DiscoveryCamp and NanoCamp

What we do

DiscoveryCamp and NanoCamp

The annual NanoCamp and DiscoveryCamp for Year 12 and 13 secondary school students take place in January each year and are hugely popular. The four-day, all-expenses-paid residential programmes give students the opportunity to learn about nanoscience through lectures and lab experience with MacDiarmid Institute investigators.

Designed for Māori and Pacific Island students in their final years of high school, MacDiarmid Institute DiscoveryCamp - Te Tohu Huraina - is an annual programme, now in its tenth year, where students from all around the country gather to do real research with the country's leading scientists from the MacDiarmid Institute. The programme's aim is to enhance the students' science knowledge, inspire a love of discovery and help them carve out a career in science. Each summer we also offer four DiscoveryCamp alumni the opportunity to gain further hands-on experience and knowledge in our MacDiarmid Institute labs.

Applications for DiscoveryCamp and NanoCamp 2024 are now closed.

If you have any queries about the 2024 camps or would like to be notified about the 2025 camps, please contact us at macdiarmidnano-discoverycamp@vuw.ac.nz.  

The experience was really indescribable and has reawoken to me why I love science so much.

SHANIA NanoCamp attendee
DiscoveryCamp
NanoCamp

Eden encourages students to apply for DiscoveryCamp

August 22, 2019

Mariah talks about DiscoveryCamp

August 22, 2019

DiscoveryCamp 2018

Every January, a group of science-savvy and passionate Year 12 and 13 Māori and Pacific Island students attend DiscoveryCamp, a one week science camp hosted by the MacDiarmid Institute. The 2018 cohort of DiscoveryCamp students made a short video of their time in Wellington showing the fun and hands-on work they did in and out of the lab with some of New Zealand’s top researchers.

January 25, 2018

MacDiarmid Institute NanoCamp 2019

A group of New Zealand's brightest high school science pupils from across the country spent a week in Wellington getting an introduction to nanoscience and advanced materials during NanoCamp. The 2019 cohort made a video showing their hands-on experience in spintronics, microscopy, nanoelectronics, chemistry, and optics.

January 29, 2019