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Kai, Culture and Climate — Curriculum Alignment

A transparent statement-to-lesson map for this Phase 3 (Years 7–8) unit

Core Alignment

Social Sciences (Ngā Mahinga Ohaoha)

plu_code: SocialSciencesPhase3EconomicAc40
The economy is made up of different sectors: the primary sector involves getting raw materials, such as fishing, farming, and mining; the secondary sector involves manufacturing goods; the tertiary sector involves providing services, such as retail, education, and healthcare.

How it is taught

Students explore the global and local food production sectors. They contrast traditional agricultural practices (kūmara cultivation) with monoculture export cash crops (wheat/potatoes) and globalized commodity networks (rice trade).

Core Alignment

Social Sciences (Ngā Mahinga Ohaoha)

plu_code: SocialSciencesPhase3EconomicAc3
Personal budgets help people prioritise spending and make informed money decisions.

How it is taught

Students build personal and household food budget pie charts, analysing the trade-offs families must make under conditions of rising prices and limited resources.

Strong Connection

Social Sciences (Ngā Mahinga Ohaoha)

plu_code: SocialSciencesPhase3EconomicAc68
People use various strategies to make informed money decisions (e.g. gathering information and comparing prices to consider value for money, budgeting, recording expenses, setting savings goals, considering which product best meets their wants, considering the ethics of the product).

How it is taught

During the Lesson 5 roleplays and budgeting exercises, students simulate consumer choices under scarcity, identifying opportunity costs and evaluating food security versus personal wants.

Strong Connection

Aotearoa New Zealand's Histories (Do)

plu_code: AotearoaNewZealandsHistoriesPhase3Do7
I can construct a narrative of cause and effect that shows relationships between events. By comparing examples over time, I can identify continuity or changes in the relationships. I can recognise that others might interpret these relationships differently.

How it is taught

Students construct and test a cause-and-effect account of the Irish Potato Famine. They distinguish crop failure from the economic and political choices that shaped access to food, compare perspectives, and identify how interpretations of responsibility differ.

Supporting Connection

Technology (Biotechnology)

plu_code: TechnologyPhase3DesignMake104
Processing methods can be evaluated for nutritional value, their alignment with cultural practices and values (cultural connectedness), and their potential for innovation.

How it is taught

Students study kūmara cultivation and the innovation of rua kūmara (storage pits) as traditional biotechnology, reflecting on how technological preservation methods are aligned to seasonal values.

Aligned Lessons:

Kaiako planning

Kaiako planning snapshot

Source-status note: the active curriculum corpus was unavailable during this audit. Every marked quotation above was byte-checked against a recovered Ministry curriculum source; the quoted wording is evidence, while the alignment judgement remains a transparent teacher decision.

Learning Intentions

Success Criteria

Entry, on-level, and extension

Entry: use labelled supply-chain diagrams, vocabulary cards, oral rehearsal, and one worked source. On-level: require a claim–evidence–reasoning paragraph plus a mapped system. Extension: compare two food systems or test how the outcome changes under a different climate, price, or policy condition.

Inclusion and neurodiversity

Discuss food insecurity without asking learners to disclose household circumstances. Offer chunked research checkpoints, predictable templates, read-aloud or audio access, low-distraction work options, and equivalent oral, visual, or written ways to show reasoning.

Mātauranga Māori lens

Teach kūmara cultivation, rua kūmara, kaitiakitanga, and food sovereignty as knowledge systems grounded in relationships among whenua, whakapapa, climate, collective responsibility, and authority. Follow local mana whenua guidance for local histories and māhinga kai; do not ask Māori students to speak for all Māori or treat cultural knowledge as free classroom content.