Te Rito students Judy Mark (second from the left, Curtis Williams (third from the left) and Michael Twist (right) with research centre staff members, from left, Anne Smith, Emma Todd and James Hickman.
Te Rito students Judy Mark (second from the left, Curtis Williams (third from the left) and Michael Twist (right) with research centre staff members, from left, Anne Smith, Emma Todd and James Hickman.
Te Puke High School students have discovered some of the science supporting the kiwifruit industry.
As part of a Te Rito Cadetship initiative, four high school students recently spent two weeks at Plant and Food Research in Te Puke.
Two of them, Judy Peters (Tapuika) and Anahera Mark (Ngāti Tūwharetoa), say they didn’t even know the research centre in Te Puke existed.
Plant and Food business manager Juanita Dunn says engaging students and showcasing pathways into science is something the research centre has been working towards on for some time, but finding the best way wasn’t easy.
“Do we try and engage our scientists to present to them in a classroom environment or do we resource a funded pathway for students to join the research centre allowing them to be shown around and mentored in specific aspects so that they might be intrigued to explore a future science career pathway?”
Plant and Food has an established summer studentship programme for university students.
“That’s fantastic for tertiary students, but we haven’t been able to offer anything earlier than that, so what we set out to do was to say, ‘actually we are based in Te Puke, where 80 per cent of kiwifruit is grown and we work closely with industry, why don’t we try and provide a pathway through Te Puke High School’.”
The idea was to give the students a taste of what a career in science could offer.
A pilot was held last year with four students and due to its success it was decided the programme should continue in 2023.
Te Puke High School Cadets: Curtis Williams (Ngati Makino), Michael Twist (Ngati Manawa), Judy Peters (Tapuika) and Anahera Mark (Ngati Tuwharetoa).
Judy says the students got to use “heaps of cool science tools” during their time at Plant and Food Research.
She spent time studying and testing vitamin C levels in fruit and examining the different cultivars and shapes of fruit.
Anahera enjoyed her time in the pathology lab looking at sooty mould that grows on kiwifruit and at ways to prevent it, as well as propagating plants.
Judy says there was a lot to enjoy during the fortnight, working in the lab, the office and out in the orchard environment.
“It was a cool opportunity and I never knew the place existed before Ms [teacher Kirsty] Buchanan brought it to us.”
She has yet to make a decision about where her career might take her, but “I love science so something to do with science”.
“I didn’t know it was there either,” says Anahera. “When I was presented with the opportunity I was like ‘oh that’s really cool, there’s a whole bunch of different opportunities for the future, working in science and even outside of science.”
She would like to find out more about a science career.
“In terms of what they do there, there’s heaps of stuff that a normal person wouldn’t know about.”
It was also their first experience of being in a working environment.
“It was quite cool, getting the feel of it and getting to know what it’s like — working with new people and with adults and how they think of their role and the wider contribution.”
Both Judy and Anahera say they want to thank their supervisors for the experience.
Te Puke High School student Judy Peters in one of the labs at Plant and Food research in Te Puke.
“Working with the supervisors was really nice and they gave up a lot of their time and taught us a lot of new stuff,” says Anahera.
Judy says she would like to go back because it was a “fun and really good experience”.
“I really didn’t know all of what went into it. I learned heaps of new things about kiwifruit and how they process cultivars. It’s good to have it on our doorstep.”
Kirsty says the fortnight was a fantastic opportunity for students to connect with the local industry.
“We grow up with a very blinkered approach to kiwifruit,” she says. “We think we know everything so it’s been really nice to open their eyes to it and hopefully to get them to start sharing that with other people as. well. Hopefully it will bring future opportunities which they may not have considered before.”
Juanita says it is possible that once the students get to university, they could return to the research centre as summer students.
“The icing on the cake would be to generate interest from these students and they go away and think ‘actually I can come home, stay at home and work at Plant and Food Research’.”
She says the initiative is a way to support the region and help students identify pathways that they may not have previously considered before completing high school.
This initiative was made possible by the contributions of a dedicated and motivated team at the Te Puke Research Centre who value supporting rangatahi into science career pathways, including Yvette Jones, Teiarere Stephens, Sean Bulley, Kris Kramer-Walter, Brydie Craven, James Hickman, Patrick Snelgar, Emma Todd and Kelly Davis.
