Community science has a strong foothold in South Auckland

Community science has a strong foothold in South Auckland
Ten new community science projects funded in South Auckland

May 31, 2017

Ten new community science projects are getting underway in South Auckland, involving science fields from dung beetles and juvenile flounder raising, to beehive and rodent activity monitoring.

COMET Auckland is pleased to announce the ten new successful projects, which are being funded as part of the SouthSci initiative, the South Auckland pilot of the NZ Government’s Participatory Science Platform.

SouthSci project manager Dr Sarah Morgan says these new projects are excellent examples of local communities engaging with science and technology as equal partners.

“The projects are fantastically diverse – from building useful structures out of recycled plastic to designing better school ‘houses’ for wētā”

The projects are aimed at a range of participants; primary and secondary school students, community and iwi groups, who collaborate with scientists from universities and research organisations to complete their projects.

“Traditional citizen science has not had a lot of relevance for South Auckland with a history of science organisations coming in to study and test, but not building long-term relationships with us. In stark contrast, these projects put the power and ownership back in our hands, which we think is directly linked to their success” says Nick Pattison, a SouthSci project alumnus, now Director of STEM at Kauri Flats School.

The ten 2017 projects have been awarded up to $20,000 each. They are:

· Papakura High School in collaboration with Massey University, investigating whether food waste can be used to create biochar that enhances plant growth and sequesters carbon

· Tangaroa College having established beehives with the help of BeesThingz, investigating whether they can predict beehive health by using sensors to monitor hives

· Wesley Intermediate and Conifer Grove School in collaboration with product development engineers from Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, co-designing and developing a safe method for recycling HDPE plastics into building materials, which are structurally sound and safe enough to build learning and play structures at the schools

· Ormiston Junior College in collaboration with Dr Shaun Forgie, investigating whether the presence of dung beetles on effluent affects soil and the volume and biochemical composition of water that runs off following rainfall

· Mangere Mountain Education Trust, Mangere Bridge Primary School and Makaurau Marae, investigating the effect of rodent control on the kumara yield in their urban garden

· East Tamaki School investigating which chemicals in worm tea and vermicast affect plant growth the most, with chemists from University of Auckland.

· Dawson Primary School & Aorere College in collaboration with Auckland Zoo and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, re-designing wētā houses that are more desirable to wētā, exclude pests and allow scat collection for research

· Willowbank School in collaboration with Plant & Food Research and Watercare, designing a robotic watering system triggered by a sensed level of soil moisture

· Ngāti Paoa Iwi Trust and Point England School in collaboration with Mahurangi Technical Institute and Auckland University’s Marine Institute, investigating the capture and raising of juvenile flounder as a first step to re-stocking flounder in the Manukau Harbour

· Sir Douglas Bader Intermediate School in collaboration with the Auckland Cancer Society and MetService, investigating the level of ventilation and UV exposure in the learning environment correlated to student comfort for learning.

ENDS

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