What is the First Level Challenge?

First Level (Years 5-8)

The first level of the Tahi Rua Toru Tech program is where the innovation begins! Students are tasked with identifying a problem in their school or community, and as a team, creating a technology-based solution to solve it!

The program aims to drop students right into the Digital Technologies/Hangarau Matihiko curriculum in an engaging and exciting way that gives them autonomy over their creativity and innovation while also teaching them valuable skills and getting them excited about the prospects of Digital Technologies as a whole.

Check out our FAQ section for common questions you may have, or contact us at kiaora@123tech.nz to chat to a member of our team!

And It’s All Planned Out For You!

We know teachers already have enough on their plates! That’s why we have mapped out the entire program for you!

The program comes with fully translated resources such as process documentation, project plan, report templates, and information sheets which can be found below. Also, with the help of our 123-tech team and industry mentors, you can easily integrate the challenge into your lesson plans.

Below you will find a week-by-week breakdown of how the programworks, as well as all the resources and templates to do so! We also have a handy teacher’s guide which dives deeper into the background of the program and the planned outcomes!

    • Start your project blog.

    • Allocate key tasks to team members – check out the F02 Working as a Team document.

    • Familiarise yourselves with the challenge brief.

    • Produce a list of ideas.

    • Try out some activities to see what the best idea is and whether or not it will work.

    • Think about what you might need for your project.

    • Find out all you can about your topic and talk to your teacher and/or mentor about it.

    • Each team member could explore a different aspect of the topic or idea and report back to the team during a meeting.

    • Remember to record everything you do on your blog, including pictures, diagrams, and sketches.

    • Please make sure your project is safe and that it does not inconvenience other people. Your teacher will advise if you need to consider human ethics.

    • Decide what your solution will be, what it will do, what your key stand-out features will be and why, and how you think you might create it.

    • Check out F03 Choosing a topic if your team having trouble choosing between topics.

    • Use document F04 Action Plan to create your action plan and identify tasks

    • Plan your activities and how you will go about them

    • Sketch out the detail of how your solution will look and feel, start thinking about colours and usability.

    • Divide the work up: Allocate responsibilities to each team member and stick to deadlines.

    • Remember to discuss your plans with your teacher and mentor; reflect and evaluate as you go.

    • Begin developing your solution.

    • You may need to change your plans or even redefine your aims, needs, or opportunity as you go, because things often don’t work out as you expect them to – especially after research. This is called a ‘pivot’ and is good!

    • The team should agree to any changes as long as there is a good reason for them. Note all changes and the reasons for them on your team blog.

    • Use F05 Progress Check to do a progress check.

    • User testing is important for finding bugs you overlooked – see what issues or improvements you and your friends/testers can come up with.

    • Check you are still meeting the project requirements by reviewing the F06 Project Requirements document.

    • Time to produce your short final report! Check out the F07 Your Project Report document.

    • If your teacher is happy with your report and that you meet requirements, you will receive a 123Tech First Certificate!

    • Complete your report and upload it on the 123Tech website (where you update your blog).