Spoiled for choice
This week we had three speakers. Two of them were Emilia Kostynchuk and Snehal Maram who were the two attendees which the Rotary Club of Port Nicholson sponsored for the National Science and Technology Forum in Auckland. Jaquie Harper the General Manager of the Innovative Young Minds programme was the third speaker.
This forum lasts for two weeks and this year there were 168 school students who got the chance to see what science and technology was like at university level and beyond. Emilia and Snehal gave a lively presentation about bio-medicine, physics, engineering, robotics, spectrophotometry, thin layer chromatography and much more. Heart surgery, on a sheep’s heart, and planning trips into space with Rocket Lab and the RNZAF were just a couple of the additional fascinating experiences for Emilia and Snehal.
They definitely did not have fun, or did they say they had lots of fun? I forget. But they did say the two weeks are highly recommended and that a good time was had by all who were there. And they learned a lot to help develop their future education.
Jaquie Harper the General Manager of the Innovative Young Minds programme was the third speaker. There was just enough time to hear about the programme, set up in 2017, to encourage young women to study science and technology. However, as with all such important projects, more sponsors, along with Rotary, are always needed so that they can go to more schools, set up a knowledge hub and provide more education opportunities.