Students pitch jaws-some ideas in Shark Tank challenge

Duunn dun… duunn dun… duuuunnnnn dun … dun dun dun dun… Late last year, the JIX Building in Christchurch was humming to the tune of creativity, excitement and mahi of a-konga participating in the inaugural Cloud Tech Shark Tank.

Hosted by impactED and sponsored by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the Ministry of Education, the two-day Cloud Tech Shark Tank competition saw 40 Year 9 and 10 students explore Cloud Tech ideas and solutions, while their kaiako engaged in related PLD for teaching and learning.

Day One opened with Brent Sarver, AWS Education to Workforce Senior Program Manager, outlining the company’s plans for New Zealand and challenging a - konga to design a way to impact future careers and education through Cloud Tech – then pitch their idea to a panel of expert judges, Shark Tank style!

Following a presentation from Banquer’s Kendall Flutey on the journey of Cloud Tech development, from prototype to real-world application in education, everyone went their separate ways. The young competitors were immersed in hands-on learning through workshops, visiting the PRAMA fitness room, and engaging with the design process led by ImpactED’s Arnika Macphail. Teachers were introduced to the AWS Spark Education resources.

Pitch and prototype

To kick off Day Two, NetSafe’s Paula Wistrand spoke about privacy considerations in Cloud Tech. Kaiako went for a session on futuristic foresight in education with Think Beyond’s Dr Cheryl Doig. At the same time, students developed their pitch, prototype, and presentations for judging.

In the afternoon, Sir Ian Taylor joined proceedings, talking about how cloud technology is used in sports and telling cultural stories through his Ma - tauranga Land of Voyagers resources (maatauranga.co.nz).

During the following day, teams had time to finish their projects, practise their pitch and prepare for possible questions, before the evening’s judging took place.

As wha - nau rolled in and surveyed the exhibition hall with a - konga, nervous energy, anticipation, and excitement built.

to sell their ideas, and they didn’t disappoint.

Timetabling app

All 10 teams presented solutions that were innovative and on point to address the challenges facing education today.

“The app that our team designed was a ‘subject booking app’ and gave students more freedom with choices about how their week was timetabled,” Heidi Lovatt, who took a - konga to the event from Oxford Area School.

“With the app, they would arrive at school and sign themselves in, and effectively choose their subjects from a list of available slots. Teachers would remain in their teaching areas, whilst students who had booked would come to them. Students had a minimum and maximum amount of times that they could book each subject, so they would have taken each subject for the correct number of periods by the end of the week.

“If teachers signed students off as having completed all work tasks for each subject, they could book to arrive later, for example 10am instead of 9am, or even take Friday off (at senior school). This allowed students to work at their ‘optimal’ time of day (and even get to sleep in!).

“The kids had a ball with developing their idea!” added Heidi. “It was a fantastic experience.”

An event like Shark Tank is no easy feat, so a shout out to the teams at ImpactED, AWS, the Ministry, and all involved in bringing it to life and for immersing everyone in the world of Cloud Tech.

By Katie Tullett of impactED

Other Shark Tanks are already planned for Dunedin (March) and Nelson (April). More at impacted.co.nz/events/

What is Cloud Tech?

Cloud Computing Technology allows the storing, sharing and using of digital resources in the virtual space by way of networks, without restrictions of physical location.

Stem Poetry

Famous Poets and Poems (famouspoetsandpoems.com) has information on more than 600 poets and 34,000 poems. Browse by category (like poets, Top 50 poems, famous quotes) or subject, including family, death and love. Alternatively, search by keyword or check out the poem and poet of the month.

STEM Online NZ (stemonline. auckland.ac.nz) is a free interactive teaching and learning resource for NCEA external standards in STEM subjects. It combines interactive learning content, videos, animations, quizzes, game-based content, as well as classroom experiments and activities, all with a distinctly Kiwi flavour.

Engineer for the Week

(engineerfortheweek.fb.com) aims to ‘demystify the world for teens and help them understand what the day-to-day life of an engineer looks like’. Created by Meta, there are several projects where students can work with adult facilitators to build prototypes that teach various engineering skills.

Teen Ink Poetry (teenink.com/poetry) offers aspiring teenage poets a safe and welcoming place to share and talk about their poetry (and other writing, as well). A range of work is regularly contributed, which can be read, discussed, liked, shared, and voted on by the community.

From MakerBot, Thingiverse (thingiverse.com/education) offers a huge collection of 3D printing designs and lesson ideas for teaching STEM. Search, browse by subject category or filter by age group. Alternatively, explore ‘Things’, ‘Designers’ and ‘Groups’. (Some docs are MakerBot specific but may still provide ideas and inspiration.)

Women in STEM (womeninstem.co.nz) is a collection of videos from various women working in STEM fields across New Zealand. Including Nanogirl Dr Michelle Dickinson and #She founder Dr Mahsa Mohaghegh, each shares their journey, the challenges they faced, and advice they have for school students.

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Global Data Maths

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For a selection of maths-related resources try TKI’s NZMaths (nzmaths. co.nz). Search by keyword or category, or use the Resource Finder to locate resources by curriculum level/strand/ AO, by number framework stage or by PaCT aspect. Log in to save resources into a teaching and learning plan.

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A collaboration between researchers at the University of Oxford and the Global Change Data Lab, Our World In Data (ourworldindata.org) provides free research on the world’s largest challenges, including health, food, and the environment. Search by topic and explore 3,343 data charts across 297 subjects.

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