Curious Minds
Papapoke
Thanks to support from Venture Taranaki – Curious Minds, Mimi School’s Rimu class had a great three days learning all about our local papa/clay alongside GNS scientist Malcolm Arnot, Verum Group chemical engineer Murray McCurdy and incredibly talented local potter Janeen Page. We enjoyed getting out on the beach taking samples and examining sediment layers, searching for micro and macro fossils, and learning about how and when the clay was formed, sifting and sorting grain-sizes to determine rock types, carrying out shatter-tests to determine strength and property differences when dried then fired, and getting creative with some moulding and shaping. A huge thank you to Malcolm, Murray, Janeen and Josh for sharing your knowledge and passion with us. This project was planned to include a wānanga at Urenui Pā with Ngāti Mutunga whānau but due to Covid restrictions, we had to postpone. Hopefully we can reschedule in the not-too-distant future.