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A Mokoia Intermediate School pupil has won the supreme prize at a mātauranga Māori science fair for his project to monitor catfish numbers.
Alex Malcolm says he has been involved in in Te Arawa Lakes Trust’s catfish programme for more than five years, and wanted to come up with a new way of finding out what’s happening under the surface.
His solution, combining traps and underwater cameras with artificial intelligence, won the substainability catergory and the Scion Ngā Huarahi ki Te Ao Award as well as the Te Arawa Lakes Trust Ngā Karu Atua Supreme Award at the first Te Tūkohu Ngāwhā Science and Design Fair, which is a joint kaupapa between Te Arawa Lakes Trust and Bay of Plenty Regional Council.
Trust operations manager William Anaru, says the science fair gave tamariki and rangatahi a chance to kōrero about the state of te taiao, and tapped into their passion to be kaitiaki for the environment.
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