Measuring the Mighty: Maths Adventures in Kauri Education

This Spotlight article was written by Cami Carty-Melis, April 2025

The Waikato Regional Council's Kauri Education Experience has reached over 1000 students in primary and secondary schools across the region. This case study explores how mathematical concepts can be woven into environmental education to deepen student learning and connection to nature.

Learning about Aotearoa’s unique trees and conservation issues provides an opportunity for rich maths tasks that are both relevant and engaging, with links to key concepts from Number | Mātauranga tau, Measurement | Ine and Geometry | Āhuahanga. 

“… students come to understand the value of mathematical and statistical investigation as a lens for collective local, national, and global challenges.” 
- Mathematics and Statistics purpose statement, Tāhūrangi 2025

The mathematics learning in this article can be adapted for students of all ages, but links most strongly to Phase 2 (Yrs 4 - 6) and Phase 3 (Yrs 7 - 8) of the refreshed mathematics and statistics curriculum for Years 0 - 8. 

Discovering the Challenge

The Waikato Regional Council’s Kauri Education Experience begins with students exploring their relationship with kauri and identifying the challenges these taonga trees face.

Inside the classroom, facilitators introduce our historical and contemporary relationships with kauri, discuss kauri dieback disease, and explore easy actions everyone can take to protect this incredible species.

"Who has seen a kauri tree before?" asks a facilitator at the start of a typical session.

Some hands rise, while others remain down. The discussion reveals varying levels of knowledge about these iconic trees - some students have visited Tāne Mahuta, others have never seen a kauri.

Some schools have kauri growing within their grounds and are surprised to discover them during the session when they learn how to identify them!

The facilitator introduces the Wētā Workshop kauri tree model, showing the massive scale of these forest giants and highlighting the invisible threat: Phytophthora agathidicida, the pathogen causing kauri dieback disease.

Students identify a key challenge: How can we understand the scale of kauri trees and their root systems to better protect them? This question sets the stage for mathematical exploration.

Investigating Through Mathematics

Moving outdoors, students explore the dimensions of kauri trees through hands-on mathematical activities. The exploration phase uses mathematical tools to investigate the true scale of these forest giants.

Coloured ropes laid out in circles represent the circumferences of famous kauri trees like Tāne Mahuta (15m) and Mill Creek Kauri (23m).

The facilitator invites students to stand around the rope circle and imagine the giant tree in front of them - its width, its height, the breadth of the canopy.

Students spread out to form a human circle with the exercise immediately challenging their spatial understanding - it takes many students to encircle a kauri tree!

The mathematical exploration deepens as students learn the terminology ‘circumference’, ‘radius’ and ‘diameter’ in relation to the tree trunk.

This stage of learning reinforces the 'Do' processes in the new mathematics and statistics curriculum, particularly Investigating situations | Te tūhura pūāhua.

"When investigating, we need to decide which approaches, concepts, and tools to use and how to use them. We often begin with a question or focus of interest and proceed in systematic but flexible ways, using mathematical and statistical concepts and procedures to solve problems and make sense of findings in context." - Mathematics and statistics, Tāhūrangi 2025

Developing Mathematical Understanding

With basic measurements established, students plan how to determine the full extent of the kauri's vast root zone using proportional reasoning.

"We know the trunk radius, but how far do the branches extend?" prompts the facilitator. Students estimate the canopy radius based on observations of the model and pictures of mature kauri.

The critical mathematical concept emerges during this planning stage: the root protection zone extends approximately three times beyond the canopy edge. Students develop step-by-step approaches to calculate these dimensions:

1. Measure or calculate trunk radius
2. Estimate or measure canopy radius
3. Multiply canopy radius by three to determine root protection zone

Teachers can link this learning to Measurement | Ine and Number | Mātauranga tau at both Phase 2 (Yrs 4-6) and Phase 3 (Yrs 7 -8).

This mathematical planning creates concrete understanding of abstract concepts like proportion and multiplication. More importantly, it demonstrates why protecting soil so far from the visible tree is essential for kauri health.

Mathematics in Action

With their mathematical approach planned, students move from theory to practice. The action phase brings mathematics to life through physical movement and measurement. Students pace from the centre of the rope circle outward, counting steps to establish the trunk radius and estimating where the canopy might end.

"Now, what's our mathematical rule for finding the root zone?" asks the facilitator.
‍
"Three times the canopy radius!" students respond.

Students continue pacing outward to a distance of three times the canopy radius, until the class is spread out in a gigantic circle representing the root zone. The physical distance -often surprising to students- makes the mathematics tangible and meaningful.

This mathematical action directly connects to environmental protection. Students now understand why cleaning stations are positioned where they are on forest tracks, and why soil disturbance must be minimised even at considerable distances from kauri trunks.

Following this activity, students break off into rotations where they predict and then measure how long it takes to clean boots well, discover the species dependent on kauri trees, and experience a Virtual Reality world where they travel to kauri forests and explore the ecosystems the trees sustain.

‍

‍

Reflection: Connecting Mathematics to Kaitiakitanga

The reflection phase brings mathematics and environmental stewardship together. Students gather to discuss what they've learned and how mathematical understanding informs kaitiakitanga. This stage of learning also highlights the ‘Do’ processes in mathematics that underpin students’ learning of big ideas and concepts.  

Connecting situations | Te tūhono pūāhua involves linking mathematics and statistics to other learning areas and to a range of contexts.

"Now that we understand how far kauri roots extend, how does this change how you might behave in a kauri forest?"

Students reflect on the mathematical relationships they've discovered:

• The circumference-to-radius calculation reveals the true size of these giants,
• The three-times multiplication rule demonstrates the extensive reach of root systems,
• The proportion of visible tree to underground network illustrates vulnerability.

These mathematical insights transform into conservation principles:

• Clean footwear thoroughly before and after forest visits
• Stay on designated tracks to avoid soil disturbance
• Respect cleaning stations, understanding their strategic placement

The Kauri Education Experience ends with a call to action for the school. Some classes create scaled maps of their local areas (curriculum link to Geometry Phase 2, Pathways), identifying potential kauri protection zones. Others develop a Kauri Protection Plan for kauri within their school grounds or surrounding areas. Sometimes students create an awareness campaign to share with their families, friends or wider community.

‍

The Waikato Regional Council's 'Kauri Protection Experience' demonstrates how mathematical concepts can be integrated into environmental education. By using mathematics as a tool to understand the scale and vulnerability of kauri ecosystems, students develop their mathematical skills and deepen their environmental connections.

This approach offers a model for educators seeking to bring curriculum areas together in authentic, real-life contexts that are meaningful to students and communities, and empower learners to take action for the environment. 

Watch the video Kauri Education at Te Rerenga to hear from kaiako and ākonga about their experiences with the programme. 

‍

‍

Waikato Schools can find out more and book a session by visiting the Waikato Regional Council’s Resources for Teachers webpage and scrolling down to “Kauri Pou Kaitiaki | Kauri Protection” section. 

‍

Related Resources

Kauri Protection - Waikato Regional Council

Watch: Kauri Pou Kaitiaki from Waikato Regional Council

Watch: The Fight to Save Kauri with Mātauranga Māori from Re:news (2021)

Kauri Dieback School Resource, produced by Auckland Council, written by Sarah Ross

Science Learning Hub collection about Kauri Dieback with further links to resources. 

Kauri Museum education resources

Kauri Dieback article - Connected Series, 2017

Worms and more - Tāhūrangi resource for Measurement Level 1 (equivalent to Phase 1). 

The Song of Kauri / Te Waiata o Kauri - picture books by Melinda Szymanik; Ngaere Roberts (Te Reo Māori)

The Kauri Family / Te Whānau Kauri - picture books by Suzy Cato and Arthur Baystring; Ngaere Roberts (Te Reo Māori)

‍

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the Waikato Regional Council education team for sharing this wonderful story and for providing the photos in the article. Thanks also to the students and schools who have been involved with the Kauri Pou Kaitiaki experience.