I also enjoyed designing my science fair board."

Samuel Sheridan, 13, was highly commended for his exhibit on Best Balls.

About his project, he says "I liked researching something I'm passionate about, crafting a display board that I was proud of."

Pippa Earwaker, 12, gained third place for her exhibit Dishes Dilemma.

"I enjoyed seeing my board set up with everyone else's at the science fair," says Pippa.

Kanu Millward, 13, won second place with his exhibit on Sleep Science.

"I really enjoyed finding out more about the topic, of whether screen time before bedtime affects the quality of sleep, it was very interesting," says Kanu.