Core Education

The following questions from schools are answered by NZ historians and archaeologists: 1. How do you think all the history that has been explored about Ahuahu will be shared with others in the future? 2. How long will it be until other native and protected animals come to live safely on Ahuahu? 3. Can you tell us how you think archaeology will change or improve to help us learn more about NZ history? 4. How else will you ensure that no more pests come onto the island? What if someone doesn't check their boat for stowaways? 5. Can you describe how you think Ahuahu will look in 50 years, including the landscape, plants and animals? 6. How will climate change affect Great Mercury Island? 7. Are there any other goals or plans for Ahuahu, other than becoming pest free? 8. Has pollution affected Ahuahu? Or do you think it will in the future? 9. How do you personally view offshore islands and landscapes like Ahuahu, playing a role in our lives now and in the future? 10. Is there any discussion about conserving the m

The following questions from schools are answered by NZ historians and archaeologists: 1. Out of all the plant life and animal life, how native is Great Mercury Island? 2. With the 23 pā sites discovered, there must have been a lot of people living on the island, are there estimated numbers of the amount of early settlers? 3. How have argentine ants affected Ahuahu? 4. With archaeologists from the museum and Auckland University examining Tūhuru Ahuahu have they been able to answer questions for the local tangata whenua about their past? And vice versa? Tangata whenua being able to give insight to the researchers about what they know about their past. 5. How can you trust that all visitors keep their boats clean and pest free? 6. With the findings from the garden areas, were there any findings to suggest the early Māori settlers trialled having gardens at different places around the island or were the gardens all generally in the same areas i.e up high etc? 7. What is the most interesting thing you have found

The following questions from schools are answered by NZ historians and archaeologists: 1. Why did people decide to do archaeology on Ahuahu in the first place? 2. How will Ahuahu being pest-free affect people and the environment on the mainland? 3. Are there any other threats of invasive insects affecting Great Mercury Island? If so, what are they? 4. When an interesting artefact is found on Ahuahu, or anywhere, what process do archaeologists follow? 5. Who ‘owns’ an artefact that is found? 6. What inspired you to want to be archaeologists? 7. Are there specific rules or regulations to follow on the island to help keep it pest-free? 8. Has anyone ever accidentally brought a pest on to the island? And what did you do about it? 9. For how long is it predicted that there will continue to be new discoveries on Ahuahu? 10. Are there any plant pests on Ahuahu and if so, what is being done about these? 11. How big is the Island (compared to other offshore islands in NZ)? 12. What food do you think Captain Cook and h

The following questions from schools are answered by Ben from Sustainable Coastlines: 1. How is it decided where a marine reserve goes? 2. Who is responsible for ensuring marine reserves are kept safe? 3. Can people fish and do recreational activities in the marine reserve? 4. Are there any special rules people need to follow at the marine reserve? 5. How do fish know where the marine reserve is? 6. What defence mechanisms do fish in the reserve have? 7. How deep is the reserve? 8. How many endangered species of fish are there in the reserve? 9. What is the most dangerous species in the reserve? 10. What is the water temperature like around the island and does this influence what type of fish are found there?

The following questions from schools are answered by Ben from Sustainable Coastlines: 1. What is citizen science? 2. If we see someone breaking the rules of a Marine Reserve, what should we do? 3. Can we as kids make a real difference when commercial fishing has such an impact and also other countries aren’t as careful with plastic as we are in nz 4. How long do whales usually live for? Are there any around Kāpiti? 5. When did the Kāpiti marine reserve open? 6. What is the rarest fish found so far at Kāpiti? 7. Is the habitat of Kāpiti Marine Reserve typical of most of the rest of NZ?

The following questions from schools are answered by Ben from Sustainable Coastlines: 1. Is Kapiti Island like the mainland used to be, in terms of birds and animals? 2. When and where was NZ's first Marine Reserve established? 3. How many species of animals are there on the island ? 4. How many species of endangered birds are there? 5. Do they ship fish into the marine reserve or do you attract them in another way? 6. Where is the safest place for birds to go? 7. Why do you have more fish than at Tapu Te Range? 8. Are there other species like sharks in a reserve or do you protect them? 9. What is the view like from the hutt? 10. How do animals eat a range of foods when they live on an island? 11. How big are the great whites?? 12. Is it rare to see dolphins? 13. Are there native snails on Kapiti Island? 14. So Kapiti has operators who are doing eco-tourism sustainably?

The following questions from schools are answered by volcanologists and an iwi-based researcher: 1. We saw a GNS video on measuring sulfate and chloride ions in the crater lake. Do geologists measure these in Lake Taupō to track activity? 2. How can we tell if a supervolcano is in a building phase, “potentially culminating, at some undetermined point in the future, in a large-scale eruption again in New Zealand"? 3. Yellowstone is a famous supervolcano, is it more likely to erupt again before Lake Taupō caldera? 4. Are all supervolcanoes rhyolite calderas? 5. Does new pumice get generated without an eruption? It always seems to be floating on the lake. 6. Could we get a supervolcano in Auckland? 7. There is a geothermal electricity station near Taupō. Why don't we have any at Tongariro or Rotorua?

The following questions from schools are answered by volcanologists and an iwi-based researcher: 1. How many people would be involved in the monitoring (watching or studying) of the volcanoes in New Zealand? 2. Does ash freeze if it is too high in the atmosphere? 3. What technology do you think will be available in 50 year's time to monitor volcanoes to keep people and animals even safer? 4. How did water fill up the caldera? 5. Can you cook a meal in the hot pools at the top of the volcano? 6. How hot is the magma in the chamber under Taupō? 7. What would New Zealand’s most active or dangerous volcano be? 8. Do other countries study our volcanoes. If so why? 9. How do geologists measure when a supervolcano is going to erupt?

The following questions from schools are answered by volcanologists and an iwi-based researcher: 1. How is a supervolcano formed? 2. What causes a supervolcano to erupt and how much damage can that cause? 3. What makes tectonic plates move? 4. How does a pyroclastic flow stop? 5. How can the Taupō supervolcano help us to understand volcanoes better? 6. How do humans live with supervolcanoes? 7. Could humans cause a supervolcano to erupt? Why/why not?

The following questions from schools were answered by Millie from Pouhere Taonga Heritage New Zealand: 1. Is the person that built the Stone Store related to you? If they are, what do you know about them? 2. What career pathway did you take to get this job? 3. When was the land discovered and settled by Māori and Europeans? 4. What was the population at the height of Māori and European settlement? 5. When you talk about 'priceless artifacts', what do you mean? 6. Is it the same people who built Stone Store the same as the ones who built the Kemp House? 7. What is the most interesting and or unusual artifact that you have in the Stone Store museum? 8. Did the people who built the Stone Store or Kemp House leave a historical mark e.g. a hidden signature or piece of memorabilia under or behind something, other than the stone slate? 9. Why do the artifacts have to be behind glass? What do they do to preserve artifacts? 10. How do they strengthen old buildings to be earthquake proof and to meet today's safety sta

The following questions from schools were answered by Bill from Pouhere Taonga Heritage New Zealand: 1. What does the word "heritage" mean to you? 2. How do you put a value on heritage items? 3. What is your favourite "item" of your heritage that is physical? 4. What is your favourite "item" of your heritage that is intangible? 5. What do you think is our most important "item" of heritage, as a country? 5. If we want to find out more about our own heritage, where would you suggest we start? 6. What are the threats to heritage? 7. What are the benefits of preserving our heritage? 8. Do you think we in Aotearoa New Zealand are doing a good job preserving our heritage?

The following questions from schools are answered by Marine Ecologist Leigh Tait: 1. Are there still problems and threats within our marine reserves? 2. Have there been any noticeable effects from climate change in and around the harbour? 3. How many fish, for example snapper, would be a sustainable recreational limit and should there also be a size limit for the big snapper, so fish bigger than 50cm also have to be let go? 4. If there were an increasing number of sharks in the harbour, would that be good or bad? 5. What new ideas do you have for how to protect marine areas, for example, should New Zealand have more marine reserves? 6. Are there mangroves within the harbour? What do they do within the ecosystem? 7. Our school is by the ocean on the Coromandel Peninsula and there are a lot of pine forests close by. What problems are caused in the ocean when the trees are cleared and then we have a lot of rain? 8. When it is low tide, do the ika stay in the harbour or do they move about with the tide? 9. The mu

The following questions from schools are answered by Marine Researcher Dr Kura Paul-Burke 1. Is the Rena oil spill still affecting the wildlife in New Zealand? 2. We are more aware that plastic is polluting our oceans, is what we are doing making a difference? 3. Are there more whale standings happening and are we, as humans making that happen? 4. Where is the place whale strandings are happening the most and why do you think this is? 5. Which animal species do you notice the most is declining? 6. What evidence do you have that pollution is affecting the animals in New Zealand oceans? 7. How much of our oceans are still unexplored and how many species do you think there may be undiscovered? 8. Can you tell us more about sea weed, what it's made of and how important it is to the food chain? 9. How many species of fish are there around New Zealand? 10. Are boats affecting New Zealand's wildlife and if so how? 11. Do all the boats disturb the species in the harbour? 12. What is the most endangered sea species in

The following questions from schools are answered by Marine Researcher Dr Kura Paul-Burke 1. What are some species that live in Ōhiwa Harbour? 2. Where does the fresh water that enters the harbour come from? 3. How do animals live in estuaries if they consist of salt and fresh water? 4. What are the non-living elements of the harbour ecosystem? 5. What are the producers, consumers, decomposers, and inorganic matter in the harbour? 6. How are humans harming the ecosystem? 7. What effect is nearby farming having? 8. What would happen if the mussels disappeared? 9. How can we prevent sedimentation? 10. What is the current health of Ōhiwa Harbour? 11. What are fiords? 12. How do we stop over-fishing? 13. Can you explain what sedimentation is? 14. What would happen without fish? 15. Is Ohiwa Harbour protected? 16. How many plastic bags are going into the ocean? 17. Do starfish help clean the ecosystem too? 18. If we recorded all of the connections for the marine ecosystems what would it look like? 19. How c

Josh Hough and Karl Summerfield discuss examples of students solving real world problems using our programme, E Whiti! E Whiti!

The following questions are answered: 1. Once the landfill is covered with soil what happens? 2. Do you think New Zealanders are making a conscious effort to manage household/industry waste etc or is it getting worse because of the amount of rubbish that we have? 3. Why do you think so many restaurants and businesses still use and sell plastic products rather than reusing? 4. Do you think the advertisements like Gen Less will have an impact on the future for how much waste we produce? 5. What companies have been using environmentally friendly products and what impact does this have on the landfill? 6. Do you think people know that organic waste produces the most gas, and if they did, would people be more vigilant about putting this waste in the correct bins? 7. What are some other ideas that we can use to reduce the amount of waste and rubbish in New Zealand? 8. Do you think Kate Valley could use the methane catchments worldwide? Or did this idea come from somewhere overseas? 9. How does the amount of waste w

The following questions are answered: 1. What is the dirt like underneath the rubbish at the landfill? 2. What is the layer separating the rubbish from the ground made out of? 3. How does the rubbish at the landfill affect the natural environment around the landfill? 4. What can be done if water near a landfill gets leachate in it? 5. How do you bury the rubbish and how bad are the chemicals for the soil? 6. Why was plastic made? What will happen to all the plastic in 100 years? 7. How do you stop the rubbish contaminating the water table below the landfill? 8. How is there enough money to pay for the technology at Kate Valley? 9. How do you stop the rubbish blowing away from the landfill? 10. How much research has been conducted into landfills and their impact? 11. To what extent do you think old landfills pose a greater risk to the environment than modern engineered landfills like Kate Valley? Can anything be done to improve old landfills that have been closed down? 12. How is leachate created? Does i

The following questions are answered: 1. How was the Kate Valley Landfill created? 2. What is the difference between the Kate Valley landfill and other New Zealand landfills? 3. How much rubbish goes to the landfill a day? How much rubbish has gone into the Kate Valley landfill since it was first developed? 4. What do you do at Kate Valley to make sure that recyclable waste is not transferred to the landfill? 5. Where does all the waste go once it’s in the landfill - what does the waste do? 6. What types of waste can’t decompose and why? 7. Why does the rubbish give off toxic chemicals? 8. Is all the waste at Kate Valley completely contained? Can any of it escape into the environment? 9. Why can’t the rubbish be burnt in a massive oven and turn it into something else? 10. How long is Kate Valley going to last? What will happen to Kate Valley Landfill once it is full? 11. Why don’t we send out rubbish to countries like China to be incinerated? 12. How do you collect all the toxic gases and how do you know you

The following questions are answered: 1. Why are green apples sour? 2. How can you tell the difference between an apple tree and another tree when there are no apples on it? 3. How many varieties of apples are there in the world? 4. Apart from red and green apples, do apples come in any other colour? 5. How does the apple develop on the branch of a tree? 6. Do apples ripen after they are picked and how do apples stay ripe and not go off when exported overseas? 7. Can you tell us a little more about the countries that our New Zealand apples get exported to (can they not grow their own) and do they only travel by ship? 8. How are the growers going to manage global warming in the future? 9. How do you control the sugar levels in apples when breeding new varieties? 10. We have heard about the red-fleshed apple but would it be possible to produce a different coloured apple? 11. As a world-leading apple growing country with a great reputation, what biosecurity measures do we take to protect our apple industry

The following questions are answered: 1. How do you think this project (and this field trip) will change society? 2. How will this online trip help our learning? 3. How do you check for pests? 4. How successful are the pest control measures? 5. What is the most common apple disease? 6. How many trees are lost per year? 7. Tell us more about the robot apple picker. 8. How big do apples get? 9. What inspired you to start this programme? 10. We have heard that the robot picker detects red apples but cannot yet detect black spot. What happens if those apples get to the packhouse? 11. Do you have pollinators or your own bees? 12. Do you use a microscope? if so what for? 13. How long does an apple last after you pick it?