THE school van was put to use distributing the mature native seedlings grown as part of Hunter and Petra Coleman’s award-winning science initiative. PHOTO SUPPLIED
THE Kio Kio community has benefitted from the award-winning project of students Hunter and Petra Coleman. Last year the siblings won Kio Kio School’s Telfer Science Initiative Award for their idea to get their classmates involved in creating a small-scale native nursery, mum and teacher Karen Coleman said. The award is now in its 11th year with the intention the recipient will promote or encourage an interest in science throughout the school. Karen said the trees for the nursery, planted last year, were chosen to align with the names of the school’s classrooms – pohutakawa, kauri, kahikatea, kowhai, puriri, totara and rimu. Hunter, Petra and their classmates saw the fruits of their labour when they got to gather and distribute about 100 totara, kowhai and rimu seedlings to Kio Kio residents. They were aided by the advice of Stella Smart from Smartplants in Oparure, who gave some initial tips for seed collection. Karen said one of their aims with the Kio Kio School Native Nursery Project was to strengthen community connections and relationships, which they hoped would have been aided by the native deliveries.The seedlings had been growing in the school’s tunnel house since 2021 and Karen said pohutukawa and puriri trees were also large enough, but because they were prone to frost, they were taken to the Coromandel Coast Information Centre in Pauanui where they were quickly snapped up. Hunter said he hoped the next distribution of trees from the nursery would be kahikatea, which should be ready next May or June.
