The University of Otago's Advanced School Sciences Academy is gaining momentum and opening up ''a world of possibilities'' for pupils from rural and lower decile schools throughout the country, organisers say.
The university's latest annual academy science camp began at Arana College, Dunedin, yesterday and will run throughout this week.
School director Steve Broni said the academy, now in its fourth year, was ''going from strength to strength''.
This year it had attracted the most participation - 57 pupils from 38 schools.
Twenty-six school teachers from throughout New Zealand are also undertaking a two-day professional development workshop involving science teaching, during the week.
The academy was jointly funded by the Ministry of Education and the university, and academy organisers hoped to increase the number of pupils involved to 65 within about three years, he said.
Mr Broni said the academy targeted ''potentially high-achieving'' year 13 high school pupils from rural-provincial, small, or lower decile schools.
The ''primary aim'' was to give pupils ''that added support and confidence'' they needed in order to excel in their final year of high school science. Hopefully, they would also go on to careers in science, he said.
Participants were introduced to scientific research through ''a range of practical projects'', enabling them to ''build knowledge, practical and critical thinking skills''.
There was a ''wealth of science excellence'' in New Zealand's ''heartland schools''.
And he noted that New Zealand's most internationally well-known scientist, Sir Ernest Rutherford, was from rural Nelson.
Each year academy pupils participate in two week-long science camps, in January and July, and are also offered further support via the internet, between camps.
The academic results of participating pupils at NCEA and Scholarship level had been ''consistently higher than national average'', organisers said.