Tirohanga Whānui | Overview
This lesson establishes two related but different foundations. Science gives ākonga a way to observe and model interactions in an ecosystem. Kaitiakitanga concerns relationships, authority, and obligations to a place; its local meaning cannot be invented from a generic definition. Ākonga record what the class can verify, mark what remains unknown, and collect a first evidence set from an accessible site.
Ngā Whāinga Ako | Learning Intentions
- Distinguish scientific observations from locally authorised guidance about responsibility to a place.
- Sort the parts of an ecosystem into biotic and abiotic.
- Describe how two parts of a local ecosystem affect each other.
Ngā Paearu Angitū | Success Criteria
- I can name the site and identify who must be consulted before the class acts there.
- I can identify at least five components of that ecosystem and label each biotic or abiotic.
- I can describe three interactions between components, using the word "because".
Do Now: Observation or assumption?
8 minsWhat it is: The unit begins with evidence discipline. Ākonga learn that noticing, inferring, and claiming are different moves.
Run it
- Display (1 min): show one photograph of the chosen site, or let ākonga look through a window at the school grounds.
- Sort (4 min): pairs make two columns: what we can observe and what we are assuming. “The grass is short” is an observation; “this place is healthy” is a claim that needs more evidence.
- Harvest (3 min): collect one observation and one unanswered question from three pairs. Keep the questions for the field survey.
Bound: Evidence, authority, and unknowns
8 minsRun it
- Name the boundary (3 min): “Our measurements can show organisms, conditions, and change. They cannot tell us who holds authority here or what local tikanga requires.”
- Source check (3 min): show the class the local source the kura has approved, if one exists: a mana whenua website, kura relationship, rūnanga guidance, or named local knowledge holder. Record the source, not a learner's family connection.
- Unknowns (2 min): if no approved source is available, write local guidance not yet supplied. The class may still complete the ecosystem investigation, but it must not invent iwi history, tohu, mahinga kai knowledge, karakia, or local tikanga.
Build: The words scientists use
15 minsWhat it is: Direct vocabulary teaching. Students need these four words for the rest of the unit, so teach them explicitly and attach each to something in the room or out the window.
Run it
- Define together (5 min): organism (a living thing) · habitat (where it lives) · biotic (living or once-living) · abiotic (never living: water, rock, light, temperature, wind).
- Sort (6 min): pairs list eight things they can see and sort them biotic or abiotic. A dead log is biotic. Soil is a mixture of both, and saying so is a correct answer.
- Interactions (4 min): finish ___ affects ___ because ___. Take three aloud and insist on the causal word.
Map: Our site and permission pathway
10 minsWhat it is: Students locate the ecosystem they will survey and distinguish public location facts from cultural knowledge that requires an authorised source.
Run it
- Locate (3 min): put the site on a map and record the name supplied by the map or the kura's approved local source.
- Permission (4 min): identify who manages access and who must approve any later action. School grounds still have a decision-maker; an awa or reserve may involve several authorities.
- Knowledge status (3 min): mark each local name, history, tohu, or mahinga kai statement as source confirmed, source needed, or not part of this investigation.
Survey: Collect a first evidence set
19 minsRun it
- Set up (4 min): hand out the Kaitiakitanga Field Journal and one Ecosystem Survey Checklist per group. Assign observer, recorder, photographer/sketcher, and access monitor; offer a non-photography role.
- Survey (10 min): at an accessible school-ground site, record at least five biotic or abiotic factors and three possible interactions. Photograph only organisms and conditions, never people, private property, or culturally restricted material.
- Check (5 min): groups circle one observation they trust and one claim that still needs evidence. If an off-site visit is required, use this time to rehearse with photographs and schedule the actual survey between Lessons 1 and 2.
🎯 Curriculum Links
"Biotic factors include living or once-living organisms in the ecosystem."
Science · Ecosystems · Phase 3. Ākonga meet this directly in the biotic/abiotic sort, where a dead log is the argument that makes "once-living" mean something.
📦 Materials & Resources
- Kaitiakitanga Field Journal — one per ākonga, taken to the site and used across all three lessons.
- Ecosystem Survey Checklist — one per group, used during the survey.
- Board or screen for the site photograph and the four key words.
- A map of your rohe (printed or projected) for the mapping activity.
- The kura-approved local source or a visible note that local cultural guidance has not yet been supplied.
📊 Assessment Framework
Formative only. The summative Action Proposal sits at the end of Lesson 3.
- LI 1 (separate evidence, authority, and unknowns) → the exit ticket names one claim supported by the class evidence and one claim that still needs permission or an approved local source.
- LI 2 (sort biotic/abiotic) → the ten-item window sort. Check the hard cases: a dead log, soil, a fence post. Getting soil "wrong" by calling it both is the correct answer.
- LI 3 (describe an interaction) → the "___ affects ___ because ___" sentences. The "because" is the assessed part; without it they have listed, not explained.
🚀 Extension Activities
- Is an introduced possum biotic? (Yes.) Is it part of the ecosystem? That argument previews Lesson 3 and has no tidy answer.
- If the kura has supplied an approved source for the site's Māori name, compare what that source records with the class observations. Otherwise mark the name inquiry source needed.
- Compare the first survey with an approved public historical photograph or council dataset. State what changed, what did not, and what the sources cannot establish.
🔗 Unit Progression
This lesson establishes: the vocabulary (biotic, abiotic, organism, habitat), the site, and the idea that responsibility for a place belongs to specific people.
Hands forward to Lesson 2: ākonga have named components and interactions but not yet traced energy. Lesson 2 turns "these things affect each other" into a food web that can be drawn and tested.
Hands forward to Lesson 3: the exit ticket sentences become the starting claims that field evidence either supports or contradicts.
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Success criteria, mapped to the learning intentions:
- I can name the selected site and identify who manages access or approves action there.
- I can identify at least five components of that ecosystem and label each biotic or abiotic.
- I can describe three interactions between components, using the word "because".
Differentiation for this lesson:
- More support: give the biotic/abiotic sort as a pre-printed card set rather than an open list, plus the "___ affects ___ because ___" stem on a card.
- Extension: the possum question above.
- Language: the four key words with images as a printed word bank. The concepts are not hard here; the labels are.
Timing risk: the mapping activity runs long if the site and access decision-maker have not been selected. Confirm both before the lesson; modelling “local guidance not yet supplied” is better teaching than guessing aloud.