Best for
Years 9-10 science, climate literacy, sustainability inquiry, and local environment discussion.
Science • Years 9-10 • Ready to use tomorrow
Climate Change in Aotearoa
Help ākonga connect climate science to local places, te taiao, and kaitiakitanga. This handout gives you a complete inquiry scaffold so students can investigate impacts, responses, and responsibilities in an Aotearoa context.
Free inquiry scaffold, premium localisation path
This handout is ready to print and teach as-is. If you want to swap in your awa, coastline, flood event, drought case, or local species focus, Te Wānanga can generate a class-specific version while keeping the science and te taiao lens intact.
- Replace the example with a local climate event or place from your rohe.
- Generate a lower-reading-level or extension version for mixed-ability groups.
- Save the adapted version and reopen it later in My Kete or Creation Studio.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 20-30 minutes as a guided inquiry sheet, or a full lesson when students complete the response task.
- Grouping: Whole-class modelling first, then pairs or small groups for investigation and recommendation writing.
- Prep: Decide whether students will respond to the built-in Aotearoa prompts or a local weather/climate example from your community.
- Teaching move: Keep climate change anchored in place, people, and living systems rather than treating it as distant abstract science.
Resources already provided
- Climate and te taiao inquiry prompts
- Impact-evidence-response planning frame
- Local action recommendation scaffold
- Vocabulary bank for climate and kaitiakitanga language
- Self-check for scientific and place-based reasoning
- Curriculum companion for planning/reporting
If the lesson mentions observation prompts, recommendation frames, or local action scaffolds, they are already included here so kaiako can pick up and go.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning to explain how climate change affects places, species, and communities in Aotearoa.
- We are learning to connect science ideas with te taiao, mauri, and kaitiakitanga.
- We are learning to propose actions that are both practical and place-responsive.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can describe one climate issue using accurate science language.
- I can explain why the issue matters for a local place, species, or community.
- I can suggest a realistic response that reflects care for people and the environment.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
This handout works best when the curriculum story is explicit. Use the linked companion page for planning, moderation, and reporting around climate science, environmental literacy, and place-based inquiry in Aotearoa.
Why climate inquiry matters in Aotearoa
Climate change in Aotearoa is not just a global graph. It shows up in flooding, drought, coastal erosion, sea temperature change, and pressure on ecosystems and communities. A strong classroom response keeps the science visible while also asking what care, guardianship, and local action should look like.
Using te taiao as a lens helps students think about climate change relationally: what happens to people, whenua, wai, and other living things together?
Choose a local or national climate focus
Coastline and storms
How are stronger storms, sea-level rise, or erosion affecting local coastlines, marae, roads, or habitats?
Flooding and heavy rain
What communities, awa, farms, or urban areas are under pressure from more intense rainfall?
Drought and freshwater stress
How could hotter, drier periods affect water use, food production, or ecosystem health?
Species and habitat change
Which local species, mahinga kai, or habitats are vulnerable as temperatures and seasons shift?
Impact, evidence, response planning frame
- Our chosen climate issue is: __________________________________________
- The science behind it is: _____________________________________________
- The place, species, or community affected is: _________________________
- Evidence or observation we can point to is: ___________________________
- A Māori concept that helps us think about this is: ___________________
- A realistic response could be: ______________________________________
Language bank
- Science terms: greenhouse gases, sea-level rise, erosion, biodiversity, mitigation, adaptation, extreme weather
- Māori concepts: kaitiakitanga, mauri, tohu, whakapapa, te taiao
- Response starters: One likely impact is... / This matters because... / A stronger local response would...
Action recommendation prompt
Write a short recommendation to your class, kura, local council, or community group explaining:
- what the climate issue is
- why it matters in Aotearoa or your local area
- what should happen next
- how your response reflects care for people and the environment
Self-check before sharing
- I named a clear climate issue.
- I used at least one accurate science idea.
- I linked the issue to a place, species, or community.
- I used a Māori concept meaningfully rather than as decoration.
- I suggested a response that is realistic and relevant.
Tautoko / Support
- Use one shared class example before asking students to investigate independently.
- Offer one completed row of the planning frame as a model.
- Limit the task to one paragraph plus a practical action recommendation.
Whakawhānui / Extend
- Ask students to compare two different climate issues or two locations.
- Turn the final recommendation into a speech, infographic, or poster campaign.
- Challenge students to evaluate the strengths and limits of a proposed solution.
Whānau and hapori connection
Invite students to ask whānau or local community members what climate changes they have noticed in local weather, seasons, coastlines, ngahere, or waterways. That gives students a way to connect classroom science with community observation and care.
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Science — Pūtaiao
Level 3–4: Investigate how living and physical systems work; understand relationships between organisms and their environments; collect, interpret, and evaluate scientific evidence to explain natural phenomena.
Social Sciences — Tikanga ā-Iwi
Level 3–4: Understand how human activity affects natural environments; explore the connection between ecological health and community wellbeing; recognise the role of cultural knowledge in environmental decision-making.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
Mātauranga Māori is a sophisticated knowledge system built through centuries of careful observation, hypothesis, testing, and refinement — the same processes that define scientific inquiry. Māori knowledge of ecology, weather patterns, seasonal change, and animal behaviour guided sustainable resource management for generations before Western science arrived in Aotearoa. Understanding science through a dual-knowledge lens — bringing mātauranga Māori and Western science into dialogue rather than hierarchy — produces richer, more contextually grounded understanding. The concept of kaitiakitanga reminds us that scientific knowledge carries obligations: understanding how natural systems work means accepting responsibility for how we treat them.
Tuhia ōu whakaaro · Write Your Thoughts
Reflect on your learning. What was the most important idea? What question do you still have?
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
This handout is designed to be used alongside the broader unit resources available at Te Kete Ako handouts library. Related resources from the same unit are linked in the unit planner. All resources are provided — no additional preparation is required to use this handout in your classroom.
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will engage with this resource to explore how mātauranga Māori and Western science offer complementary frameworks for understanding and responding to environmental challenges — learning to read landscapes, ecosystems, and ecological change through both indigenous and scientific lenses.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can explain how mātauranga Māori environmental knowledge provides insights that Western science alone may miss.
- ✅ Students can apply both indigenous and scientific frameworks to analyse a local environmental issue in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide dual-lens analysis frameworks (mātauranga Māori lens | Western science lens) for entry-level comparison tasks. Offer extension challenges asking students to investigate a real environmental monitoring programme in Aotearoa that integrates both knowledge systems — for example, iwi-led water quality monitoring using both traditional indicators and scientific sampling.
ELL / ESOL: Environmental and scientific vocabulary (ecosystem, biodiversity, indicator species, sustainability, kaitiakitanga, taonga species) benefits from visual glossaries with images of local species and environments. Allow students to discuss environmental observations from their home countries as valid comparative contexts. Oral field observation is a powerful entry point that reduces language barriers.
Inclusion: Outdoor and field-based learning naturally supports diverse learners — sensory, kinaesthetic, and place-based engagement complements classroom tasks. Neurodiverse learners often thrive in structured outdoor inquiry. Ensure physical accessibility is considered for field components. Indigenous and Pacific students may bring family knowledge of traditional environmental practices — create space for this knowledge to be honoured, not just acknowledged.
Mātauranga Māori lens: Mātauranga Māori environmental knowledge is not folklore — it is centuries of systematic observation, classification, and adaptive management. Ngā tohu o te rangi (signs of the weather), ngā tohu o te taiao (signs of the natural world), and the detailed ecological knowledge encoded in place names all represent sophisticated environmental science. Kaitiakitanga is not simply "conservation" — it is a dynamic, relational ethic of guardianship that recognises humans as part of, not separate from, ecosystems. Marama Muru-Lanning and other contemporary mātauranga Māori researchers are demonstrating how this knowledge enriches environmental science.
Prior knowledge: Students benefit from foundational understanding of ecosystems and environmental science concepts. No specialist mātauranga Māori knowledge required — the unit builds this knowledge through inquiry.
Curriculum alignment
- Ecology — Living World: Understand how biotic and abiotic factors in ecosystems affect the distribution and abundance of organisms; and how changes in one part can affect the balance and wellbeing of the whole system.
- Place and Environment — Social Studies: Understand how people's management of resources reflects their values — and how mātauranga Māori provides a framework for kaitiaki responsibilities to the natural world.