🧭 Capstone Voyage Rubric
Aromatawai — Navigation Physics, Lesson 10
Ingoa / Student Name: _________________ Rā / Date: _________________
The task being marked
Lesson 10 asks ākonga to complete a simulated ancestral Pacific voyage (for example Taputapuātea to Aotearoa), applying vector mathematics, wave reading and star observation, and to present a navigator's log of the voyage. This rubric marks that log and the reasoning in it.
Kaiako note. The four levels below are this unit's own scale, not a national standard. Year 10 sits at NZC Level 5, before NCEA; nothing here should be reported as an NCEA grade. Use the descriptors to say what to do next, not to rank the class.
Criteria
| Criteria | Beginning (1) | Developing (2) | Proficient (3) | Advanced (4) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plotting the course vectors, dead reckoning (L8) |
States a heading and a distance, but the log does not show how they were worked out. | Adds headings and distances over several legs. Arithmetic slips, or speed, time and distance are not consistently linked. | Resolves each leg into components and combines them correctly. Speed × time = distance is used consistently, and the final position follows from the working. | As Proficient, and accounts for at least one drift factor (current or leeway), showing how it changes the plotted position. |
| Reading the ocean and sky waves, currents, stars, refraction, seabirds (L1, L2, L5, L6, L7) |
Names one or two signs a navigator might use. | Uses several signs, but treats them as separate facts rather than evidence about where the waka is. | Uses at least three independent signs — for example a star bearing, a swell direction and a bird sighting — and says what each one tells the navigator. | As Proficient, and reasons about disagreement: what to trust when two signs point different ways, and why. |
| Physics of the waka hull and sail (L3, L4) |
Mentions that the hull floats or the sail catches wind. | Describes buoyancy or lift in general terms, without connecting it to a decision made on the voyage. | Explains a design or sailing decision using buoyancy or aerofoil lift, with the physics stated correctly. | As Proficient, and weighs a trade-off — for example hull shape against load, or sail angle against speed made good. |
| The log as communication evidence and reasoning (L9, L10) |
A list of events with little reasoning. | Records decisions, but a reader cannot always tell what evidence produced them. | Each significant decision is traceable: the observation, the reasoning, the action. Units and quantities are stated. | As Proficient, and is honest about uncertainty — where the position is least reliable, and what would have been checked next. |
| Two knowledge systems, held accurately whole unit |
Refers to traditional navigation only as background colour. | Describes traditional and modern methods separately. | Shows where a traditional technique and a physics explanation describe the same phenomenon, and represents both accurately. | As Proficient, and is precise about what each system is for — without claiming one is a primitive version of the other. |
Kaiako feedback
What the log does well:
One thing to strengthen next: