Bodeker Scientific is committed to getting involved with and supporting the local and wider New Zealand community. Here, you can read about some of our community engagement and outreach activities.

Project-based learning at Bodeker Scientific

Greg Bodeker pitched several project-based learning projects to Dunstan High School students, and two students decided to take on a project each!

• Niall Asher developed "HouseAI" - an automated marketplace where software robots with some level of artificial intelligence (AI-bots) connect house buyers and sellers according to criteria and preferences, and manage trades according to a fixed arbitrage.

• James Avenell developed the host program and a player program for the "Bodeker Scientific Game of Life" - a game which Greg designed in his head 30 years ago, but never realised... until now. The "Game of Life" is being further developed, so watch this space!

Greg provided the project specifications and mentored Niall and James through the projects, which contributed to their Achievement and Unit Standards.

Central Otago Python Programming Challenges

Bodeker Scientific has run a Python Programming Challenge over the last few years, with cash prizes! The competitions encourage students to develop their Python programming skills - having Python coding expertise is becoming an increasingly sought-after skill in data science, physical sciences, mathematics, and many other fields. The challenges have run over several months each, stretching students to apply theoretical knowledge from school to new problems.

Check out our Python Programming Challenge page to learn more.

Curious Minds community participatory project

In 2020-2021 Bodeker Scientific was awarded funding from MBIE via the Curious Minds - Participatory Science Platform fund, to run a community participatory science project titled 'Science, Art, and Education Visualising the Impact of Climate Change'. In the project, we worked with local students at Dunstan High School to create and code a 3D animated, and interactive visualisation model of the Queenstown Lakes District (QLD). The model shows how different climate variables such as temperature and precipitation have varied, and will vary into the future with climate change in the local area.

Greg gives talk to Royal Society - Wanaka Branch

Greg Bodeker gave a talk at the Royal Society Wanaka Branch on 6 March 2020. The talk was titled "Random walks in Climate Science at Bodeker Scientific" and covered:

• What is Bodeker Scientific and how it functions.

• Some background about climate change.

• Some key results from a climate change report that Bodeker Scientific did for QLDC.

• An overview of projects currently underway at Bodeker Scientific.

The talk was attended by around 80 people.

The Central Otago News ran this article the day before Greg's talk.

"Climate Change in Central Otago" - Invited talk to U3A* Cromwell

Greg Bodeker was invited to give a talk at U3A in Cromwell. On 17 May 2018 Greg gave the presentation "Climate Change in Central Otago". You can see a copy of Greg's presentation here.

About U3A: University of the Third Age (U3A) is a response to the idea that human life is divided into three periods: firstly, childhood and schooling; secondly, child rearing and work; and thirdly retirement. The 'Third Age' is seen to provide the greatest opportunities for learning and understanding because it is during this period of retirement that the idea of a University as a community of those who seek greater understanding through learning can be put into practice. Central Otago is one of the many areas in the world in which a University of the Third Age has been founded. U3A courses run in Alexandra, Cromwell and Wanaka.

During his talks, Prof Griggs helped attendees to find out how their business was likely to be affected by the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, how NZ business can help to achieve these goals set by the UN and how they will be of benefit to the world and good for business! A number of attendees enjoyed the presentation so much they requested access to the slides that were shown on the day. Prof Griggs was happy to share, and his presentation is available here.

There were a number of great entries to this competition and the videos are now available for viewing on YouTube (Camptastrophy, Ink Through the Pages, Now, Sustainability In Central Otago, The Changers, and The Simple Things).

All of the films made were shown at each of the schools in full school assemblies and the films were also publicly shown at a screening held at the Alexandra Community Centre on 3 August. The winners were announced at the pubic screening.

Local media also covered the competition.

Climathon 2017, Christchurch

Greg Bodeker and Laura Revell attended the 2017 Climathon in Christchurch 27 - 28 October 2017. Greg was one of four judges while Laura was one of the invited experts. The purpose of the Climathon was to create teams to come up with ideas that will allow Christchurch to adapt to a changed climate, mitigate carbon emissions and communicate the challenge to others. The teams had 24 hours to develop and then present their ideas to the judges. Greg and Laura's attendance at the event was sponsored by the Deep South National Science Challenge.

Community Climate Change Forum

On Saturday 7 November 2015, the Community Climate Change Forum was held at the Alexandra Community Centre. The purpose of the forum was to solicit ideas from the community as to how Central Otago might respond to both the threats and opportunities posed by climate change.

The comments and results from the forum were collated and you can read the full report here.

You can view the video of the event here.