Best for
Food-systems science, sustainability inquiry, māra kai learning, and cross-curricular lessons that combine science, social decision-making, and hauora.
Science / Sustainability • Years 6-10 • Systems and decisions
Food Systems and Sustainability Inquiry
Use this handout to help ākonga trace how kai moves from source to plate, evaluate where waste and emissions can build up, and make decisions through a kaitiakitanga lens rather than simplistic “good food / bad food” thinking.
Free systems inquiry, premium localisation path
This handout is classroom-ready. If you want it rebuilt around your local growers, school garden, whānau recipes, or a field trip, Te Wānanga can adapt the prompts while keeping the systems-thinking structure intact.
- Swap in local food sources, supermarket examples, or māra kai contexts.
- Create a junior sorting version or a more analytical senior sustainability task.
- Save the adapted copy to My Kete and refine it later in Creation Studio.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 40-55 minutes.
- Grouping: Shared example first, then small-group comparison and independent reflection.
- Prep: Choose one familiar kai item or packaging example students recognise.
- Teaching move: Keep the focus on systems and trade-offs. Sustainable choices are rarely about one single factor.
Resources already provided
- Food-chain-of-decisions overview
- Impact comparison table
- Lunch or meal redesign prompt
- Kaitiakitanga reflection space
- Support, core, and stretch options
- Teacher-only curriculum companion
If the lesson mentions a system map, decision table, or action-planning prompt, those materials are already included.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning how food systems include growing, transport, packaging, eating, and waste.
- We are learning how sustainability decisions involve people, place, and the environment.
- We are learning how kaitiakitanga can shape more thoughtful food choices.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can describe at least four parts of a food system.
- I can explain one environmental or social impact in the chain.
- I can suggest a more sustainable option and justify why it is stronger.
Curriculum integration / Te Mātaiaho alignment
Use the companion page to connect this handout to systems thinking, sustainability, local food contexts, and cross-curricular decision making.
Science in an Aotearoa context
Food systems in Aotearoa include farms, māra kai, fisheries, supermarkets, kitchens, compost bins, and whānau tables. They are scientific systems, but they are also cultural and economic systems that affect communities differently.
Kaitiakitanga and māhinga kai offer a strong lens here: food choices are not only about consumption, but about reciprocity, care for the whenua and moana, and whether the system can keep giving back.
From source to plate and beyond
- Source: Food is grown, gathered, or caught.
- Processing: It may be cleaned, sorted, cut, or packaged.
- Transport: It travels by truck, ship, plane, or local delivery.
- Sale and use: It is bought, stored, cooked, and eaten.
- Waste or return: Leftovers become rubbish, compost, feed, or are reused.
Every stage uses energy and creates different impacts for people and place. That is why one food decision can never be judged by price alone.
Impact comparison table
| Kai example | Possible people impact | Possible environment impact | Stronger alternative or improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imported out-of-season fruit | |||
| Heavily packaged lunch item | |||
| Locally grown or shared produce |
Redesign one everyday food choice
My food-system decision
Choose one lunch item, meal, or class kai example. Explain how you would redesign the choice to reduce waste, travel, or packaging while still meeting people's needs.
Sketch or map
Draw the current system on one side and your improved system on the other. Use arrows and labels to show what changes.
Different ways in
Support
Trace one kai item from source to waste and label the five stages with arrows.
Core
Complete the table and justify one stronger sustainability choice using evidence.
Stretch
Explain why a “more sustainable” option can still involve trade-offs for cost, access, labour, culture, or convenience.
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Social Sciences — Tikanga ā-Iwi
Level 3–4: Investigate how historical, political, and economic processes shape societies; understand how people participate in communities to create change; analyse different perspectives on social, cultural, and environmental issues.
English — Research and Literacy
Level 3–4: Gather, evaluate, and synthesise information from multiple sources; construct well-reasoned arguments using evidence; communicate social science understanding clearly in written, oral, and visual forms.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
Social Sciences taught well in Aotearoa should be uncomfortable — because the history of this land is one in which Māori and other communities have faced injustice, and in which those injustices are not yet fully addressed. Mātauranga Māori offers frameworks for thinking about social change that go beyond Western political theory: the concept of tino rangatiratanga (self-determination), of kotahitanga (unity in purpose), of utu (reciprocity across time) — these are not abstract ideas but working tools for analysing how power has been distributed and how it might be redistributed more justly. Social Sciences that centres these frameworks gives students the analytical vocabulary to name what they see in the world and imagine what could be different.
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 investigate the intersection of kai (food), culture, and climate — exploring how mātauranga Māori approaches to food production, preservation, and distribution offer powerful responses to contemporary food security and climate challenges in Aotearoa New Zealand and globally.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can explain how traditional Māori kai practices (maramataka, kūmara cultivation, rāhui) embody ecological knowledge and food security principles.
- ✅ Students can connect kai culture and climate scarcity to contemporary community action and food sovereignty movements.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide graphic organisers that map traditional kai practices to modern food security concepts at the entry level. Offer extension tasks asking students to research a specific iwi's traditional food system and evaluate its contemporary relevance, or to investigate a local food sovereignty initiative.
ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach domain vocabulary (food sovereignty, food security, kaitiakitanga, rāhui, maramataka) using visual diagrams and real-world examples. Draw connections to students' own cultural food traditions — these are valid entry points into the unit's themes. Allow oral or visual presentation of learning as alternatives to written tasks.
Inclusion: Kai is a universal human experience — all students have a relationship with food, seasonality, and sharing. Neurodiverse learners benefit from concrete, hands-on engagement with these concepts (e.g., examining a kūmara, mapping seasonal foods). Acknowledge diverse economic circumstances sensitively when discussing food security. Choice in how students demonstrate understanding (written, visual, oral) supports inclusive assessment.
Mātauranga Māori lens: The maramataka — the Māori lunar calendar — is one of Aotearoa's most sophisticated environmental data systems, encoding centuries of ecological observation about planting, harvesting, fishing, and weather patterns. Kūmara cultivation in pre-colonial Aotearoa was a feat of agricultural knowledge adapted to a new climate. Rāhui (temporary resource restrictions) is indigenous resource management — conservation before conservation. Kaitiakitanga frames the relationship between people and kai not as extraction but as reciprocal guardianship. These are not historical curiosities — they are living solutions to contemporary problems.
Prior knowledge: Students benefit from foundational understanding of climate change and food systems. No specialist mātauranga Māori knowledge required for entry-level engagement — the unit builds this knowledge progressively.
Curriculum alignment
- Place and Environment — Social Studies: Understand how people's management of resources reflects their values and their view of sustainability — and how mātauranga Māori frameworks provide models for sustainable resource management.
- Ecology — Living World: Understand how human activities and natural factors affect the distribution and abundance of organisms; evaluate the impact of changes on ecosystem health and food systems.