Years 7-10
Strongest teaching range
Environmental inquiry
Primary teaching fit
Teacher-only planning note
The audit walk is the most important moment in Week 1. Students who rush it produce vague problem
lists. Those who slow down and look carefully — using both scientific observation and the
mātauranga Māori lens of attentive relationship with place — identify
specific, actionable issues they can actually investigate. Brief the groups on what counts as
evidence before they go out.
Strong fit
SCIENCE-761cb83512: Evaluating ways humans can positively impact
ecosystems and communicating actions that support kaitiakitanga (e.g. planting trees, composting,
recycling, growing food, planting native species).
How this handout aligns
The audit systematically surfaces which school or community ecosystems have been degraded and
asks students to identify realistic positive interventions. That moves directly toward
communicating kaitiakitanga-based action.
Kaitiakitanga
Positive impact
Ecosystem action
This is the clearest fit because the handout is explicitly structured
around identifying problems and proposing what students can do about them.
Strong fit
SCIENCE-98d3a1dc92: Collecting and analysing field data to measure
distribution and abundance of organisms, including calculating population size, using appropriate
sampling techniques.
How this handout aligns
The biodiversity section asks students to record what is present and absent — native plants,
invasive weeds, habitat quality — which is the beginning of field-based ecological data
collection. Even at Year 7–8, establishing the habit of recording specific observations
(not impressions) builds toward the sampling skills that Year 9–10 requires.
Field data
Biodiversity
Observation
Useful when groups are sent to specific zones and asked to record
what they actually see, not what they expect to see.
Aotearoa lens
Environmental audit work in Aotearoa is stronger when students frame
what they are doing as an expression of kaitiakitanga — active
guardianship — rather than as fault-finding. The question is not only "what is wrong?" but "what
is our responsibility to this place?"
How to use this resource well
Before the walk, ask: "If a kaumātua walked this same route, what would they notice first?
What would concern them?" That framing invites students to observe through a relationship lens,
not just a technical checklist lens.
Kaitiakitanga
Rohe relationship
Guardianship framing
This stops the audit becoming a compliance exercise and keeps it
grounded in responsibility and care for taiao.
Puna Kōrero — Sources
Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Learning Media.
Ministry of Education. (2021). Te Mātaiaho: The Refreshed New Zealand Curriculum. Ministry of Education.
Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. (2021). Tātaiako: Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māori Learners. Teaching Council.