WeSTEM 2025 - PROJECT #6

Accessible active ākonga

Glen Eden Intermediate School

How can we create robust gym equipment for our school and community that is easily accessible 24/7 and will encourage more active lifestyles? 

In this engineering design project, 25 students from Glen Eden Intermediate School will design and prototype their own playground equipment solutions, aimed at encouraging Pasifika young people to be more active in local parks.

Supported by Professor Erica Hinckson from AUT’s Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, students will follow a citizen science approach to community engagement to collect and analyse data like a researcher. They’ll use this data to inform their product development and advocacy work.

Rangatahi will present their design solutions to Auckland Council’s Parks & Facilities team, who are excited to support this project and take part in a genuine method of consultation with the end-user of local parks: the rangatahi themselves. With these partnerships, the school hopes that the insights from the rangatahi may help to influence the design of future parks to make them more accessible and fun for everyone.

This project follows on from the 2023 iteration of the Youth Voices initiative, during which students from Glen Eden and Henderson Intermediate Schools created a volume of writing and artworks to voice their concerns on issues affecting their community. The cost of sports was a common theme, with students wanting to understand and seek solutions for making access to sports and exercise more affordable and equitable.