A teenager who discovered a way his school can save more than $200,000 has been named the joint winner of this year’s Far North Science and Technology Fair.

The fair was held last week in Kerikeri, while this week, the Central Northland Science Fair is on at Forum North, Whangārei.

The fair started with the judging yesterday. This is when students will be present and it will be open for public viewing during the day, Wednesday and Thursday. There will be a prizegiving for winning exhibits tonight at 7pm in the Capitaine Bougainville Theatre.

At the Far North Science and Technology Fair last week, a project by Nicolas Powell, 17, examined whether Kerikeri High School’s newly installed solar power system could be optimised by changing the angle of the panels.

The solar power array, the biggest in the Far North, has already slashed the school’s electricity bills in half since it was switched on earlier this year.

Nicolas, however, found the school could save another $212,000 over the 25-year-life of the panels if they were mounted on tilting racks instead of directly on the roof. The findings could be applied to any solar power system, he said.

Nicolas’ efforts made him the joint winner of the senior and overall awards along with Pippiana Voakes, also a Year 13 student at Kerikeri High.

Pippiana posed the question, “Was granny right?” by testing the effectiveness of a traditional remedy for sore throats.

By trialling varying combinations of lemon and clover honey on bacteria she harvested from her own mouth, the Paihia 17-year-old concluded granny was right about the ingredients but not about the ratio.

The most effective remedy was made with 100 per cent lemon juice but was unpalatable to most patients. The next most effective, and much more likely to be used, was a 50:50 honey-lemon mix.

The honey appeared to complement the antibacterial effect of the lemon because a 70:30 honey-lemon ratio was, unexpectedly, more effective than the 30:70 mix despite the honey having little effect on its own.

Chief sponsor Top Energy bumped up the prize pool so Nicolas and Pippiana both went home with $1000 instead of having to split the winnings between them.

Nicolas, who is bilingual in English and Portuguese, plans a conjoint law/arts degree at Auckland University next year with a view to a career in international relations.

Pippiana plans to start a Bachelor of Science majoring in pharmacology, also at Auckland University, followed by a Bachelor of Pharmacy with the aim of becoming a community pharmacist.

The awards were announced last Friday at Kerikeri’s Turner Centre which, due to the Covid pandemic, was the first public prizegiving since 2019.

About 150 projects were entered with 62 receiving prizes.

Many students came up with fascinating projects though not everyone could go home with a big award.

Ōkaihau College’s Huia Clarke, 16, and Charlyse Tansey, 17, for example, found a way of making an effective, sustainable fertiliser for use on farmland around polluted Lake Ōmāpere.

Their raw ingredient is an invasive weed found in the lake, making their product a win-win for what was once the food basket of the North.

Zoe Wells, 14, of Springbank School, discovered that changing one word in a question could alter people’s recollection of a car crash, casting doubt on eyewitness testimony in court cases and police interviews.

Other projects tackled topics as varied as busting internet myths, face masks, the best fuel for a potato gun, how to make new computers from discarded parts, and what musical genre dogs like best (the answer, in case you’re wondering, is reggae).

Top awards

Project relating to marine environment: Belle Towns, Oil on Hydrophyte, Kerikeri High.

Project relating to freshwater: Marley Garner, What Runs When it Rains?, Kerikeri High.

Project relating to climate or weather: Nicolas Powell, A Solar Investigation, Kerikeri High.

Year 7 winners: Swara Karche, Tradescantia: Internodal Study and a Possible Solution; and Sophia Ibbotson and Sylvie Fletcher, Unmasking the Truth, all of Kerikeri High.

Year 8 winner: Jayden Patrick, Can You Stomach This?, Kerikeri High.

Junior (Year 9-10) winners: Craig Wilson, Pines v Natural Carbon Sequestration, Kerikeri High; and Bella Booth, Product v Location, Springbank School.

Senior (Year 11-13) and overall winners: Nicolas Powell, A Solar Investigation; and Pippiana Voakes, Was Granny Right?, both Kerikeri High.