4 minute read
Youth week
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That is how Questionable Research Labs is described by organiser Kevin Waugh.
“It’s where kids can be curious and try out different ideas. It is an idea incubator where kids can feel comfortable and curiosity is appreciated.
“We play with all things related to science, design and engineering,’’ Kevin says.
The youth club has grown substantially since starting as a Whangarei coding club in 2015.
It outgrew several differentmeeting places and is now being run in the ground floor of Manaia House at Rathbone St, Whangarei.
The club has grown to more than60 active members aged between nine and 17.
Groups have evolved into five afterschool groups for all ages and one evening group especially for teenagers.
Kevin says he started the club whenhis own children were looking for an outlet for their own interests in computers.
“It has beena slowly mutating format since then,’’ he says.
There isa Geek GirlsGroup, the Science and Technology Group, the Robotics Group, Technohackers Coding Group andthe teen Questionable Projects Group, andjust recently a Game Playing and Making Group.
The Geek GirlsGroupmeets on Mondays after school and explores “anything geekie and tech”, including game development, graphic design, music making, video making,coding or even wildly creativemechanical projects.
Facilitated by Verena Pschorn, the group’s projects range from simple to very complex, and members “figure it
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out on the way. The weirder the better, as long as it is fun’’.
Science and Technology welcomes youths aged over nine on Tuesdays after school and tackles all sorts of experiments. Last term focused on electricity, but topics from psychology to rockets have been tackled.
Every term hasa different topic chosen by popular vote.
The Technohackers Coding group helps each other to learn computer coding and the Robotics Group requires some advanced coding knowledge.
There is also Game Night in the Lab, where teens can meet on Friday nights from 6.30pm to play creative and imaginative games. Games include, but are not limited to, board games, card games and Dungeons and Dragons.
An adult food-tech weekend day has been run and additional adult events will happen over the year.
“There is something on every night of the week,’’ Kevin says.
He says making experimentation fun and pushing boundaries is how young people learn best and he enjoys seeing the light switch on when they work on ideas.
“Our experiments combine art, design, science and engineering. Technology is the intersection point for all of those interests.
“We are always playing with ideas and there are many that have the potential to becomea real thing which could earn money,’’ he says.
The school holidays are a busy time for the club where young people hang out socialise and collaborate on projects.
Kevin says members participate in national and international competitions.
Last year 13 teens travelled to Auckland University and competed ina weekend Game Development competition against university students and professional developers.
They achieveda first place in creative design and second overall for their innovative game.
Last year two teams competed in GovHack,a large Australian and New Zealand competition to build an application that uses open government data for social good. One of their projects received honourable mentions from the international sponsors.
Former members have gone on to university and have studied diverse subjects such as astrophysics, computer science, medical science, engineering and media studies.
“It is always interesting to see what they go on to do with their lives.’’
More information can be found at www.questionable.org.nz
