Techweek

Techweek 2024 takes place between 20 – 26 May. Techweek is a nationwide festival of technology and innovation.

About Techweek

Techweek is Aotearoa New Zealand’s opportunity to inspire, inform, and educate.

From conferences to meet-ups, from hackathons to family days — this week is our chance to celebrate the world-first, world-class tech that's being created right here in Aotearoa New Zealand, for the world.

This page offers ideas on how you can involve your students and wider community in Techweek.

Curriculum connections

Techweek NZ provides a useful context for meeting the intent of The New Zealand Curriculum. Students can achieve learning outcomes in a range of learning areas, especially the digital technologies area of the revised technology curriculum. As they seize opportunities offered by new technologies they can demonstrate the curriculum vision of being actively connected, lifelong learners, consider the NZC values of innovation, inquiry, and curiosity, and make use of key competencies. 

How can you get involved?

Some ideas for classroom programmes or school-wide activities:

Computer science without computers
Explore computer science without computers through this collection of engaging games and puzzles.

Hour of code 
Hold an hour of code with your students and community. While the official hour of code takes place in December, you can hold this event any time of year.

Hear from a tech expert
Search out people in your community who have careers in the technology and innovation sectors and invite them to school to share their work. Students can find out more about these careers through the Careers NZ jobs database.

Technology challenges
Run a series of technology challenges in your classroom or across your school. You could assign a BP challenge to your students from the list of ideas on this webpage. You could read Robot Challenge and Red-hot Racers and set similar technology challenges at your school.

Instructional series

Another great way to get your students involved in Techweek is to incorporate it into your reading and writing programme. The Instructional Series on Tāhūrangi offers a range of texts about technology, computers, and coding. This page on Technology Online links to School Journal and Connected articles that feature technology content. Here are our top picks:

Connected 2018, Level 4, Digital Space
The focus in this issue of Connected is on computational thinking for digital technologies and designing and developing digital outcomes for students working at Level 4.

Connected 2018, Level 3, Cracking the Code 
The focus of this issue of Connected is on computational thinking for digital technologies and designing and developing digital outcomes for students working at Level 3. 

Connected 2018, Level 2, Step by Step
The focus of this issue of Connected is on computational thinking for digital technologies and designing and developing digital outcomes for students working at Level 2. 

Designed for Good, School Journal Level 3, May 2017
This article follows the process of developing an effective and humane trap to reduce New Zealand's pest populations. The article tells the story of the project, from the first “That’s it!” moment through to the production of thousands of traps.

Game Changers, School Journal Level 4, May 2020
The students at Newlands Intermediate have learnt that creating successful digital technologies requires a realistic, think-small approach – and that it’s OK to make mistakes. They were part of a real-world software development team that developed and tested Mixiply, a platform for making games and apps that use augmented and virtual reality.

Red Rattlers, Ready to Read, Level 2, 2010
This report describes the old Wellington cable cars and compares them with the current cable cars. It includes an explanation, supported by photographs and diagrams, of the technology behind how the old cable cars worked. 

School stories

Find out how schools are designing their curriculum to include connections to technology.

Starting a makerspace
The principal and staff from Taupaki School explain why and how they developed a makerspace in their school.

No shortcuts: VEX robotics at Manchester Street School
Feilding’s Manchester Street Primary School took home highest honours at the national VEX robotics championships, and they’re the only school in the country to have won recognition at every VEX IQ national competition since the event’s inception.

Setting up virtual reality at Pakuranga College
Pakuranga College ICT faculty leader, Charlie Smith, and teacher, Tyne Crow see virtual reality as a growing technology. To build teacher capacity, they have begun by developing a school culture where people are comfortable using the VR technology.

Preparing for lift-off with real-world skills
A focus on innovation and real-world learning at Hamilton’s Rototuna High School has seen budding designers and engineers planning a rocket launch.

Have you seen?

Technology exemplars
Technology exemplars have been developed to illustrate teaching and learning for the newly released digital technologies progress outcomes. The exemplars can be viewed on Technology Online:

• Exemplars for computational thinking
• Exemplars for designing and developing digital outcomes

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