27 Awards at NIWA Science Fair

Our Boys’ School’s budding young scientists scored great success at the 2022 NIWA Auckland Science and Technology Fair with a solid 11 placings, 14 special prizes and 4 Highly Commended awards. Following on from the Science Symposium, 17 projects were selected to share their science and technology projects alongside finalists from 25 other schools across the Auckland Central Region.

The standards of work at NIWA have always been extremely high, so we were extremely delighted that 19 of our boys were recognised for a record 27 awards. Six students placed First in their category, demonstrating an impressive application of scientific method, and presenting their project with knowledge and passion, two students placed Second in their category, showing a mix of innovation and insight in a scientific field. Three students placed Third in their category, revealing a blossoming passion for science and research. Four students were Highly Commended for their projects in recognition of their great effort and scientific inquiry while 11 students received Special Prizes acknowledging their special areas of interests.

The considerable number of high-quality of projects from across the Auckland Central Region made it extremely challenging for the panel of judges from the industry, further education and government bodies, to select the winners.

Winning First Place in the Technology category, Tony Li’s Bio-plaSTICKS explored the production of homemade biodegradable bioplastics with carbon zero manufacturing and rapid composting. Another First Place project was To Clean or Not to Clean for the Living World category by Sean Doherty where he deduced that washing mouthguard with soap and water is the most effective method of cleaning and that mouthguards should be changed every season.

Oliver McGuinness and Ethan Mora’s Breathe in! Breath out! project gained them First Place in the Living World category. Their project investigated what position allowed the greatest lung capacity. Harold MacCulloch who showcased his work measuring and comparing the number of calories in various types of food using the ‘bomb calorimeter’ also placed First in the Food Technology category.

Campbell Williams’ timely investigation of the function of face masks, testing which offers the best protection won him First Place in the Material World category while Nelsen Meacham’s exploration on the adverse effect of water quality housing developments have delivered him the top position in the Planet Earth & Beyond category.

Well done to all our boys on their impressive results at this year’s NIWA Fair!