📚 Unit Plans → 📜 Unit 9: Environmental Mātauranga → 📖 Week 6: Action Implementation
Years 7–8 Pūtaiao / Science

Unit 9: Environmental Mātauranga — Protecting Our Taiao

"How Do We Fix What's Broken in Our Environment?" — A 6-week journey where students use both mātauranga Māori and modern science to take real action on local environmental problems.

UOverview
1Environmental Detective
2Water Health Check
3Biodiversity Count
4Climate Data Analysis
5Solution Testing
6Action Implementation
Unit 9 · Rā Mahi / Action Day

🌿 Action Implementation — Making Real Change

Five weeks of investigation, data, and planning have led here. Today students go out and do it — implement their environmental solution, document the process, measure early impact, and close the loop with reflection and community.

⚠️ Half-day event · 3–4 hours — not a standard classroom period. For a 1-period alternative focused on unit assessment, use the single-period version →

Focus Question

How can we turn our environmental investigation into real, measurable action that honours both Mātauranga Māori and scientific evidence?

📚 Curriculum Links

  • Science: Environmental monitoring, data collection, impact measurement
  • Mathematics: Statistical analysis, percentage calculations, graph creation
  • Social Studies: Community action, kaitiakitanga in practice
  • Mātauranga Māori: Mātauranga o te taiao, tikanga in environmental work

🎯 Learning Intentions

  • Implement an environmental solution using both Mātauranga Māori and scientific approaches
  • Document the process thoroughly — photos, measurements, reflections
  • Collect "after" data using the same baseline methods from Week 1
  • Engage whānau and community members meaningfully in the mahi

✅ Success Criteria

  • I can carry out our solution with proper tikanga and safety protocols
  • I can document the process so others could understand what we did and why
  • I can collect early impact data and compare it to our Week 1 baseline
  • I can explain how Mātauranga Māori shaped our approach

🗣️ Kupu / Vocabulary

  • tūāhua / implementation, pānga / impact
  • arotake / evaluation, kaitiakitanga / guardianship
  • baseline, evidence, tohu / indicator

📅 Action Day Schedule

20 min
Karakia Timatanga & Briefing Opening · safety check · role assignments · video
90–120 min
Environmental Action Implementation The mahi — working with community, with documentation running throughout
30 min
Impact Measurement Collect "after" data · compare to Week 1 baseline
20 min
Whakaaro / Reflection Circle Group debrief — what changed? who helped? what's next?
10 min
Whakakapi — Closing Karakia whakamutunga · acknowledge the mahi done

Ngā Mahi — Action Day Programme

1

Karakia Timatanga & Team Briefing

20 min

Open the day properly, check everyone is ready, and set the context before going outside.

  • Karakia timatanga — open with a karakia that acknowledges the taiao (environment) you're about to work in
  • Safety check — review protocols, site permissions, first aid location, adult supervision roles
  • Role assignments — photographer, data recorder, community liaison, timekeeper
  • Watch together (8 min): Collective Climate Action and Education

After watching — quick discussion:

1

What is the one most likely barrier to your project today, and what is your plan if it happens?

2

Which success metric will best show your action made a real difference?

2

Environmental Action Implementation

90–120 min

Students carry out their environmental intervention at the site, with documentation running throughout.

  • Start on-site: Photograph the "before" state — this goes into your comparison portfolio
  • Implement your solution: Follow the action plan your group prepared in Week 5
  • Document as you go: Take photos every 15–30 minutes; your recorder notes what's happening and why
  • Apply Mātauranga Māori: Where tikanga, local ecological knowledge, or kaumātua guidance informed the approach, name it explicitly in your notes
  • Community involvement: Welcome whānau, teachers, or community members who come to help — invite them to share what they know about the site
How does what we're doing right now connect to the Mātauranga Māori we learned from kaumātua, and the patterns in the NIWA data?
3

Initial Impact Measurement

30 min

Back inside, collect your first "after" data using the same methods from Week 1 — so the comparison is valid.

  • Use your Measurement Planning Template from Week 1 — same tools, same locations, same method
  • Quantitative: Counts, measurements, percentages — record in the same format as your baseline
  • Qualitative: What do you observe that doesn't show up in numbers? What tohu / indicators do you notice?
  • Quick comparison graph: Plot today's reading against your Week 1 baseline — even a simple before/after chart tells a story
💡 Week 4 connection: The statistical skills from NIWA Climate Data Analysis apply directly here — averages, percentage change, graph creation.
4

Whakaaro / Reflection Circle

20 min

Sit in a circle. Each person shares one observation. Teacher facilitates — no hands up, just voices.

  • What did we actually change today? (be specific — not "we helped the environment" but "we removed 3kg of invasive species from the stream bank")
  • Who helped? Name them. How did their knowledge — especially Mātauranga Māori — shape what we did?
  • What surprised you?
  • What does kaitiakitanga feel like when you're actually doing it — not just reading about it?
  • What needs to happen to make sure this lasts?
5

Whakakapi — Closing & Next Steps

10 min

Close the day properly before leaving the site or classroom.

  • Karakia whakamutunga — acknowledge what was done, give thanks to the taiao and the community
  • Assign ongoing roles: Who will monitor the site next week? Next month?
  • Set a reminder: When will you collect the next round of data to compare against today's baseline?
  • Share the story: Consider how you'll communicate what you did — school newsletter, community board, social media

💡 Differentiation

Tautoko / Lower Support

Provide structured templates for documentation, pair students for implementation, offer step-by-step checklists, work in larger groups.

Whakaara / Extension

Design solutions addressing multiple environmental problems, create systems for other schools/communities, develop policy proposals, measure long-term impact over months.

Hononga Ahurea / Cultural Connection

Ensure proper tikanga protocols are followed, invite kaumātua to observe/guide implementation, connect actions to specific iwi/hapū environmental practices.

⚠️ Assessment note: This week's work directly feeds into the summative assessment. Students should have clear documentation, measurements, and reflections ready for their final presentation.
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot Kaiako / Teacher

Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions

Students will explore how mātauranga Māori and Western science offer complementary frameworks for understanding and responding to environmental challenges — learning to read landscapes, ecosystems, and ecological change through both lenses.

Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria

  • Students can explain how mātauranga Māori environmental knowledge provides insights that Western science alone may miss.
  • Students can apply both frameworks to analyse a local environmental issue in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Mātauranga Māori Lens

Mātauranga Māori environmental knowledge is not folklore — it is centuries of systematic observation, classification, and adaptive management. Ngā tohu o te rangi, ngā tohu o te taiao, and the ecological knowledge encoded in place names all represent sophisticated environmental science. Kaitiakitanga is a dynamic, relational ethic — humans as part of ecosystems, not separate from them.

Differentiation & Inclusion

Scaffold support: Provide dual-lens frameworks (mātauranga Māori | Western science) for entry-level tasks. Extension: investigate a real environmental monitoring programme integrating both knowledge systems — e.g., iwi-led water quality monitoring.

ELL / ESOL: Visual glossaries with images of local species and environments. Allow students to draw on environmental observations from their own contexts. Oral field observation is a powerful low-barrier entry point.

Inclusion: Field-based learning supports diverse learners — sensory, kinaesthetic, and place-based engagement. Ensure physical accessibility for field components. Create genuine space for indigenous and Pacific students' whānau knowledge to be honoured.

Prior knowledge: Foundational understanding of ecosystems is helpful but not required — the unit builds this through inquiry.

Hononga Marautanga — Curriculum Alignment

  • Ecology — Living World: Understand how biotic and abiotic factors in ecosystems affect the distribution and abundance of organisms; and how changes in one part can affect the balance and wellbeing of the whole system.
  • Place and Environment — Social Studies: Understand how people's management of resources reflects their values — and how mātauranga Māori provides a framework for kaitiaki responsibilities to the natural world.