📚 Unit Plans → 📖 Scientific Method Through Traditional Māori Practices → 📄 Integrated Experiment Template | Science and Mātauranga Māori
Years 9–13 Pūtaiao / Science

Science / Mātauranga Māori • Years 9-13 • Ready to use tomorrow

Integrated Experiment Template

Use this template when ākonga are designing investigations that draw on both scientific method and local mātauranga Māori. It helps students plan a clear test while also identifying relationships, tikanga, and place-based knowledge that matter.

Best for

Integrated science inquiries, environmental investigations, local fieldwork, and projects where students compare evidence from more than one knowledge source.

Kaiako use

Use it once students already understand the basic scientific method and are ready to build richer, place-based investigations.

Ākonga use

Students can shape one investigation plan that includes prediction, variables, observation methods, tikanga, and integrated conclusions.

Free experiment template, premium adaptation path

This handout is ready to use as-is. If you want it rewritten for a specific local investigation, taiao issue, or achievement task, Te Wānanga can adapt the prompts while keeping the integrated structure coherent.

  • Swap in your own local species, site, or environmental issue.
  • Generate a scaffolded junior version or a formal senior investigation planner.
  • Save the adapted version and continue working on it in Creation Studio.
Adapt this in Te Wānanga Open Creation Studio Compare paid workflow options

Kaiako planning snapshot

  • Use length: 25-40 minutes for planning, or longer if students are already gathering background evidence.
  • Grouping: Best used in pairs or small investigation groups with teacher conferencing.
  • Prep: Clarify the fieldwork context, equipment, and any cultural or local protocols before students begin planning.
  • Teaching move: Encourage students to see integration as strengthening the investigation, not decorating it.
🔬 Experiment design 🌺 Mātauranga link

Resources already provided

  • Integrated planning template
  • Scientific background and prediction prompts
  • Mātauranga and tikanga considerations
  • Data / observation planning
  • Integrated conclusion prompts
  • Curriculum companion for assessment planning

If the lesson asks for an integrated experiment write-up, this handout already gives the bilingual structure needed to plan it properly.

Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions

  • We are learning how to design an investigation that uses more than one knowledge lens.
  • We are learning how to plan methods, variables, and evidence collection carefully.
  • We are learning how to draw integrated conclusions rather than treating knowledge systems as separate add-ons.

Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria

  • I can explain my research question and why it matters in this place or context.
  • I can show how scientific methods and mātauranga-based observations both contribute to the investigation.
  • I can explain what my evidence suggests and what I would improve next.

Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment

Use the companion page to make the curriculum intent explicit around Nature of Science, inquiry, evidence, and the respectful use of mātauranga Māori within investigation design.

🔬 Nature of Science 🌿 Mātauranga Māori 🧪 Investigation planning

1. Research question

What are you investigating?

2. Background knowledge

Scientific background

What does current science already tell you about this question?

Mātauranga background

What do local knowledge, long-term observation, oral history, or tikanga suggest here?

3. Prediction and planning

Scientific prediction: ________________________________________________

Mātauranga-informed expectation: ____________________________________

Independent variable: ________________________________________________

Dependent variable: ________________________________________________

Controlled variables: ________________________________________________

4. Methods and tikanga

  • Scientific tools / measurements: ____________________________________
  • Observation methods / local indicators: _____________________________
  • Maramataka / seasonal timing: ______________________________________
  • Tikanga or relationship considerations: _____________________________

5. Integrated findings

What did the scientific evidence suggest?

What did the mātauranga-based observations add or challenge?

How do the two together deepen the conclusion?

Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment

Curriculum alignment for this handout has not yet been verified against the live curriculum statements. A generated placeholder that stood here was removed on 2026-08-29 because it matched no real statement.

Aronga Mātauranga Māori

This resource sits within a kaupapa that recognises mātauranga Māori as a living knowledge system with its own frameworks, values, and ways of understanding the world. The New Zealand Curriculum calls for learning that reflects the bicultural partnership of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which means every subject area has an obligation to engage authentically with Māori perspectives — not as cultural decoration but as substantive contributions to how we understand our topics. The concepts of manaakitanga (care for others), kaitiakitanga (guardianship), whanaungatanga (relationship and belonging), and tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) provide a values framework applicable across all learning areas, and all are relevant to the work in this handout.

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.

Curriculum alignment