Our Year 10 STEAM programme challenges students to look outward, identify a real problem in their local community, and design an innovative solution using the Stanford Design Process. This journey of interviewing stakeholders, researching, ideating, prototyping, and refining culminates in the end-of-year Innovation Expo. One group in particular has experienced remarkable success along the way.
STEAM 4 – made up of Amy Malcolm, Arpitha Shain, Sarah Attraqchi and Trisha Kansara chose to investigate a significant gap in emergency response education for teenagers. Their inspiration came from the recent Auckland 100-year flood, an event that affected many Westlake families and highlighted how uncertain young people can feel during crises. While plenty of light, colourful emergency education resources exist for very young children, and dense, text-heavy documents are available for adults, the students discovered very little designed specifically for teens.
Over the year, the group developed a suite of engaging and age-appropriate tools. These included lesson plans for high school classes, Minecraft-based simulations, a teacher resource pack, and even an app designed with helpful emergency features for quick, accessible guidance. They tested every component in real classroom settings, gathering feedback and refining their ideas with impressive diligence.
After presenting their prototype to a representative from Neighbourhood Support NZ, the students were invited to share their work at an upcoming meeting attended by members of various New Zealand Response sectors and adjacent organisations. The room included representatives from Auckland Emergency Management, local council staff, and others closely involved in national emergency response efforts.
The students represented Westlake Girls with confidence and maturity. Their audience was genuinely impressed, noting that these are precisely the kind of resources the sector has long identified as missing. Conversations quickly turned to how the project could be supported further, with several attendees offering assistance and encouragement.
We are incredibly proud of Amy, Sarah, Trisha, and Arpitha for the initiative, empathy, and creativity they have shown throughout this project.
If you would like to see more of this work – along with all the other innovative Year 10 Community Projects – we warmly invite you to attend our STEAM Innovation Expo on 1 December in the Event Centre Foyer from 12:30–1:00pm. It will be a wonderful celebration of student creativity and purpose, and we would love to see you there.
Main image – the STEAM banner was created by Y10 student Lily Maurice, who used digital tools as inspiration and then drew the design.