Rainfall Graph Analysis
Unit 10 · Week 6 · Kai, Culture and Climate — Surviving Scarcity
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga · Learning Intentions
- Read and interpret rainfall graph data for the Waikato region using NIWA sources
- Identify trends, anomalies, and extreme events from climate data
- Connect rainfall patterns to food production and scarcity outcomes
- Use 2024 NIWA data to evaluate the impact of climate extremes on kai systems
Paearu Angitu · Success Criteria
- I can describe the main trend in my rainfall data in one clear sentence
- I can identify which regions experienced drought and which experienced flooding in 2024
- I can explain how extreme rainfall (too much or too little) affects food production
- I can connect this data to Unit 10's Big Question: "What Will We Eat Tomorrow?"
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Level 4: read and interpret data; describe trends and anomalies; connect statistical findings to real-world contexts.
Investigate how climate systems affect food systems and ecosystems; understand human and ecological vulnerability to climate change.
Raraunga NIWA 2024 · Key Climate Findings
| Finding | Detail | Food production implication |
|---|---|---|
| NZ 10th warmest year on record | 0.51°C above average | |
| Dargaville (Northland) | Driest year on record | |
| Whitianga (Coromandel) | Driest year on record | |
| Lumsden (Southland) | Wettest year since 1982 | |
| Drought declarations | Northland, Taranaki, Wairarapa, Marlborough, Nelson + others | |
| State of emergency ×4 | Westland (Jan & Nov), Wairoa (June), Dunedin/Clutha (Oct) |
Fill in the "Food production implication" column for at least 3 rows. Consider: what happens to crops, livestock, and food supply under these conditions?
Kauwhata 1 · Annual Rainfall — Waikato Region
Research the Waikato region's annual rainfall data using NIWA CliFlo (cliflo.niwa.co.nz) or your teacher-provided dataset. Record 6–8 years of data and plot a line graph.
| Year | Annual rainfall (mm) | Above/below/near normal? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
1. Is there a trend in your data — increasing, decreasing, or stable rainfall? Describe it in one sentence using specific numbers.
2. Identify any anomaly years. What might explain the unusual value that year?
Kauwhata 2 · Patterns, Extremes, and Food
1. In 2024, which regions of NZ had the highest rainfall (flood risk)? Which had the lowest (drought risk)?
2. How does high rainfall (flooding) affect food production in the Waikato? Be specific — what crops, what timing, what infrastructure?
3. How does low rainfall (drought) affect food production? Who is most affected?
4. NIWA reports that 8 of NZ's 10 warmest years have occurred since 2013. What does this trend mean for food production and scarcity in the future?
Whakamārama Whakamutunga · Final Analysis
2024 had both extreme droughts AND extreme floods. Using specific data from NIWA and your graph, explain how these extremes together affected food production — and what this means for the question: "What Will We Eat Tomorrow?"
If you were presenting this data to a local rūnanga or regional council, what would your key recommendation be?
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
Rainfall has always been central to Māori food systems. The cultivation of kūmara, the timing of eel harvests in the awa, the gathering of watercress from streams — all were governed by seasonal rainfall patterns embedded in Maramataka. When those patterns shift, the traditional knowledge systems built around them must adapt. NIWA's long-term rainfall records often begin in the late 1800s, but Māori observation of rainfall patterns extends back many centuries, embedded in place names, oral traditions, and cultivation practice.
Today, many iwi environmental units use rainfall monitoring as part of integrated freshwater assessments — combining NIWA data with traditional observation to understand change over a timescale that no single scientific instrument can capture.
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
Resources already provided:
- This handout with NIWA data summary and graph spaces
- NIWA CliFlo database (cliflo.niwa.co.nz) — free access for NZ climate data
- NIWA Annual Climate Summary 2024 (available at niwa.co.nz)
- Unit 10 food systems diagram (distributed Week 1)
Aronga Rerekē · Differentiated Pathways
Tīmata · Entry Level
Use the teacher-provided 5-year dataset. Plot the line graph. Answer analysis questions 1 and 2. Complete the Final Analysis with one paragraph.
Paerewa · On Level
Research your own Waikato data from NIWA CliFlo. Complete the full rainfall table and graph. Answer all analysis questions with specific data references.
Tūāpae · Extension
Complete all sections. Compare Waikato rainfall with Dargaville and Lumsden (one drought region, one flood region). Calculate percentage difference from normal for each. Write a paragraph arguing whether 2024 represents a temporary extreme or the beginning of a new normal for NZ rainfall, citing at least two pieces of NIWA data.
📋 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.