Our finalists are in the midst of their InsectBot build and working hard on 3D printing, coding, and electronics. We thought it might be good for them to take a little break and share a little bit about themselves… Meet our finalists Abby I am Abby and I live...
Ministry of Inspiration – NZAquaBots is New Zealand’s only underwater robotics programme. At this workshop, participants will be able to design engineer at ‘hackabot’ to complete a challenge underwater! Can you collect kai? Can you save the trapped dolphin? Test your skills and see if you can! Microbots –...
New Zealand Defence Force – Great opportunities for engineering in the NZDF with all training paid for and great deployment opportunities.
Analytica Laboratories – Analytica will be running pipetting challenges with full lab gear races. The fastest to pipette primary colours into green wins! This is paired with an interactive puzzle to learn about laboratory work.
LawVu – Empower a robot to draw for you, and get to know the world of Arduino.
Priority One – come and have a go in the photobooth, video/screen with written answer competition!
STEM Wana Trust – Bubble blowing is a fun example of chemistry! We invite visitors to experiment with homemade giant bubble wands and discover a bit of math, engineering, and science (chemistry and physics) as well as having lots of fun.
STEM Wana Trust x Rebecca Prestidge – Science at home! A fun and interactive workshop where we bring the science lab to you where you become the scientist and participate in different experiments that are not only science but can also be done at home using items you will...
Seismocity Ltd – Aotearoa New Zealand experiences many earthquake each and every day! Fortunately we don’t feel most of them and only a very few are strong enough to cause damage. But scientists have networks that can catch all of them. Come and listen to the Earth rumble! You’ll...
Geoscience Society of New Zealand – Come and discover what makes volcanoes tick. Play the Magma Pop game to crystallise different minerals out of a magma, then play with real volcanic rocks to find out what makes them different and why some of them even float on water.
Geoscience Society of New Zealand – Every stone has a story to tell. Become a Rock Detective and explore our exciting range of rocks from around Aotearoa New Zealand. How many can you identify using our clues?
Geoscience Society of New Zealand – New Zealand is known for its earthquakes. We get them daily, which means when we are building things, we need to ensure our structures can withstand future earthquakes. Come build mini-structures and see if they can withstand the next earthquake. You never know...
Geoscience Society of New Zealand – Come and design your own dynamic 3D landscape in our augmented reality sandbox. Generate virtual rain to learn why lakes, rivers and oceans form where they do, experiment with making new mountains and landmasses, and see where the water flows when you make...
GoTo Car Share – Come and explore the fleet and discover more about EVs. Car sharing isn’t only convenient it’s also transforming how many people commute while benefiting our environment. It provides significant financial and social benefits offering forward-thinking public transport solutions to the parking problem in any modern...
Xylem – Discover and learn how water is potentially transported in many countries where availability of electricity is either scarce or not available at all, we will be using the SAAJHI pump in a competition whereby those visiting the stand can fill a tank of water over a period...
NumberWorks’nWords – Tuition, Confidence, Results. Fun maths activities on a computer (suitable for all ages and abilities), and/or enter our Maths competition if you’re a keen mathematician!
Western Bay Wildlife Trust – Learn all about our local seabirds and shorebirds and the work we do to protect them! Find out how we undertake scientific monitoring and have a go at weighing and measuring kororā/little blue penguins.
The University of Auckland robotics research team will demonstrate some of their latest research projects. wearable human robot interfaces that allow us to operate robot grippers and hands in the execution of grasping tasks and with an all-terrain vehicle.
Tauranga City Libraries – We offer so much more than just books! Come and see us at STEMFest 2022 to get a grasp on what your local library has to offer. We’ll let you know about our ePlatforms, subsidised broadband, coding classes, makerspace, and computer lessons not to mention...
Tauranga City Council Water – Come along to the Tauranga City Council STEM presentation and learn about the journey of our local water from source to sea. We will look at conservation and sustainability of drinking water, pollution of stormwater, and treatment of wastewater. You will see where our...
Super Humanics Ltd – Making so many STEM ideas come to life. ‘How to’ built in advice and projects with the tools to make it happen. practical tools, media and equipment. The Tinker Cart, made EF Furniture Ltd, is a mobile STEM resource toolbox. It contains machinery like a...
STEAM-ED – Have a go at driving a robot and learn more about robots. We will have VEX IQ, VEX Go and MBots for children to drive.
School to Skies NZDF – Have you ever wondered how a plane flies? Or would you rather have your feet planted firmly on the ground? The Royal New Zealand Air Force -School to Skies team are showcasing the many aviation STEM career pathways on offer through their hands on...
Milky Way Kiwi – (Session Times TBC) The Astrobiology Dome takes you on a journey through the universe across space and time.
Milky-Way.Kiwi – (Session Times TBC) Drive a European Space Agency designed rover and see what it’s like to control a rover on Mars.
Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research lead the research and development of remote sensing of the terrestrial environment in New Zealand. Working in this space since the 1970’s, it is no surprise that our research teams are at the forefront of developing and implementing cutting edge technologies and methods to monitor and...
Institution of Civil Engineers – Come and be an engineer for the day. Get hands-on and build a 13 metre long exhibition bridge! Bridge building times 11am, 1pm, and 3pm.
University of Auckland: Faculty of Engineering WIE and SPIES – Students and staff from the Faculty of Engineering are at hand to answer all your burning questions about studying and working in Engineering, while you have a go at creating and testing your own designs in our engineering. Design,...
Cool Bananas – A make-and-take station, where kids can create a ‘U.F.O. Spinner’ (Unidentified Fidgeting Object) out of things that can’t be recycled, as a reminder of sustainability.
Envirohub – Precious Plastics – We’re turning milk bottle tops into precious plastics! We’ll have a few fun games and activities including a ‘Build your own lids tower’ and a ‘tic tac toe’!
Five finalists of the competition announced in late August, will receive an InsectBot Starter Building Kit which will include several components, the core compulsory elements being: Processor Sensor Motor When designing your InsectBot be sure to consider the above compulsory components and highlight them in your design. Our judging...
After a challenging couple of years due to the global pandemic, we are super excited to bring back Tauranga STEM Festival on Sunday the 2nd of October. It will be the second edition of STEMFest. Following on from the first award winning event will be a challenge – but...
WEEK THREE. Find out more about native NZ insects and their characteristics and how these elements can be incorporated into a design for an InsectBot that can survive on Mars!
WEEK THREE. Meet HexRoach. Be inspired by how our robotics expert got on when he designed and built his version of an InsectBot.
WEEK THREE. Here's David from TAS to give you even more insight into the red planet.
New Zealand’s young innovators have been set a mission of creating an InsectBot capable of surviving on Mars for the chance to win an exclusive VIP tour of the Rocket Lab facilities. The Great InsectBot Mission Competition is being led by STEM Wana Trust ahead of Tauranga STEM Festival,...
WEEK TWO. Learning about Mars’ environment is definitely key in order to build a robot capable of moving around. Here are some quick facts to get you started.
WEEK TWO. What will your InsectBot look like and what are the specific characteristics it will have in order to adapt to the Mars environment?
WEEK TWO. Now that you know the different characteristics of an insect and their structure, let’s have a look at a few of them with features that might be useful for you to learn about when designing your InsectBot.
WEEK ONE. What is an insect? What are its features and what do they help it do? Did you know that insects have been around for 4 millions years!!
WEEK ONE. Robots are fascinating! They can look like anything and pretty much do anything you program them to do. Robots are created to do jobs that us humans find too dangerous or boring and some are designed to go underwater, rocky terrain or fly.
WEEK ONE. Mars is such an intriguing environment and humans have been so curious to learn more about it for years now.
STEM Wana Trust were proud to host the official STEMFest Launch Party on Thursday 7th July 2022. Board Trustee Amanda Crowther welcomed sponsors, friends at Basestation and Tinkd Makerspace for an evening of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The organising team were delighted to share our exciting highlights for...
International Women in Engineering Day is an international awareness campaign to raise the profile of women in engineering and focus attention on the amazing career opportunities available to girls in this exciting industry. It celebrates the outstanding achievements of women engineers throughout the world. Meet Alex — engineer, adventurer,...
Prepare to take off for the best STEMFest yet as New Zealand’s largest science, technology, engineering, and mathematics festival (STEM) returns after a two-year hiatus. More than 50 exhibitors are expected in Tauranga from all over Aotearoa for the free, family-friendly street festival on Sunday 2 October, 2022. Highlights...
We’ve had some amazing entries from tamariki for this year’s STEMFest mascot superhero. We asked tamariki to think about an environmental problem that meant something to them and then to create a superhero who could solve that problem using the awesome powers of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)....
David Greig David is the President of the Tauranga Astronomical Society where he has been a member for 11 years, since 2011. He’s had a life-long interest in space / astronomy since when as a child he bought his first telescope at 14 years old, more than 40 years...
12 July 2022 1. These terms and conditions (Terms) apply to all participants in The Great InsectBot Mission Competition (Competition) promoted by the STEM Wana Trust (SWT). 2. By entering the Competition, you are deemed to agree to these Terms without qualification. If you do not agree to be...
Terms and Conditions Tauranga STEM Festival Mascot competition is open to residents of the Bay of Plenty aged 8 – 12 years old. All entrants should ask permission from a parent or guardian before entering. Please see the form attached for parents/guardian to sign. Only one artwork per artist...
This summer over three days we welcomed hundreds of visitors to a very special series of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics sessions in Tauranga. It started on Thursday 20th January 2022 with a workshop covering Artificial Intelligence with Matias Iacono from Cucumber NZ in the morning. Our participants choose...