Media Release

NIWA Waikato Science Fair winners experience coal mine at first hand

20 October 2009                                                                                               

Science really made sense for six prize-winning intermediate students who had an opportunity to spend a day with expert Solid Energy staff at Rotowaro Opencast Mine during the recent school holidays. 

The students, winners in the Solid Energy-sponsored “Planet Earth and Beyond” category at this year’s NIWA Waikato Science Fair, donned hard hats, boots and fluorescent vests to join geologists, environmental scientists and engineers at the mine and to put science into action. Among the science-based skills the students experienced were coal and rock identification and classification, core sampling, field observation, water quality assessment and invertebrate collecting. 

“Extending our support of the science fair by sponsoring a category this year seemed a good way to encourage student interest in earth sciences,” says Craig Smith, General Manager of Solid Energy’s North Operations.  “The application and opportunities of some branches of science are sometimes less obvious than others and we wanted to illustrate these in the best way possible. 

“We piloted this mine visit a couple of years ago.  The response from students, parents and teachers was so positive that it has become a regular part of our programme.  The students gain so much from being in an actual industry situation.”

Berkley Middle School Year 8 student, Joshua Nachowitz, felt “very lucky” to get the chance to see the inner workings of a coal mine.  

“It gave me a very good idea of what geologists and ecologists might do in this industry.  I definitely want science to be part of my future, and I'm very glad I had the opportunity to visit this coal mine and meet and talk to the scientists,” says 12-year-old Joshua.

“I came away with lots of cool and interesting facts. I enjoyed finding out that the stream that is used and monitored by the mine is the same stream that I studied for my Science Fair project! It is hard to single out one best thing in the day, because there were so many interesting things to see and learn.”

● LEARNZ, another Solid Energy supported initiative, provides primary and secondary students around the country with real-time virtual tours of underground and opencast coal mines. Details may be found at www.learnz.org.nz