Category: News
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Rebecca Drake – STEMFest Ambassador 2025
Rebecca Drake is an Innovation Project Lead at Ballance Agri-Nutrients based at Mount Maunganui. She works alongside other scientists and project managers as part of the Innovation team. Having grown up and attended school in Tauranga, Rebecca is passionate about making STEM fun and accessible to young people and believes that events like STEMFest helps…
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Join Us in Celebrating the Return of the Highly Anticipated Award-Winning Science & Technology Festival in Tauranga
Mark your calendars! The highly anticipated multi-award-winning STEM Festival is returning to Tauranga on Sunday 28th September 2025 in Durham Street. This free, family-centric event is a must-attend for the community, drawing thousands of visitors from across the region and being recognised as one of the major STEM events in the Southern Hemisphere. As we…
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STEMFest NZ takes a short break…
After careful consideration and evaluation of various factors with key partners, we would like to inform the community that the Tauranga STEM Festival will not be taking place in 2024. We understand that this news may be disappointing to many. However, we are excited to announce that the Tauranga STEM Festival will return in 2025…
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Thousands return to Tauranga’s CBD for the biggest STEM street festival in Aotearoa New Zealand
On Sunday 1st October 2023, STEM Wana delivered on the third edition of the multi-award winning Tauranga STEM Festival (STEMFest). The annual event is a highlight for many families and tamariki across Aotearoa and this edition delivered on a fun filled day full of wonder and discovery. Thousands got to experience hands-on experiments and activities…
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Meet NASA Astronaut Colonel Nicole Mann
STEMFest is about creating inspiration AND aspiration. What could be more aspirational than being an Astronaut and going out of this world to live and work in space? STEMFest is proud to be able to introduce another NASA Astronaut to our STEM whānau. Meet the extraordinary NASA Astronaut Colonel Nicole Mann. Want to know what’s…
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Women in Engineering school visit with Renee Young
By Rachael Pratt Did you know Women only make up 14% of engineers in Aotearoa? At STEM Wana, it is statistics like these that we are aiming to change. How do we go about making a change? We go straight to the source! On Friday 28th of July, STEM Wana Founder, Tia Lush and I…
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STEMFest Fills Gap Where Local Industry Has Failed
Here in the Bay of Plenty and across New Zealand, we are facing an unprecedented skills shortage. With most organisations waiting until kids are into their late teens to target them as future leaders and innovators, the team at STEM Wana believes that this is far too late. A cohesive, collaborative approach from local businesses…
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STEMFest 2023 Official Launch News
Team STEMFest invited some of our sponsors and supporters to our STEM HQ at Babbage Space in Basestation to officially launch STEMFest 2023! It was great to see so many guests attend with their children and get the low-down on some of the exciting things we already have in place for this year’s event on…
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New Zealand’s largest free science, technology, engineering, and mathematics festival returns for 2023
PRESS RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 19th, 2023 New Zealand’s largest free science, technology, engineering, and mathematics festival returns for 2023 Since 2018 STEMFest has been nurturing our region’s next generation of problem-solvers, innovators and leaders and this year the interactive festival is set to break new ground when it launches in October. Founder Tia Lush…
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Renée Young – STEMFest Ambassador 2023
Renée Young is an Associate Mechanical Engineer for Beca. She works with other likeminded engineers everyday creating and developing habitable spaces for the public. From designing hospitals, commercial buildings, temples to hotels, her day to day is spent calculating, drawing and creating. She’s passionate about the future of STEM and enabling the Creators of Tomorrow…
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STEMFest wins Western Bay Community Awards 2023 for Event Excellence
The Western Bay Community Awards 2023 bring together all those who are involved in the not-for-profit sector; to celebrate and acknowledge their incredible community work that is helping make the Western Bay of Plenty one of the greatest places to live. STEMFest was thrilled to have been nominated and then picked as a finalist under…
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STEM in the Community and NASA at Tauranga
Tuesday 10th January 2023 – By Janet Van Jenkins The day was finally here – Tuesday 10th January 2023 saw queues stretching out across Tauranga Boys’ College campus as over 600 keen young scientists and space enthusiasts lined up (in the rain!) to come and spend a “Night in with a NASA Astronaut”. Let’s rewind…