Lesson 5.1: Guided Inquiry Project Launch - Design Your Society
Culminating Project: Research, Plan and Design a New Society
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
- Understand the scope and requirements of the Design Your Society inquiry project.
- Form a collaborative group and establish roles using tikanga-based protocols.
- Connect the learning from Units 1–4 (systems, governance, Treaty, colonisation) to your society design.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
By the end of this lesson, I can:
- ✅ Explain the design challenge: create a society using systems thinking principles.
- ✅ Form a group and begin to identify the key systems our society will need.
- ✅ Connect the learning from Lessons 1–4 to my society design.
🚀 Project Launch
The Challenge: Design Your Ideal Society
Working in groups of 4-5, you will research, plan, and design a completely new society that addresses the challenges we've studied throughout this unit. Your society must integrate the indigenous governance principles and decolonized thinking we've explored.
This is a 5-week guided inquiry project where you'll work collaboratively to create a comprehensive society design that serves the collective good and honors cultural wisdom.
📋 Complete Teacher Framework
Comprehensive 5-week structured guide with detailed week-by-week progression, assessment rubrics, and cultural integration support.
Access Teacher Framework🛠️ Interactive Design Tool
Step-by-step digital tool for students to design their society with interactive forms, progress tracking, and downloadable plans.
Launch Design Tool📅 Project Timeline (5 Weeks)
Week 1: Research & Vision
Groups research existing societies, identify challenges, and develop their vision using cultural principles. Establish collaboration protocols.
Week 2-3: System Design
Design governance, economy, rights, culture, and environment systems. Apply indigenous principles and address real-world challenges.
Week 4: Refinement
Test systems for consistency, gather feedback, address potential issues, and prepare presentation materials.
Week 5: Presentation
Present society designs to community, defend design choices, and reflect on learning about systems and governance.
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Materials & Resources
Society design assessment rubric (resources/society-design-assessment-rubric.html), collaboration framework (resources/society-design-collaboration-framework.html), design template.
Timing Overview
75 minutes: 10 min launch and challenge overview, 15 min group formation and roles, 30 min initial society brainstorm, 15 min group share-back, 5 min next steps.
Prior Knowledge & Scaffolding
All previous lessons (1.1–4.2) — societal pillars, systems concepts, governance, civic participation, Treaty, colonisation.
Differentiation: Offer scaffold tasks and extension activities for different readiness levels. Include entry-level support. Provide sentence starters for ELL students. Extend confident learners by asking them to find a real-world example beyond the lesson activities.
🎥 Media Anchor (8 mins)
Video: Māori Systems: Kaitiakitanga
- Which design principle from the video should anchor your inquiry project from day one?
- How will your team keep cultural integrity visible in each design decision?
Curriculum alignment
- Do: Explore perspectives, use evidence to form conclusions, and share ideas: Compare systems, map decisions, present new solutions.
- Earth Systems — Knowledge: Carbon cycles throughout the environment.
- Understand: Systems shape how people and groups organise themselves: Rights, responsibilities, power, fairness.
- Know: How different systems function in Aotearoa and globally, including iwi, local and national governments: Local government, Māori leadership, democracy, dictatorship.
- Ecosystems — Knowledge: Marama Muru-Lanning (Contemporary) explores mātauranga Māori as environmental knowledge, linking Indigenous perspectives to ecological science.