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Issue 51 – October 2014 – QUEEN MARGARET CALLING
A
t the challenge, teams were asked
to think of a problem and develop
an innovative business idea around
the use of new technology demonstrated
to them on the day. The Queen Margaret
College team created identification Google
Glasses.
Kimberley Hayward explains their
invention, “The camera in the glasses takes
a live stream with a 10 second buffer of
footage of people you pass while wearing
them. This stream would be run through
a face recognition app on your phone and
identify anyone you passed who is a wanted
criminal or missing person. If a person was
identified a message would be sent to the
police, if not the app would continue to run
streams of footage.”
The students were supported at the
competition by Head of e-Learning Richard
Knuckey and were the only team of girls to
win at the Wellington competition. In this
male dominated industry, the advancement
of females in Information Technology is
a focus for many organisations including
Google. Queen Margaret College also wants
to encourage girls into STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)
careers by providing them with the right
skills, equipment and support to nurture
their passion within the industry.
Queen Margaret College offers students
a raft of opportunities in Digital Technology
from understanding ethics and safe practice,
to learning code to create their own website.
Further to this, Richard Knuckey offers daily
‘drop-ins’ for students who are willing to
develop their Digital Technology skills.
Richard explains, “I am available every
lunchtime for students who need help
with any class task, who want to learn web
design/coding, who want to programme and
build a Lego robot, design and create on the
3D printer or the laser cutter, or install the
software on their computer for any of the
above. The goal is to make it a fun place for
girls to hang at and play with and/or build
some cutting edge, new technology.”
Further to this, there is a weekly after
school meet-up at the National Library for
senior girls who are interested in Digital
Technology. Dubbed D.F.S.L.A.I (Digital
Finishing School for Ladies of Ambition and
Intellect), these sessions are facilitated by
Elf Eldridge of Victoria University. Queen
Margaret College students have taken up
the sessions with enthusiasm, and typical
projects include Programming, Robotics,
and 3D Printing.
This year students have also enjoyed
the use of the new Laser Cutter and 3D
printer. These investments have been a hit
with students and left parents envious. Year
12 and 13 IB Diploma Visual Arts students
have particularly embraced the laser cutting
technology as a medium for creativity.
Year 12 student, Nina, explains, “In my
Year 12 IBD Visual Arts Textiles class, the
topic currently being studied is printing.
Rather than using more traditional methods
like screen printing or carving a stamp to
print with, I decided to utilise the school’s
laser cutter. First, I either drew and scanned
a symbol onto a computer, or found and
adapted a symbol online, both of which
were then colour inverted on Photoshop.
The inverted file was loaded onto the laser
cutter software and cut out so that I can now
use each symbol as a stamp to print with.”
Last term Year 10 Digital Technology
students relished the opportunity to design
Kimberley Hayward, Tabitha Byrne and Kirsty Simpson attended the Information Science
Technology Challenge at University of Otago Medical School where they won the award for
Best understanding of the Technology.
and draw an outcome using software and
export it for creation on either a laser
cutter or a 3D printer. In Term 4 the Year
8 Electronics class will be using Computer
Aided Design (CAD) software and the laser
cutter to design and create a solar display
unit, complete with a circuit board, solar
panel, LED display, and a specific theme
chosen by the client. The process of design
creation, development, and realisation
through vector software and lasercutting
technology is a fantastic learning experience
for students at this year level.
Digital Technology @ QMC
