Lesson at a Glance | He Tirohanga Whakamua
Ngā Whāinga Ako | Learning Intentions
Students will know
- How mātauranga Māori and whakataukī provide functional principles for Aotearoa technology design.
- The difference between decorative tokenism and non-negotiable engineering specifications.
- How kaitiakitanga specifications ensure conceptual outcomes protect whenua, wai, and local hapū interests.
Students will demonstrate
- By formulating 2 binding Kaitiakitanga Specifications for their Level 1 Digital Technology brief.
- By completing Portfolio Section 4: Kaitiakitanga Specifications.
Do Now | Tīmatanga Whakaaro (10 min)
Whakataukī Analysis Prompt:
"Toitū te whenua, whatungarongaro te tangata" (The land remains, while people come and go).
Unpack: Human technologies are short-lived, but their material pollution lasts for centuries. A technologist operating under this whakataukī must ensure their design leaves the whenua in better condition than they found it. How does this change your choice of enclosure materials or battery chemistry?
3 Tikanga Values as Engineering Specifications (15 min)
🌿 1. Kaitiakitanga (Guardianship)
Technical Specification: Zero hazardous heavy metals; 100% material recovery plan included in the conceptual design documentation.
🤝 2. Manaakitanga (Generosity & Care)
Technical Specification: Accessibility-first UI/UX; open physical enclosure dimensions allowing community repair with basic tools.
💎 3. Taonga Tuku Iho (Intergenerational Legacy)
Technical Specification: Modular component architecture ensuring a minimum 10-year functional service life with zero planned obsolescence.
Specification Writing: Two Binding Kaitiakitanga Specifications (15 min)
The three values above are the reasoning. A specification is what the reasoning has to become before it can constrain anything. This stage produces the two that go into Section 4.
1. Choose two, not three (3 min)
Binding means you will reject your own favourite concept if it fails this. Two specifications a student will actually enforce beat three they will quietly drop at the first inconvenience — and the difference between those is exactly the difference between a value used as decoration and a value used as an engineering constraint.
2. Write each as a testable sentence (8 min)
Three parts: what must be true, how it is measured, and who can check it. "Respects the awa" fails all three. "Any material entering the awa catchment must be identifiable and separable by hand, checked by a classmate against the materials list" passes all three.
The test students apply to their own writing: could a classmate mark this pass or fail without asking me what I meant? If they would have to ask, it is not a specification yet.
3. Trade and mark (4 min)
Swap with a partner. Each marks the other's two specifications testable or not testable, with one sentence saying why. Rewrite anything marked not testable before it goes into Section 4.
These two specifications are used as elimination criteria in Lesson 5, so a specification that cannot be tested cannot eliminate anything, and the work of this lesson quietly disappears.
📁 Conceptual Design Portfolio — Section 4: Kaitiakitanga Specifications
Students open their Level 1 Digital Technology Portfolio and complete Section 4:
Section 4 Requirements:
1. Whakataukī Alignment Statement: Explain how your conceptual design honours kaitiakitanga and long-term land stewardship.
2. 2 Binding Cultural Specifications: Write 2 testable, non-negotiable rules for your design brief based on tikanga Māori values.
3. Verification Plan: Describe how you will test whether your final conceptual design meets these 2 specifications.
Exit Verification | Ka Mutu Hoki (5 min)
Exit Ticket:
"My binding kaitiakitanga specification: 'The conceptual outcome MUST [Technical rule] because kaitiakitanga requires [Cultural rationale].'"
Teacher Planning & NCEA Alignment
NCEA Level 1 Digital Technologies Alignment (6 Credits):
- Excellence Criteria: Integrate authentic societal, cultural, and environmental constraints into brief specifications.
- Nature of Technology: Demonstrate how mātauranga Māori and tikanga shape sustainable technological practice in Aotearoa.
Vocabulary: Kaitiakitanga, manaakitanga, taonga tuku iho, whakataukī, binding specification, non-negotiable constraint.