The Ru workshop took place on the 27th-29th January 2016. It was great to bring a group of people together with such passion and enthusiasm for teaching, to share ideas and contribute towards the seismometers in schools program.
Day 1 took place at the University of Auckland’s City Campus. The morning revolved around the Auckland Lablet; Physics experimentation on an Android tablet. There were demonstrations to showcase Lablet being used record and analyse several physics experiments and some very useful ideas came out of the discussion.
In the afternoon, the group were able to get their hands on the TC-1 Seismometer and built four from scratch. This showed just how simple it can be to construct the TC-1 and it was a great success when all four completed devices recorded data without a hitch.
There were several excellent talks over the rest of the afternoon. It was particularly interesting to hear (and see) how Jonathan had utilized an Arduino (a key component of the TC-1), to run a weather station.
Day 2 was spent on Waiheke Island. There were some great presentations by Dan Hikuroa, Caroline Little, Katrina Jacobs, Glenn Vallender, Michelle Salmon and Martin Smith. The day was nicely rounded off with some fantastic refreshments.
The highlight of Day 3 was undoubtedly the field trip to Rangitoto Island. The weather was excellent and although it was quite a hike up to the top, it was universally enjoyed. It was great to have Dan along as a guide to share his knowledge of the geology of the island and it was particularly interesting to explore the lava tubes.
Overall the workshop had a great turnout. We hope everyone enjoyed the three days and gained some ideas and insights that will be helpful in their schools.
