Years 7-10
Strongest teaching range
Inquiry design
Primary teaching fit
Teacher-only planning note
Project planning templates produce thin plans when students have not yet defined a measurable
problem. The Week 1 sequence — audit, detective checklist, kaumātua interview, ranking cards —
should precede this template. If groups arrive at this template with only a vague sense of "our
environment is bad," send them back to the evidence. The key teacher move here is helping
students convert a general concern into a specific, measurable environmental question.
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 project planning template requires students to commit to a specific kaitiakitanga action,
identify what ecosystem benefit it will produce, and plan how to communicate outcomes to the
community. That is exactly what this curriculum statement asks for: evaluating and
communicating kaitiakitanga-based positive impact.
Kaitiakitanga action
Ecosystem benefit
Community communication
This is the primary fit because the template is the instrument that
makes the project a real kaitiakitanga commitment rather than a class exercise.
Strong fit
SCIENCE-8a287729e7: Representing ecological data using tables and
graphs to interpret patterns and draw conclusions about ecosystem dynamics.
How this handout aligns
A well-designed project plan specifies what data will be collected to measure baseline and
change. When students plan their measurement approach in the template, they are designing
the ecological data collection that will later allow pattern interpretation and conclusions
about whether their intervention worked.
Measurement planning
Baseline data
Ecosystem change
Useful for scaffolding students who tend to plan actions without
planning how they will know if the actions worked.
Aotearoa lens
In Aotearoa, environmental action planning is most effective when
it is grounded in the specific place — the rohe — and when
mātauranga Māori informs both the problem diagnosis and the
response. A project plan that could be anywhere is a weaker plan than one that is explicitly
about this awa, this maunga, this school.
How to use this resource well
Require each group to name the specific place they are working in and to include at least one
element from the kaumātua interview in their plan. That requirement keeps the project
locally grounded and prevents generic environmental project plans that have no particular
connection to the community's land and water.
Rohe-specific
Mātauranga Māori integration
Place-based planning
This produces plans that are genuine contributions to the community
rather than school assignments that do not go anywhere.
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.