Over the holidays Nate flew down to Dunedin with another 6 students from the wider Bay of Plenty where the group met with a guide for an all expenses paid week at Otago University. The guide, who is a University student, took the group to Otago University to meet up with the rest of students in the Academy. There were 60 Year 13 students from around the country in the Academy, lots of whom are now Nate’s friends who he is keeping in touch with and who may be at University with him next year.
The week long camp consisted of two projects, one elective and fun activities each day. One of the projects was a group Chemistry one where the students were combining chemical compounds to change colour. All powders and solutions were made from scratch on the first day and then the magic of colour creation happened on the second day. Another project that Nate enjoyed was Computer Science one where he wrote a whole new code that operated a circuit which commanded a light to turn off and on. From there he extended this to include a button in the operation. Nate was lucky enough to be able to choose his interest area for his elective - Quantam Physics. In this elective he played with liquid nitrogen, experimenting with the properties of the liquid. One of these experiments saw him pour the liquid into a coke bottle, put the coke bottle onto the floor, a bucket over the coke bottle and then a chair over the bucket. What eventuated was a massive explosion as the liquid turned into gas and burst out of the coke bottle, broke the bottle, the bucket and the chair. Nate enjoyed learning about the science of the explosion and also enjoyed another experiment where he made a super conductor.
Team building and social activities saw the group playing laser tag, splitting into two teams of 20 and having a blast. The students got to experience university life, such as eating in the dining halls, where they mingled with lecturers and other university students. Nate thoroughly enjoyed the camp and it has cemented his aim of working towards a Science career. Nate encourages anyone who is considering a Science career to talk to him about joining a camp and have a go!
In the video above, Nate is controlling the drone with his brain waves - his relaxed state vs his active state translates to different actions for the drone!