Revamping the humble hundreds board

Student, Georgia Halcrow, has taken maths one step further after designing and developing a maths concept that is now ready for the marketplace.

Last year as part of her Y8 Murrays Bay Intermediate School science fair project, Georgia designed a user friendly, reusable product that helps children independently navigate their way around a hundreds board.

“It was the inspiration of my science teacher’s speech about the science fair that motivated me to look for a problem around home that I could potentially solve with a unique invention,” says Georgia, who already has a provisional patent filed to protect her concept.

Georgia remembered back to when her little sister was using a maths resource to help her identify the positions of numbers on a hundreds board. She thought the resource was poorly designed because it didn’t give her sister independence to mark her own work.

For Georgia’s science fair project she researched the limitations of resources using a hundreds board. She then set out with a few ideas of her own, to design a product that overcame the limitations of these resources, and to make a fun, user friendly and reusable product that helped young children independently navigate around a hundreds board.

To finalise the product took a lot of time and perseverance but it was something she believed in and became really excited about particularly when she realised she had produced a unique product that had the potential to be marketed.

Georgia’s project won the Genesis Supreme Award at the North Harbour Science and Technology Fair. She was also nominated and successfully selected to be one of 29 students nationwide to attend the prestigious six day Genesis Energy sponsored event, Realise the Dream.

Realise the Dream is an event organised by the Royal Society of NZ that rewards and celebrates students who have demonstrated excellence in research and technological practice.

“It was an incredible experience,” says Georgia.

“Everyone was so enthusiastic and the events were awesome! The week was just packed full with things to do. We spent a day at Massey University, Wellington, where we built our own robotic car and a steam engine that produced electricity.

“We visited Island Bay Marine Reserve where we not only viewed the marine animals but were able to touch them too.”

Other visits included Te Papa, and the Karori Wild Life Sanctuary where students had the opportunity to watch the Kaka feed.

“We also went to the Circa theatre to see Peter Hall’s pantomime Red Riding Hood and we even had a cocktail function at the Boatshed on Wellington’s waterfront.”

Georgia is all set to give talks at Auckland University faculty of Education about her methodology and her experiences at Realise the Dream. She also plans to address local schools about her experience as she wants to encourage both upcoming teachers and students alike about the merits of local science and technology fairs in the hope that many more students will have the opportunity to experience Genesis Energy Realise the Dream.

“For me it has been without doubt, the best experience of my entire school career.”

Reflecting back Georgia smiles, “Other than having a few near misses with the Stanley knife when making my prototypes I have to say I have had a truly amazing journey from the day I started my science fair project through to attending Realise the Dream.

“I am so grateful to the sponsors Genesis Energy, Dairy NZ and UNESCO for sponsoring Realise the Dream and making it all possible. It was a privilege to attend and I am looking forward to flying back to Wellington on 9 March to attend the celebratory award dinner.”

This year the award dinner is taking place at Te Marae, Te Papa, with cash prize awards of up to $7,000.

And where to from here? One may well ask. Georgia has it all planned. She not only wants to explore her options with regards to licensing and manufacturing her product she also wants to put her mind to other resources she can develop using her concept.

“I have gained the knowledge that the first step in realising your dreams is to believe in yourself. This experience has opened up so many opportunities and a world of possibilities for me to keep exploring.”