Unit 3, Lesson 5: Community Science Projects
Environmental Leadership and Community Engagement
Students synthesize their learning by designing and implementation community science projects that demonstrate environmental leadership, combining mātauranga Māori and modern STEM to address real community needs.
Lesson Overview
Duration
90 minutes (double period)
Year Level
Years 0–3
Curriculum Areas
Science, Social Sciences, Te Reo Māori, Leadership
Karakia & Cultural Opening (5 minutes)
Opening Karakia
"Kia ū ki tō whainga
Kia mahi tahi tātou
Hei whakangāwari te taiao
Mō ngā uri whakatipu"
Hold fast to your purpose
Let us work together
To heal the environment
For the generations growing up
Stepping Into Leadership
Today we transition from learners to leaders, from observers to agents of change. We carry with us the integrated knowledge of our four previous lessons - dual knowledge systems, kaitiakitanga practices, cultural mathematics, and innovative technology. Now we put this knowledge into action for our community.
Ngā Whāinga Ako - Learning Objectives
Knowledge & Understanding
- Synthesize integrated STEM and mātauranga Māori knowledge for community action
- Understand environmental leadership as cultural responsibility
- Recognize effective community engagement strategies
- Connect individual action to systemic environmental change
- Evaluate project impact using multiple measures of success
Skills & Application
- Design and implement community science projects
- Engage respectfully with community members and stakeholders
- Communicate scientific findings to diverse audiences
- Lead collaborative teams for environmental action
- Advocate effectively for environmental and community needs
Hook Activity: Environmental Leadership Gallery Walk (10 minutes)
Rangatahi Leaders Making Change
Gallery Walk: Explore these examples of young environmental leaders who combined traditional knowledge with modern science to create community change:
Greta Thunberg
Challenge: Climate change action
Approach: Used scientific data and traditional sustainable values to mobilize global youth climate movement
Autumn Peltier
Challenge: Water protection advocacy
Approach: Combined Indigenous water knowledge with scientific water quality monitoring to advocate for clean water rights
Local Rangatahi
Challenge: [Your community issue here]
Approach: What will YOU do to combine mātauranga Māori with modern science for community change?
Leadership Reflection
- What common elements do you see in effective youth environmental leadership?
- How do these leaders combine different types of knowledge and action?
- What environmental issue in your community needs young leaders like you?
- What unique contributions could you make as a leader with integrated STEM and mātauranga Māori knowledge?
Environmental Leadership Principles (15 minutes)
Rangatira: Leadership with Purpose
Environmental leadership from a mātauranga Māori perspective is about rangatira - leading with mana, responsibility, and service to others. It combines the confidence of scientific knowledge with the humility of cultural wisdom.
Cultural Leadership Values
- Aroha: Leading with love and compassion for all beings
- Manaakitanga: Caring for and supporting community members
- Kōtahitanga: Building unity and working collaboratively
- Whakatōhea: Listening deeply before acting
- Tika: Doing what is right, even when it's difficult
Scientific Leadership Skills
- Evidence-Based Advocacy: Using data to support arguments
- Systems Thinking: Understanding complex interconnections
- Problem-Solving: Breaking challenges into manageable steps
- Communication: Translating science for diverse audiences
- Innovation: Creating new solutions to persistent problems
Integrated Leadership Approach
- Respectful Science: Applying STEM knowledge within cultural protocols
- Community-Centered: Ensuring communities lead their own solutions
- Sustainable Action: Planning for long-term positive impact
- Inclusive Engagement: Bringing diverse voices into environmental action
- Adaptive Learning: Continuously improving based on feedback
Leadership Self-Assessment
Reflect on your strengths and growth areas across these leadership dimensions. Where do you already show leadership? Where would you like to develop? How can your unique combination of cultural knowledge and scientific understanding contribute to environmental leadership?
Future Tech for Community Science
High-Tech Kaitiakitanga
Modern community science isn't just about CLIPboards; it's about using cutting-edge tools to enhance our ability to protect the environment.
AI & Data
- Cacophony Project: Using AI to identify predators from thermal video footage.
- BirdNET: AI audio analysis to identify bird calls in the forest.
- Data Sovereignty: Using blockchain to ensure iwi retain ownership of environmental data.
Biotech & Genetics
- eDNA (Environmental DNA): Testing water samples to find every species living in a stream.
- Genomic Whakapapa: Tracing the genetic ancestry of kiwi populations to manage breeding.
Community Science Project Planning (25 minutes)
From Learning to Leading: Your Community Project
Working in teams, design a community science project that demonstrates your integrated learning from this unit. Your project should address a real environmental issue using both mātauranga Māori and modern STEM approaches.
Project Requirements
- Real Community Need: Addresses an actual environmental issue in your area
- Dual Knowledge Integration: Combines traditional knowledge with modern science
- Community Engagement: Involves community members as partners, not just recipients
- Measurable Impact: Includes ways to measure success and learning
- Sustainable Approach: Designed for ongoing community ownership
Project Ideas
- Stream Health Monitoring: Community-based water quality assessment program
- Native Species Recovery: Habitat restoration using traditional and scientific methods
- Community Gardens: Sustainable food production with cultural crop varieties
- Waste Reduction Initiative: Innovative recycling/upcycling systems
- Renewable Energy Project: Community-scale sustainable energy solutions
- Climate Action Campaign: Data-driven advocacy for local climate initiatives
Project Planning Framework
Use this framework to develop your project:
- Community Connection: What specific environmental issue affects your community?
- Knowledge Integration: What traditional knowledge and scientific methods will you combine?
- Community Partners: Who will you work with? How will you engage them respectfully?
- Action Plan: What specific steps will you take? What resources do you need?
- Impact Measurement: How will you know if your project is successful?
Community Engagement Strategy (20 minutes)
Building Relationships for Change
Effective community science projects are built on strong relationships and respectful engagement. Plan how you'll connect with community members, stakeholders, and potential collaborators.
Community Stakeholders
- Kaumātua & Cultural Leaders: Traditional knowledge holders
- Local Families: Community members affected by the issue
- Environmental Groups: Organizations working on similar issues
- Local Council: Government decision-makers
- Scientists & Experts: Technical knowledge supporters
Engagement Approaches
- Listening First: Understand community perspectives before proposing solutions
- Cultural Protocols: Follow appropriate cultural practices for engagement
- Collaborative Planning: Include community in project design
- Accessible Communication: Share information in ways everyone can understand
- Regular Updates: Keep community informed of progress and learnings
Engagement Tools
- Community Hui: Face-to-face meetings and discussions
- Surveys & Interviews: Gathering community input and knowledge
- Social Media: Sharing updates and engaging broader community
- Presentations: Sharing findings at community events
- Workshops: Hands-on learning experiences for community
Engagement Planning Activity
For your project, identify:
- Who are the key community stakeholders you need to engage?
- What cultural protocols and respectful practices will guide your engagement?
- How will you ensure community voices are heard and valued in your project?
- What engagement methods are most appropriate for your community and issue?
- How will you maintain ongoing relationships beyond your initial project?
Action Implementation & Next Steps (15 minutes)
From Plan to Action
Now develop concrete next steps for implementing your community science project. Create a realistic timeline and identify resources and support you'll need.
Implementation Timeline
- Week 1-2: Initial community outreach and relationship building
- Week 3-4: Data collection and traditional knowledge gathering
- Week 5-6: Analysis and synthesis of findings
- Week 7-8: Solution development and community feedback
- Week 9-10: Implementation of initial actions
- Ongoing: Monitoring, evaluation, and community-led continuation
Resources & Support
- Adult Mentors: Teachers, community leaders, scientists
- Funding Sources: School resources, community grants, fundraising
- Technical Support: Equipment, technology, expert advice
- Community Partnerships: Local organizations and groups
- Communication Platforms: Ways to share progress and findings
- Cultural Guidance: Ensuring cultural appropriateness throughout
Action Commitment
Each team member commits to specific actions:
- What is your first step after this lesson? When will you take it?
- What specific role will you play in the team project?
- How will you apply your integrated STEM and mātauranga Māori knowledge?
- What support do you need from teachers, whānau, or community?
- How will you measure success and share your learning?
Whakaata - Reflection & Assessment (10 minutes)
Leadership & Learning Synthesis
Complete this final reflection to synthesize your learning from the entire unit and demonstrate your readiness for environmental leadership:
- Unit Integration: Explain how your community science project demonstrates integrated learning from all five lessons of this unit. How do you see connections between dual knowledge systems, kaitiakitanga, cultural mathematics, innovation, and community leadership?
- Leadership Development: Describe how your understanding of environmental leadership has developed throughout this unit. What does it mean to be a rangatira for environmental change in your community?
- Cultural Responsibility: How will you ensure your community science project honors and advances mātauranga Māori while contributing to scientific understanding? What protocols and practices will guide your work?
- Community Impact: What specific positive changes do you hope your project will create in your community? How will you know if you're making a difference?
- Future Commitment: How has this unit changed your understanding of your role as a young person in addressing environmental challenges? What is your long-term commitment to environmental leadership?
Assessment Criteria
- Knowledge Synthesis: Effectively integrates learning from all unit lessons
- Leadership Vision: Demonstrates clear understanding of environmental leadership principles
- Cultural Integration: Shows deep respect for and application of mātauranga Māori
- Project Design: Creates realistic, impactful community science projects
- Community Engagement: Plans respectful and inclusive community partnerships
- Commitment to Action: Shows genuine commitment to ongoing environmental leadership
Extension Activities
Long-term Project Implementation
Continue your community science project throughout the year, documenting progress and impact. Present findings at local science fairs or community events.
Youth Climate Leadership
Join or establish youth climate action groups in your community. Use your integrated knowledge to contribute to broader environmental movements.
Mentorship Program
Establish mentorship relationships with younger students, teaching them about integrated environmental science and leadership.
Policy Advocacy
Use your project findings to advocate for policy changes at local or regional levels. Engage with local government and decision-makers.
Whakakapi - Closing Reflection
"He kai kei a koe, he kai kei ahau" - You have food, I have food. Today we have learned that we each carry unique knowledge and gifts that can nourish our community and heal our environment. Together, our diverse knowledge creates abundance.
As we complete this unit, we step forward as environmental leaders equipped with both the wisdom of our tīpuna and the tools of modern science. We carry the responsibility to use this integrated knowledge not for personal gain, but for the wellbeing of our community and our planet.
The real test of our learning begins now - in how we apply this knowledge in our daily lives, how we engage with our communities, and how we lead with aroha and integrity toward a sustainable future.
Kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui - be strong, be brave, be steadfast!
🎬 Media Anchor
Use this clip to evaluate how community projects build momentum through collective action and communication.
- Pause and discuss: What collaboration move in the clip is most transferable to your project plan?
- Transfer task: Add one partnership or outreach strategy to your implementation timeline.
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will engage with this resource to explore the intersection of STEM disciplines and mātauranga Māori — understanding how Indigenous knowledge systems and Western science share complementary ways of knowing the world.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can identify connections between mātauranga Māori and STEM concepts in this resource.
- ✅ Students can explain how dual knowledge systems strengthen understanding of natural phenomena.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide concept maps or sentence frames to scaffold access for students at the entry level. Offer extension tasks exploring specific mātauranga Māori knowledge domains (e.g., tohu āhua rangi, rongoā, whakapapa o te taiao) in greater depth.
ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach key vocabulary in both te reo Māori and English — including domain-specific STEM terms. Bilingual glossaries and visual anchors support comprehension. Allow students to demonstrate understanding in their preferred language.
Inclusion: Tasks are designed for a range of readiness levels. Neurodiverse learners benefit from structured, chunked activities with clear success criteria. Use hands-on, inquiry-based formats where possible. Affirm the value of different ways of knowing.
Mātauranga Māori lens: Mātauranga Māori encompasses astronomy, ecology, navigation, agriculture, and medicine — systems of knowledge developed over centuries. This unit treats mātauranga Māori as epistemically equal to Western science, not supplementary. Bring kaitiakitanga as a guiding ethic: knowledge is held in relationship, not extracted.
Prior knowledge: Students benefit from baseline understanding of the relevant STEM domain. No specialist te reo Māori knowledge required — glossaries provided. Best used after introductory lessons or as a standalone exploration.
Curriculum alignment
- Nature of Science — Knowledge: Science is a way of investigating, understanding, and explaining our natural, physical world; mātauranga Māori offers complementary systems of knowledge that enrich scientific understanding.
- Identity, Culture, and Organisation: Understand how different knowledge systems — including mātauranga Māori — shape how communities relate to the natural world.