Funded Projects
The Brian Mason Scientific & Technical Trust fund a wide range of projects through out the community from educational exhibitions to scientific studies. Detailed below are a number of institutions and programs that the Brain Mason Scientific & Technical Trust have given to.
Here are some projects the Trust has supported:
Sports Alive
Sports Alive, an interactive exhibition developed by Science Alive!, provided a fun way for visitors to explore the science and technology behind popular sports.
READ MORE ABOUT SPORTS ALIVE »
BioBlitz
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The BioBlitz at Lincoln’s Liffey Stream, organised by The Lincoln Envirotown Trust, found an amazing 1642 different kinds of life, almost half of them species of bacteria. That’s a lot of things for a small stretch of stream side in a small rural town. They included many surprises, including a native flatworm that had not been recorded in over a hundred years, a European fungus of acorns never before collected in New Zealand, a Banks Peninsula endemic spider usually found in forests, and two unidentified endemic earthworms.
Conserving the New Zealand Falcon
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In 2005, a scheme aimed at conserving the threatened New Zealand falcon was established in Marlborough. The scheme translocates falcon chicks from their nests in the mountains, and into the vineyard dominated valleys, where it was assumed falcons would thrive. It was also thought the falcons would benefit the vineyards by acting as a natural form of pest control against the birds that cause millions of dollars worth of grape damage each year.
The Brian Mason Scientific and Technical Trust has provided a grant to University of Canterbury researchers which is being used to assess the efficacy of this scheme as both a conservation and pest management regime. This research includes monitoring the behaviour of nesting falcons using remote videography, conducting observations of juvenile falcons, testing nest predation rates, conducting pest-bird abundance surveys, and collecting data on the levels of grape damage in vineyards with and without falcons.
READ MORE ABOUT THE CONSERVING THE NEW ZEALAND FALCON »
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Communication and Cognition in Kea
In this project we seek to investigate kea cleverness using field-based methods and in the absence of anthropocentric assumptions that often affect the design of lab-based cognition studies. Lab-based cognition studies on kea consistently find that these animals are unusually intelligent, but similar studies in the field fail to replicate these results- perhaps as a consequence of experiments not actually testing kea cognitive ability as expressed in nature. Many clever animals use complex forms of communication in social groups.
READ MORE ABOUT THE COMMUNICATION AND COGNITION IN KEA »
Falling Mountains, Science Alive
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The first grant from the Brian Mason Scientific & Technical Trust was made to ‘Science Alive!’, an exhibition centre in Christchurch, New Zealand. The trust made a substantial grant to the ‘Falling Mountains’ exhibit which explains the geology leading to the Mount Cook rock avalanche.
This imaginative touch screen interactive takes the operator through the Mt. Cook phenomenon. The force, mass and weight of the slip are in easy to understand terms, like truckloads. In addition to the great Mt. Cook slip, the ‘Falling Mountains’ explores geological forces that can crumble mountains.
READ MORE ABOUT FALLING MOUNTAINS »
Waterwatch, The International Centre for Nature Conservation
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Waterwatch is an interactive programme designed to involve school students and community groups in monitoring their local waterways. The programme uses a water monitoring kit especially designed by the Environmental Management and Design Division at Lincoln University to make water monitoring safe, fun and accessible to all age groups. The Waterwatch programme has been tailored to fit with school curricula and comes with trained coordinators. Most importantly it is offered FREE to schools.
The Waterwatch programme has been assisted by a grant from The Brian Mason Scientific & Technical Trust.
READ MORE ABOUT THE WATERWATCH PROGRAMME »
Assessing the Impacts of Tourism on the Fur Seals
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Project aim was to examine if ecotourism activities impact on fur seal behaviour. The Key objectives of the project were to determine how fur seal behaviour is modified in response to tourism activities. Specifically identifing what fur seal responses are directly attributable to tourist activities, which responses are significant in terms of the ecology and behaviour of fur seals, and what management measures could be introduced to minimise the detrimental effects of tourist disturbance on fur seals.