One of the big drawcards for the New Zealand International Science Festival’s 2026 Nanofest will be a ‘‘Science Train’’, a show that will feature a trip on the Dunedin Railways Taieri Gorge Scenic Rail Trip.
Yesterday, the homeschooled pupils were taken aboard to act as guinea pigs for the show-runners.
New Zealand International Science Festival associate director Jenny Chandler said all the science demonstrators were running through their presentations for the pupils to make sure nothing was too hard or too easy.
‘‘This is just a chance for another practice and we want to make sure it all goes down well with the kids,’’ Ms Chandler said.
She chose children who were homeschooled because they did not get as many opportunities as primary school pupils.
While the pupils did not ride on a moving train, they were even more excited as they felt they were the bosses because they were giving feedback.
Ōtepoti Dunedin Homeschoolers member Emily Frith said the pupils were very excited to have been involved.
‘‘We’ve got a lot of neurodivergent kids, so this is nice because the train isn’t moving, so they can relax and it’s not too overwhelming.
‘‘They also love that they’ve been given the chance to provide feedback as well.’’
The event will run on the weekend of July 18-19 as part of Nanofest, and the train will head to Henley along the Taieri Gorge rail route while inquisitive passengers have lessons on the functions of a train, as well as physics, engineering and forensics.
Each lesson will be 20 minutes long. Once the train reaches Henley passengers will have a picnic.
Saturday, July 18, is already sold out and only about 50 Sunday tickets remain.
Nanofest runs from July 15 to 19.
