Nanogirl – Dr. Michelle Dickinson MNZM – is bringing science, technology and engineering to life for young people right across New Zealand this December with a national tour of her live, theatrical science show “Little Bang, Big Bang”.
With the support of Spark, the University of Auckland Faculty of Engineering, and the MacDiarmid Institute, the tour will visit seven centres around New Zealand between December 2nd and December 17th (see tour schedule below).
“Little Bang, Big Bang” presents engineering and science in ways New Zealand has never seen before. Audiences can expect a performance packed full of explosions (LOTS of explosions!), liquid nitrogen, giant fireballs and daredevil stunts – there’s even a jet-powered supermarket trolley! (See a video at nanogirllive.co.nz).
“Little Bang, Big Bang” is both the title and underlying idea behind the show. Each scientific concept is first explored with a ‘little bang’ – an experiment carried out with the help of a volunteer from the audience. From there, Nanogirl and her assistant Boris use engineering to build an experiment that explores the same science on a MUCH larger scale (the “BIG Bang”!).
Dr. Dickinson believes that understanding of science and engineering – and inspiring people to explore STEM subjects in education – is critical to New Zealand’s long-term success.
“I’m passionate about ensuring that all New Zealanders have access to science education. One of my goals is to challenge the stereotypes around engineering and science. I really believe that science is everywhere – and for everyone – and that’s what this project is all about. It’s also a huge amount of fun!”, says Dickinson.
A group of sponsors has come together to make this project a reality. Clive Ormerod, General Manager Customer & Marketing at Spark (Platinum Partner) says “We see science and technology playing an important role in New Zealand’s future, and it’s our children who’ll be driving that. We want to them all to have the opportunity to do great things...This science show will be an awesome step toward that.”
Alongside the theatrical performance schedule, Nanogirl will be visiting schools in each centre to engage with students and teachers through a partnership with The MacDiarmid Institute, demonstrating exciting experiments and providing teachers with lesson plans and curriculum material to support the delivery of science and engineering lessons in schools. Thanks to the generous support of the project’s sponsors, this is provided at no cost to the schools.
Nanogirl says “I’m so excited to be bringing this show to towns and cities around New Zealand. The experiments are going to be huge (talk about a ‘BIG BANG!’!) – I just can’t wait to get on the road. One thing I’ve learned already – steering a jet-powered trolley is harder than it looks!”
“Little Bang, Big Bang” opens at Rotorua’s Civic Theatre on December 2nd. Tickets are available online at nanogirllive.co.nz.
Wanaka, Nov 7, 2016 - Wanaka-based global exporter Aquasystems Australasia has collected a business excellence award in recognition of the company’s innovation and growth. Aquasystems Australasia, owned by former Invercargill innovator Bruce Henley, won the Outstanding in Infrastructure/Trades category at the inaugural Ignite Wanaka Chamber of Commerce Business Awards on Friday night (November 4).
Aquasystems Australasia designs and supplies wastewater aeration systems for industrial and municipal clients, including Fonterra in New Zealand and Australian Government-owned authorities Melbourne Water and Water Corporation. It has recently been involved in the major expansion of Fonterra’s Lichfield plant in the South Waikato, for the treatment of milk solids waste.
A specialist company serving a global market, Aquasystems designs technology for biological wastewater treatment.
“Our day job involves keeping aerobic bacteria alive by taking oxygen out of the atmosphere and dissolving it in wastewater. This is to provide an aerobic environment for microbial degradation of organic matter and to oxidize various contaminants and render them harmless before their return to the environment,” Henley explains.
Tertiary Education Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce says the Labour Party has completely missed the mark with its idea of marshalling young people into a new make work scheme.
"Labour has completely mis-read the current job market in New Zealand. The problem is not finding enough work for young people, it’s finding enough young people and skilling them up for the work that is already there.
"It makes no sense to have a make-work scheme competing with Kiwi businesses for young talent when the biggest concern of employers around the country right now is finding enough young people to fill the jobs available."
New Zealand already has the second highest employment rate in the OECD. As a country we added 33,000 jobs in the last quarter and the growth in jobs is expected to continue.
The numbers of 15-19 year olds not in education, employment or training (NEET) is currently 22,000. New Zealand has never had fewer than 21,000 15-19 year olds who are NEET. Meanwhile the annual 15-24 NEET rate is back down to pre-GFC levels.
"The challenge now is to get those NEET levels down further in a strong job market, and that means finding those young people and getting the help of their families and communities to get them into work,” Mr Joyce says.
That's why the government has introduced schemes like:
The numbers of apprentices is also rising rapidly as the economy grows. There were more than 42,000 people enrolled in apprenticeships and apprenticeship training in 2015. This government plans to recruit another 5,500 apprentices.
"In regions right around New Zealand, like Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough, Otago, Bay of Plenty, Canterbury and Auckland employers are searching high and low for young people ready to work in their industries.
"Labour should join with the government in encouraging more young people into the work that is already there, not pretending we need make-work schemes when we clearly don't."
BusinessNZsays Labour's proposal to tax employers who are not providing training would bea blunt instrument that would not fix the problem of skills shortages.
ChiefExecutive Kirk Hope said the real problem is that many employers can't find NewZealanders to employ.
"Theunderlying problem is that many employers can't get New Zealand staff, whetherskilled or unskilled – and if they can't get them, they can't train them."
Hesaid the proposal raises the issue of whether small businesses have thecapacity to be able to deliver training.
"NewZealand businesses are practically all small businesses and they are not set upto be training establishments. A subsidyfor businesses to build capacity for training might be more practical.
"Businessappreciates the fact we have large numbers of young people not in employment,education or training. Social investmentis clearly needed to help this group, and business supports assistance beingprovided to ensure these young people do not becomeunemployable.
"However, taxing small businesses because they can't findNew Zealand staff would not help this and other issues involved in the complexarea of skill shortages.
New Zealand was the first country to embrace inflation targeting, along with a raft of other polices that have come to be known as the broad neoliberal policy approach. In contrast to the northern hemisphere in New Zealand many of these changes were championed by the left of politics, and has become the entrenched position, for the most part, across our political spectrum for the past thirty odd years. Has this period of political thought delivered the promised well balanced improvements in our economic wellbeing, and what has been the outcome for the productive sectors of our economy?
What happened to Manufacturing?
New Zealand, along with most of the Anglo Saxon world, has offshored a significant amount of manufacturing activity since 1985. This accelerated when import tariffs were abandoned for most manufactured and agricultural goods. What manufacturing activity existed prior to the 1985 was targeted at rural support and infrastructure: road, rail and power generation plus some consumer durable manufacturing that could only function behind significant licencing and import tariff barriers.
Some types of pre 1985 activity, particularly that could be mass produced was quickly replaced by imports, and in the longer term more and more activity moved to low-cost countries. In a small economy local supply chains have found it hard to sustain themselves as volume fell through the 1990s, and as volume falls skills, capability and competitiveness become increasingly hard to sustain.
Many manufacturers in New Zealand did, and still do, have supply chain positions within the domestic market, even for goods that are finally exported. This dependence means that the loss of capability early in a supply chain can have a broader impact on the ability to compete via downstream effects on the manufacturing ecosystem – one more recent example of this was the loss of local manufacturing capability related to the rail industry in Dunedin.
There are pockets of success with some specialised products where New Zealand producers of elaborate goods do well in global niche markets but these successes cannot fully offset the decline in well-paid employment and elaborate product export revenue. New entrants are more likely to produce offshore, often not by choice: design, development, prototyping and early production can and do happen in New Zealand but the loss of any such local activity generally happens at some point.
Weekly incomes in manufacturing are higher than all industries both in average and median termsii.
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242