What is the Secondary Level Challenge?

Secondary Level (Years 5-8)

The Secondary level of Tahi Rua Toru Tech is where the innovation builds! Students are tasked with identifying a problem in their school or community, and as a team, creating a technology-based solution to solve it!

The challenge aims to drop students right into the Digital Technologies/Hangarau Matihiko curriculum in an engaging and exciting way that gives them autonomy over their creativity and innovation while also teaching them valuable skills and getting them excited about the prospects of Digital Technologies as a whole.

The process becomes more comprehensive at higher levels (Secondary and Senior Secondary), and can also be used for the assessment of NCEA credits at these levels.

Check out our FAQ section for common questions you may have, or contact us at kiaora@123tech.nz to chat to a member of our team!

And It’s All Planned Out For You!

We know teachers already have enough on their plates! That’s why we have mapped out the entire program for you!

The program comes with fully translated resources such as process documentation, project plan, report templates, and information sheets which can be found below. Also, with the help of our 123-tech team and industry mentors, you can easily integrate the challenge into your lesson plans.

Below you will find a week-by-week breakdown of how the program works, as well as all the resources and templates to do so! We also have a handy teacher’s guide which dives deeper into the background of the challenge and the planned outcomes!

    • Start your project blog.

    • Allocate key tasks to team members – check out the S02 Working as a Team document.

    • Familiarise yourselves with the program brief.

    • Produce a list of ideas.

    • Do some background research and talk to your teacher and mentor – check out S03 Background Research Template document.

    • Identify and collect information that is relevant to the program.

    • Remember to put all your research notes, diagrams and information onto your blog!

    • Decide what your solution will be, what it will do, what your key stand out features will be and why, and how you think you might create it.

    • Check out S05 Choosing a topic if your team having trouble choosing between topics.

    • Sketch out the detail of how your solution will look and feel, and start thinking about colours and usability.

    • Use document S06 Action Plan to create your action plan and identify tasks

    • Plan your activities and how you will go about them

    • Sketch out the detail of how your solution will look and feel, start thinking about colours and usability.

    • Divide the work up: Allocate responsibilities to each team member and stick to deadlines.

    • Remember to discuss your plans with your teacher and mentor; reflect and evaluate as you go.

    • Begin developing your solution.

    • You may need to change your plans or even redefine your aims, needs, or opportunity as you go, because things often don’t work out as you expect them to – especially after research. This is called a ‘pivot’ and is good!

    • You may need to use creativity and perseverance to cope with problems that arise.

    • The team should agree to any changes as long as there is a good reason for them. Note all changes and the reasons for them on your team blog.

    • User testing is important for finding bugs you overlooked – see what issues or improvements you and your friends/testers can come up with.

    • Check you are still meeting the project requirements by reviewing the S08 Project Requirements document.

    • Time to produce your short final report! Check out the S09 Your Project Report document.

    • Once your teacher is happy with your report, upload it to the 123Tech website (where you update your blog) to get your 123Tech Certificate