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News | Archives St John’s Hill Primary School used the skills of an engineer to build homes for their snails. They were competing for, and ultimately won, the Institution of Professional Engineers (IPENZ) Neighbourhood Engineers Award. The IPENZ Neighbourhood Engineers Award, sponsored by Transpower, is an initiative in the Neighbourhood Engineers programme. The Award is to create a greater awareness of the engineering profession and encourage innovative thinking in the areas of engineering and technology while meeting the objectives of the Technology Curriculum. There was a great deal of thought from the year three, aged seven to eight year olds, at St John’s Hill Primary School, as to how to keep their snails alive for a week in old soft drink bottles. How to get snails in, where they should eat and sleep, and why snails needed air holes? With the help of their IPENZ neighbourhood engineer, Kerry Wood, the children used snail homes to learn about solving practical problems. “My first reaction to the project was that there was no engineering in it, but that was quite wrong. At a project definition session with the children they focused on what was needed – things like keeping the snail in, getting enough air holes, and keeping the house from falling over,” said Kerry Wood. As with all good ideas the benefits were immense. The lettuces the children
planted to feed their snails grew with such abundance the class was able
to make “Designer Bread Rolls” one day for their school lunch.
Next they decided to put plants up for tender to raise money to buy flower
seeds to begin another project to enhance and beautify the school. IPENZ Neighbourhood Engineers Award
Ends Megan Rodden
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