Eight of our Koru students recently took part in this interesting event at Te Pae

Intro by Mr Kunowski:

The recent Innovation Expo 2023 was a two-day packed programme of keynote sessions, panel discussions, presentations and workshops, which were also designed to engage and inspire. Award-winning thought leaders, industry leaders and product developers covered a variety of trending topics, including Artificial Intelligence, IoT, digital transformation, climate change, smart cities, data culture, cybersecurity, eGaming and more.

Our students were involved in a Build Ōtautahi Minecraft Challenge, bringing their creative visions for our city centre to life around the theme of sustainable design. We were very proud of their efforts and attitude towards this challenge. A special thank you to the parents involved for their support. 

Student experience by Aria Stephens and Amelia Piggin:

On Sunday the 10th September a group of children met Mr K outside Te Pae (the Convention Centre) at 9am. The kids that arrived were Ava, Cyrus, Ivy, Alice, Isaac, Milahn, Amelia, and Aria. We were waiting in line and all saw this dancing robot next to a van. We ended up controlling it for a bit and that was fun. We went inside and five ladies wearing Minecraft t-shirts were there to greet us. Two of them led us up an escalator and into a room with a lot of chairs and glowing, colourful computers, along with mice. We sat down in the front and lots of people were already flowing in, like many parents and teachers from different schools, including our Mr Kinley and Whaea Jo to support us.

After everyone was seated, the lady that led us up into the room introduced herself as Lacey. The other woman next to her was Georgia. They were Avonside Girls’ High students. They both explained that certain schools would come up and build on the computers for thirty minutes, then have a break, then the other few schools would build on the computers for thirty minutes. Then when those schools were finished, the schools before them would go back on for the last thirty minutes, then that would be their build time over. The same with the second group of schools.

We were the second school to go on, and the groups were Amelia, Milahn, Isaac, and Aria in one group, and Ava, Cyrus, Alice, and Ivy as another group. It was really interesting to see the different schools compete against each other. After about thirty minutes the next schools went on, and both Bromley teams went on. The first group went on to the second table with four computers; two on each side. The second group went on the third table; two on each side. Lacey told us that we can’t start until we are all at our blocks. Once everyone was at their blocks, they pressed a button that teleported them to their square. It took a while because some people were having trouble with pressing the buttons; there were random barriers around it that wouldn’t let them press it. They got some help and managed to get to their square.

The first group were building a carpark, a café at the bottom, apartments on top of the cafe, and a playground. The second group were building apartments, a bike repair shop, a café, gardens, EV (electric vehicle) charging stations, water fountain, and playgrounds.

After about thirty minutes, the two Bromley School groups came off the computers. They had snacks, and with the permission of Mr K, could go downstairs and take a look at some of the displays, which were really interesting. They could only be down there for a certain amount of time as they would need to be back for when they hop on the computers.

After another thirty minutes, those schools were finished with their entire build. The Bromley groups and the other schools hopped on the computers and continued to make their builds as fast as they could. It was down to twenty seconds, and the pressure was on. When everyone’s build was finished, we took our hands off of the computers.

We finally had a prize-giving. The second Bromley group (our Year 5s) got the creative build award, one of the other schools got the teamwork award, and one of the Burnside Primary groups got the overall winner award and the Minecraft Trophy. Everyone clapped and whistled at the end like a celebration. The two Bromley School groups got a photo in front of one of the big screens; happy smiles and a lot of satisfaction. Another great experience for Bromley School!!