Our Changing World
Starts at 9:06 pm on Thursday, 17 May 2012
During Nights with Bryan Crump
The poor state of primary school science teaching has been in the news recently, but there are some strong efforts being made to improve matters and increase teacher confidence. Alison Ballance talks with National Primary Science Week co-ordinator Chris Astall and Richard Meyland from the Royal Society of New Zealand’s ‘Advancing Primary Science’ initiative, and she heads to Eastern Hutt Primary School to see teacher Kerry Harrison and the young scientists in her Science Club in action.
Mark Battley from the Research Centre of Advanced Composite Materials at the University of Auckland explains what a composite material is, and takes Ruth Beran on a tour of the lab to show her how these materials are made and tested.
Wellington poet Helen Heath reads from her collection Graft and talks about how science is influencing her writing and how it prompted her to embark on a doctoral project to explore the intersections between people and technology.
At the University of Auckland, air from a large tunnel is passed through twisting vanes to simulate the flow of wind over yacht sails. David Le Pelley shows Ruth Beran how the wind tunnel works and explains how it is helping to build better ocean-racing yachts.
