Taking part in the Bristlebot race were, left, Mirko Wojnowski, Miracle Edmonds, Tre Seakens, Mere Toeke, Kudzai Chiondere, Chipo Fumhanda, Arwyn Henare and Michala Davis.
Taking part in the Bristlebot race were, left, Mirko Wojnowski, Miracle Edmonds, Tre Seakens, Mere Toeke, Kudzai Chiondere, Chipo Fumhanda, Arwyn Henare and Michala Davis.
NorthTec has been taking engineering into schools to give students an idea of what can be achieved in the field, with a robot challenge part of the lesson.
Year 9 students in the new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) stream at Whangarei's Te Kapehu Whetu school got a taste ofengineering with a two-day visit from NorthTec teachers. Student teams constructed a "bristlebot", a sort of motorised toothbrush, and raced it against other teams.
The exercise was to make the point that engineering is all about creative and intelligent problem-solving.
Mirko Wojnowski, leader of the NorthTec project, said taking the subject into local schools was a great way to introduce engineering to a large number of students.
