NZ Transport Agency Year 13 Geography Competition 2009
(Formerly Planning and Decision Making Competition)

First prize overall: $1000
First prize for roading project: $500
Three commended prizes: $200 each

This year's first prize is shared between Sonja Hempel (Onslow College) and Sam Twyman (Otumoetai College).

Runner up: Kennie Critchlow (Chilton Saint James School)

For more information on Transit NZ, click here

Realise the Dream 2008

This is a 5 day national celebratory and educational forum for high achievers in research and technological practice in New Zealand schools (major sponsor: Genesis Energy Ltd). The National Sciences and Technology Event 'Realise the Dream 2009' will be held in December.

Most unfortunately our nominations for the competition this year were not considered.

First prize: ($250)

Abbey Stevenson (Wanganui High School)

Maatangi Whenua 2009: Year 11 Geography Competition

Sponsored by EXITO, the competition ran for the first time in 2003 in this format. The results for 2009 are:

Winners of Maatangi Whenua for 2009:

Shirley Boys' High School, Christchurch

Excellence Prizes were awarded to Joel Rowan (Palmerston North Boys' High School), Callum Dudson (Southland Boys' High School) and Matthew Law (Hamilton Boys' High School).

From the Regional Rounds in 2009, the following schools represented their regions at the finals in September:

Auckland     - Whangarei Boys' High School
Waikato      - Hamilton Boys' High School
Manawatu   - Palmerston North Boys' High School
Wellington   - Hutt Valley High School
Canterbury  - Shirley Boys' High School
Otago         - Central Southland College

For more information on EXITO, click on here

NZ Transport Agency Year 13 Geography Competition 2008
(Formerly Planning and Decision Making Competition)

Sponsored by Transit New Zealand, this competition has run for several years. 

First prize overall: $1000
First prize for roading project: $500
Three commended prizes: $200 each

The winner is Carley Sheerin, Katikati College.

Runners up: Nicky Wilcox and Abbey McMillan, both from Chilton St James School in Lower Hutt.

For more information on Transit NZ, click here

Realise the Dream 2008

This is a 5 day national celebratory and educational forum for high achievers in research and technological practice in New Zealand schools (major sponsor: Genesis Energy Ltd). The National Sciences and Technology Event 'Realise the Dream 2008' will be held in December.

Carley Sheerin from Katikati College has been selected to compete. Carley won the Year 13 Geography Competition.

First prize: ($250)

Sean Clynes (Glenfield College) Photo title - The Valley of the Volcanoes

Maatangi Whenua 2008: Year 11 Geography Competition

Sponsored by EXITO, the competition ran for the first time in 2003 in this format. The results for 2008 are:

Winners of Maatangi Whenua for 2008:
1st: John McGlashan College: Nathan Christensen, Andrew Dysart, Duncan Wilson
2nd: Otumoetai College: Dylan Cliff, Carl O'Neill, Evan Staats
3rd: Riccarton High School: Connor McIver, Janty Post, Timothy Wong

Excellence Prizes were awarded to Andrew Dysart, Nathan Christensen and Conner McIver

From the Regional Rounds in 2008, the following schools represented their regions at the final.

Auckland     - Onehunga High School, Auckland
Waikato      -Otumoetai College
Manawatu   - Karamu High School
Wellington   - Upper Hutt High School, Wellington
Canterbury  - Riccarton High School, Christchurch
Otago         - John McGlashan College, Dunedin

For more information on EXITO, click on here

IGU International Olympiad 2008

Congratulations to our team who are the second New Zealand participants in the IGU International Olympiad competition. Our representatives were selected from the 2007 final of the Maatangi Whenua competition. The team travelled to the IGU conference in Tunis in August, accompanied by Anna Wilson and Lex Chalmers.

We improved our performance this time and gained three medals:
Hayden Gray from Hutt Valley High School with a silver, Niall Killian from Tauranga Boys’ College and Daniel Tickner from Feilding High School with bronze medals. Fiona Henderson from Riccarton High School was very close to a bronze so this is a little disappointing. To gain a medal students had to be in the top 50% of the competition and the ratio of gold:silver:bronze is 1:2:3.

Full report.

Year 13 Geography Competition 2007
(Formerly Planning and Decision Making Competition)

Sponsored by Transit New Zealand, this competition has run for several years. 

First prize overall: $1000
First prize for roading project: $500
Three commended prizes: $200 each

Congratulations to:
Overall Winner: Adam Goodall, Palmerston North Boys' High School for the winning project " The Flyger's Line Big-Box Retail Development".

Roading Project Winner: Trelise Needham, St Peter's School Cambridge for her project "Southern Comfort: Safety Issues Surrounding the Southern Entry and Exit Point at St. Peter's School".

Highly Commended Prize: Duncan Harding, Otumoetai College, Tauranga for his project "An investigation of the Southern Pipeline Project".

The Judge's Comments .

For more information on Transit NZ, click here

First prize: Allister Fowler (Timaru Boys' High School) Photo title - Finch in the Drink

Runners-up:
Nathan Culevski (Hutt International Boys' School). Photo title - Field Sketch
Luke Hodgson (International Boys' School). Photo title - Sketching at Kakadu
Holly Peacock (Queen's High School). Photo title - A Blustery Lesson
Brittany Earl (St Peter's School Cambridge) Photo title - Committed to the Fieldwork Experience

Maatangi Whenua 2007: Year 11 Geography Competition

Sponsored by EXITO, the competition ran for the first time in 2003 in this format. The finals of the national competition were held over the weekend of 22nd and 23rd September at the University of Auckland. The results for 2007 are:

Winners of Maatangi Whenua for 2007:
First: Hutt Valley High School (Hayden Gray, Nicole Keenan, Stephanie Lamborn)
Second: Christchurch Girls' High School (Kirsten Curry, Georgia Brown, Anna-Marie Rohs)
Third: James Hargest High School (Harry Fellowes, Adrian Patterson, Finlay Wall)

Individual Excellence prizes were awarded to Hayden Gray (Hutt Valley High School), and to runners-up: Kirsten Curry and Anna-Marie Rohs (both Christchurch Girls' High School)

The following schools represented their schools in the national competition.
Auckland Region: Whangarei Boys' High School
Waikato Region: Hillcrest High School
Manuwatu Region: Havelock North High School
Wellington Region: Hutt Valley High School
Canterbury: Christchurch Girls' High School
Otago: James Hargest College

For a report on the regional rounds of the competition see the latest Network  - July 2007. A report on the national competition rounds will be available soon.

For more information on EXITO, click on here

Year 13 Geography Competition 2006
(Formerly Planning and Decision Making Competition)

Sponsored by Transit New Zealand, this competition has run for several years. 

First prize overall: $1000
First prize for roading project: $500
Three commended prizes: $200 each

Congratulations to:
First :
Stacey Wrenn of Chilton St James School, Lower Hutt "The Lanes Proposal"
Roading Prize:
Michael Moughan of Palmerston North Boys' High School, "The Manuwatu Ring Road"
Highly Commended:
Florence Thane of Tauranga Girls' High School, "The Tauranga Museum"
Devlin Elliott of Hillcrest High School, Hamilton "The Mount Reef Issue"
Arun Jain of Glendowie College, Auckland " The Tank Farm"

A slightly abridged copy of Stacey Wrenn's winning entry is available here.

Congratulations to Stacey Wrenn who went on to participate in the Realise the Dream competition in December and won the $2000 Genesis Energy Excellence in Research Award. See below for detail.

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For more information on Transit NZ, click here

Realise the Dream 2006

This is a 5 day national celebratory and educational forum for high achievers in research and technological practice in New Zealand schools (major sponsor: Genesis Energy Ltd). The National Sciences and Technology Event 'Realise the Dream 2006' was held from Sunday 10th December to Friday 15th December. Stacey Wrenn, Florence Thane and Devlin Elliott, finalists in the Transit NZ Year 13 Geography Competition (formerly the Planning and Decision Making competition) were put forward to The Royal Society; Stacey went on to represent us at the competition. 
Congratulations to Stacey Wrenn, from Chilton St James School in Lower Hutt, who was awarded The Genesis Energy Excellence in Research Award (a $2000 Education Scholarship) in this event.  

Maatangi Whenua 2006: Year 11 Geography Competition

Sponsored by EXITO, the competition ran for the first time in 2003 in this format. The results for 2006 are:

Winners of Maatangi Whenua for 2006:
1st: Dunstan High School: Ross Calverley, Ross Hogue and Gene Taylor
2nd: St Patrick's College: Justin Kissling, Anthony Leung and Henare Mihaere
3rd: Feilding High School: Ben Lewis, Tracy-Lee Rothery and Daniel Tickner

Excellence Prizes were awarded to Ross Calverley, Gene Taylor and Daniel Tickner.

From the Regional Rounds in 2006, the following schools represented their regions at the final on 26/27 August 2006 in Hamilton.

Auckland     - Onehunga High School, Auckland
Waikato      - Hillcrest High School, Hamilton
Manawatu   - Feilding High School
Wellington   - St Patrick's College, Wellington
Canterbury  - Riccarton High School, Christchurch
Otago         - Dunstan High School, Dunedin

For more information on EXITO, click on here

IGU International Olympiad 2006

Congratulations to our team who are the first New Zealand participants in the IGU International Olympiad competition. Four students, Olivia Fogarty from Pakuranga College, Darren Read from Tauranga Boys' College, Daniel Snethlage from Hutt International Boys' School and Philip Bennington from Kings School Dunedin, all from the final of the Maatangi Whenua competition in 2005, competed with 16-19 year olds from 21 countries over 5 days. Our team, all from Year 12, were among the youngest in the competition. The team placed a very creditable 9th place overall and three members of the team were awarded bronze medals. Full report. The next Olympiad will be in 2008.

The 2006 Olympiad team: Darren Read, Philip Bennington, Olivia Fogarty and Daniel Snethlage, accompanied by Phillipa Ferguson (Tauranga Girls) and Lex Chalmers (Waikato University).