10
Curriculum Connections
1
Learning Area
Phase 4
Curriculum Phase
Each statement below is quoted verbatim from Te Mātaiaho (2025), Science, Phase 4 (Years 9–10), and is listed against the lesson that actually teaches it rather than against the unit as a whole. No paraphrasing, no generated alignment. All ten verified verbatim against the live curriculum corpus, and each checked against the lesson body that carries it, on 2026-08-28.
Two curricula, carried separately. Te Mātaiaho (2025) is in draft. The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum still applies alongside it; this unit sits at NZC Level 5 in the Physical World strand. The two frameworks are never merged into a single claim. Year 10 sits at NZC Level 5, before NCEA — this unit carries no achievement standards.
Lessons 7 and 10 are not listed below. That is deliberate, not an omission waiting to be filled. Seabird range geometry and the capstone voyage are taught in this unit, but a search of the Te Mātaiaho Phase 4 Science statements for animal navigation, adaptation, the senses and investigation practice returned nothing that covers them without stretching its wording. An unlisted lesson is more honest than an invented alignment.
Core connection
“Using evidence such as models, simulations, and visual representations to explore astronomical phenomena (e.g. fusion in stars, planetary motion, origin of the universe) and to illustrate the observational limits of current technologies”Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 4 · Earth and Space Science (Practices)
Where this is taught
- Lesson 1 · Celestial Navigation & Star Compass: all three named forms of evidence are used. Activity 2 submits a model star compass with eight houses named and one star’s rising and setting positions marked, three constellations identified with the date and time observed or simulated, and a latitude estimate worked from star altitude.
Core connection
“Global ocean convection circulates water and stabilises the global climate.”Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 4 · Earth and Space Science (Knowledge)
Where this is taught
- Lesson 5 · Ocean Currents & Coriolis Effect: thermohaline circulation is the lesson — density driven by temperature and salinity. Activity 2 submits density-layering results naming the stronger variable, plus a mapped Pacific gyre showing the South Equatorial and East Australian currents.
Core connection
“Waves are an oscillating disturbance in matter or a field (region of space) that transfers energy but not matter.”Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 4 · Matter Interactions and Energy (Knowledge)
Where this is taught
- Lesson 2 · Ocean Wave Physics & Swells: the wave parameters are the lesson's content — wavelength λ, frequency f, period T and wave speed v = fλ. Activity 2 submits two wave-speed calculations worked from a measured wavelength and frequency, with units.
Core connection
“Mechanical waves transfer energy through matter and include sound and water waves.”Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 4 · Matter Interactions and Energy (Knowledge)
Where this is taught
- Lesson 2 · Ocean Wave Physics & Swells: ocean swell is the worked example of a mechanical wave carrying energy through water. Activity 2 submits a labelled sketch of refraction around an obstacle and an explanation of how two crossing swells can signal land beyond the horizon.
Core connection
“Upthrust determines whether objects float or sink.”Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 4 · Earth and Space Science (Knowledge)
Where this is taught
- Lesson 3 · Waka Hull Hydrodynamics: Archimedes’ principle (Fb = ρVg) and displacement hulls are the lesson. Activity 2 submits displacement volumes and buoyant-force calculations for three hulls.
Core connection
“Friction opposes relative motion across surfaces and through fluids (e.g. air resistance and water resistance are types of friction) (see Year 5 and Year 7, Motion and Forces).”Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 4 · Motion and Forces (Knowledge)
Where this is taught
- Lesson 3 · Waka Hull Hydrodynamics: skin friction and form drag on a hull are taught as fluid friction. Activity 2 submits drag measurements with the towing speed stated.
Core connection
“Predicting, observing, and measuring how resistance forces affect motion of objects (e.g. rockets, fish, swimmers, cars) in different environments (e.g. air, water, surfaces)”Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 4 · Motion and Forces (Practices)
Where this is taught
- Lesson 3 · Waka Hull Hydrodynamics: drag is measured against a stated towing speed — resistance in water.
- Lesson 4 · Sail Aerodynamics & Lift: the same measurement is repeated in air: six force readings across two sails and three angles, with the wind speed stated.
Core connection
“The action of forces on the movement of objects can be described using Newton’s Laws of Motion.”Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 4 · Motion and Forces (Knowledge)
Where this is taught
- Lesson 4 · Sail Aerodynamics & Lift: a scale vector diagram resolves lift and drag into a net driving component.
- Lesson 8 · Dead Reckoning Vector Physics: vector addition gives course over ground from heading, current and leeway, and the twelve-hour reckoned position is worked from d = v × t.
Core connection
“Investigating the behaviour of light interacting with a range of surfaces and objects and making observations of reflection, scattering, absorption, transmittance, and refraction”Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 4 · Matter Interactions and Energy (Practices)
Where this is taught
- Lesson 6 · Atmospheric Light Physics: refraction is investigated directly — three refraction calculations with working, a critical angle, and a gradient-tank beam path sketched to explain why the beam curves rather than kinks.
Core connection
“Electromagnetic waves transfer energy through fields and include visible light; they can travel through a vacuum with a constant speed, the ‘speed of light’ (c).”Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 4 · Matter Interactions and Energy (Knowledge)
Where this is taught
- Lesson 9 · GPS vs Traditional Wayfinding: GPS is the context: satellite signals travelling at the speed of light, trilateration, atomic clocks, and both relativistic corrections with the resulting daily position error.