Exscite Trust Information

The Exscite Trust had its origins in the Hamilton Science Centre Advisory Committee, a group that was convened to establish an interactive science centre in Hamilton, as a way of portraying science as exciting and worthwhile as an interest or career. The Committee's first venture was to establish a temporary exhibition in the Waikato Museum of Art and History. Buoyed by the enthusiastic support from the community for the hands-on exhibits that portrayed principles of science and their applications, the Committee re-formed into a charitable trust to enable it to purchase and develop suitable premises for a permanent exhibition gallery.

The Exscite Trust eventually secured a lease from the Hamilton City Council on a site adjoining the Waikato Museum, and raised funds for the construction of a purpose-built facility to complement the Museum. The Trust owned and operated Exscite for several years before entering into an operational agreement with the Hamilton City Council. The Council now operates the facility, valuing a mission established by the Trust, which continues to have a governance role.

Exscite is one of a number of science-technology centres throughout New Zealand, all of which belong to the Association of Science Technology Centres of New Zealand. The Esxcite Trust was a founding member of this Association, and retains strong ties to it.

In recent years, the Exscite Trust has been a partner in the development and organization of the community science festival Technofest, initially with Wintec and more recently with The University of Waikato.

Trustees are drawn from the educational, scientific research and technological development sectors of the Waikato community. The current trustees are:

Professor Bill Henderson (Chairman)
Professor Roy Daniel (Treasurer)
Mr. Brian Farrell
Mr Graham Jamieson
Dr. Rod McDonald
Dr Ken Oliver
Mr. David Wright
Ms Amy Hacsker

The Exscite Trust (CC21126), is a registered charitable entity in terms of the Charities Act 2005

Exscite Trust Projects

The Exscite Trust has been involved in several projects that promote science and technology or use new technologies in innovative ways.

School Wasp Trial

The Exscite Trust has been doing a lot of work with wasps in the Waikato region. Click here for more info

Interactive driver-training kiosks

Developed in association with the Accident Compensation Corporation, these kiosks have been installed in selected public libraries and museums.

Cellami exhibition

In association with AgResearch, the Exscite Trust was a sponser of the 2005 Cellami exhibition - where origami and cell biology interact.

AgResearch High School Photographic Contest

In 2006 the EXSCITE Trust sponsored the third-in-science category of the AgResearch High School Photographic Contest. The award was made to Dill Huang�s photograph shown below.

The Crucible by Dill Huang

16 year old student of Macleans College Auckland

The judge�s comment was:

"The real strength of this image is the moody low key tonality punctuated by a bright central highlight and soft plume of vapour. The overall impression is of alchemy that suggests timelessness. Successful use of narrow depth of field which concentrates attention on the subject."

Other photographs in the competition can be viewed at: http://www.agresearch.co.nz/community/PhotoContest2006/results.asp

School Wasp Trial

In a new venture involving the community in scientific research, the EXSCITE Trust has sponsored a pilot project surveying wasps in two Waikato schools.

The problem

Although the Waikato region is not known for having unusually high wasp densities, in a recent survey of 106 country schools in the Waikato region to determine the impact of wasps, 93 returned survey forms (M. Goodwin of HortResearch 1997 unpublished data). Of these 88% reported wasp problems; 92% where children were getting stung; 75% where wasps were disturbing children; 63% where wasps were entering classrooms; 40% where children had to eat inside during the autumn; and 50% where children who were stung exhibited allergic reactions.

There is evidence that the distribution of wasp nests is related to human activity. Goodwin (unpublished information) has established that the Ruakura Research Centre (527 ha) hosts about 12 wasp nests per year (i.e., a nest density of 0.02 nests per ha). However, Newstead Model Country School, only 2 km from the Research Centre, had 32 nests destroyed in March 1994 and 35 in March 1996 in an area of 3 ha (i.e., a nest density of 11.1 nests per ha). These nests were all within 20 metres of the edge of the playing fields.

Localised high densities of wasps are not peculiar to schools. They can also be found at picnic grounds, camping grounds, around honey extracting sheds and apiaries. The probable cause is food availability. Where rubbish handling practices permit wasps to have access to food wastes, a large number of nests are likely to be successfully established. Current control strategies target the nest at a time of peak wasp population densities, using petrol or Carbaryl. However, it is necessary to locate the nests, which is not always easy! Wasp numbers can also be reduced by laying poison baits. The baits are collected by worker wasps and taken back to the colony, thus eliminating the necessity to locate the hive. However this method has limitations: protein baits are not attractive to wasps searching for carbohydrate sources to satisfy their own energy requirements rather than for protein to feed larvae. Baiting is both time consuming and expensive, and its success may be limited where other food is abundant. There is also the human risk, albeit small, of exposed containers of insecticide treated food. The outcome is that neither of these methods are used extensively and in the case of schools, most attempt to live with their wasp problems.

Recently, Landcare has developed a new protein based bait for Autumn wasp control that contains the neuro-toxin Fipronil. Registered under the trade name �Xstinguish�, it has full ERMA approval and does not require a registered chemical applicator, but must be carefully targeted at peak wasp numbers. This approach� forms the basis of the project to be based at Waikato Waldorf School and Horsham Downs School.

The School Wasp Trial

Waikato Waldorf School and Horsham Downs school will use the Landcare Spurr wasp traps with sardine based cat food to monitor wasp numbers in Spring 2006 and again in Summer and Autumn 2007. Other monitoring trap designs which are safe to use and make (top priority with any traps used), simple to make and low cost will also be trailed. The wasp monitoring will be used to decide the optimal time to use the new Landcare Fipronil protein based wasp bait in Autumn 2007. Schools will remove the monitoring traps during chemical baiting (Fipronil baits are only out for three days) and then put the monitoring traps back out to access the effectiveness of the Fipronil bait.

Wasp traps will be made in November 2006 and then 15 put out (12 with sardine or sugar based baits and 3 control traps with water) put out at a time to monitor spring wasp activity. The spring trapping period through into mid December 2006 is principally for pupils to learn about wasp biology and monitoring with a suitable sardine protein or e.g. a 30% sugar solution bait. There will also be an opportunity to learn the technology of making and using the wasp monitoring traps.

Waikato Waldorf School and Horsham Downs School have had previous wasp problems and needed to call out pest controllers and both Principals have been enthusiastic for this research programme to be offered in their schools.

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* Source: Dr Mark Goodwin (HortRersearch) and Bruce Willoughby (AgResearch), A proposed study to investigate the feasibility of managing the impact of wasps in public areas by limiting the establishment of new colonies. (Unpublished).
� The scientific expert behind the project is Dr Richard Toft, from Landcare Nelson.