Success for Manawatū teacher at world robotics championships

A Palmerston North teacher has been recognised for a decade of robotics work at the world championships in the United States.

St Peter’s College teacher Stephan van Haren was awarded the inspiration all-star award and was made a member of the science, technology, engineering and maths hall of fame at the VEX world championships in Louisville, Kentucky, last week.

The awards were for his commitment toward advancing students in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Van Haren wasn’t the only winner from Manawatū though. Manchester Street School’s Odderbots team won the judges award and College Street Normal School won the energy award.

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In the middle school competition, the Feilding Intermediate School RoboSquad team ranked 55th.

In the elementary competition, College Street Normal School Gearz team was 26th, College Street Normal School T-VEX was 34th and Odderbots was 53rd.

Van Haren believed he was the first from Manawatū to receive the awards and one of the few from New Zealand.

“It’s been years of work,” he said. “I’ve been involved for 10 years now.

“We’re celebrating 10 years of robotics in New Zealand in February.”

He has organised five robotics championships in Manawatū and helped set up the the Central Robotics organisation.

Van Haren has been at St Peter’s for 20 years as physics, technology and now robotics teacher.

He started with robotics when he saw an advertisement that said if 20 students signed up, they would get a free robot. 

“I managed to sign up 25 students. Once you’ve caught the bug, you see these very impressive robots and see the students take off and develop fantastic machines.”

He believed the Kiwi No 8 wire mentality and the willingness of children to explore things were behind the success in the region.

There was nothing at the school when he started, but now there are 40 children involved across nine teams.

He enjoyed giving children material and ideas, and watching them explore and figure things out. The robots they work with are also much smarter.