Unit 9: Environmental Mātauranga — Protecting Our Taiao

Te Mātaiaho (2025) Science — Ecosystems and Earth Systems (cross-curricular: Maths & Statistics, Social Sciences)

"Indigenous knowledge systems, such as mātauranga Māori, are often founded on long-term observations of environmental patterns. For example, ngā tohu o te taiao can be used to monitor seasonal changes and ecosystem health."

Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 4 (Years 9–10) · Ecosystems

"Applying understanding of carbon movement to real-world contexts (e.g. climate change mitigation, land use planning, energy choices), using evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of different strategies"

Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 4 (Years 9–10) · Earth Systems

"Evaluating ways humans can positively impact ecosystems and communicating actions that support kaitiakitanga (e.g. planting trees, composting, recycling, growing food, planting native species)"

Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 3 (Years 7–8) · Ecosystems — the prior-phase statement this Years 9–10 unit builds from

Lesson–Curriculum Map

• Ngā tohu o te taiao statement → whole unit (especially Lessons 1–2): This statement is the curricular anchor for treating mātauranga Māori as epistemologically valid science — not as cultural add-on but as a knowledge system built on the same observational rigour as modern ecology, with the advantage of longitudinal depth that modern datasets often lack. Lessons 1 and 2 establish this equivalence directly.
• Carbon movement → Lesson 4, then Lessons 5–6: Lesson 4 supplies the climate-data evidence (reading NIWA data and traditional climate indicators); Lessons 5–6 carry the statement's "using evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of different strategies" clause when students pilot-test and implement a solution. No lesson teaches the carbon cycle itself — kaiako should bridge to it from Lesson 4 if this statement is the target.
• Kaitiakitanga action statement → Lessons 5–6 + summative: The Environmental Action Taiao Project and Lesson 6 Action Implementation directly deliver this statement. "Communicating actions that support kaitiakitanga" means the summative is a curriculum requirement, not just a pedagogy choice.

Entry-Level Extension — Ngā Tohu Observer

Students keep a personal environmental observation journal for one week, documenting weather patterns, plant behaviour, and bird activity using both te reo Māori descriptors (ngā tohu o te taiao) and scientific notation. Each observation is annotated with: what the traditional tohu says this indicates, and what the scientific explanation is. The act of writing bilingually reveals where the two knowledge systems converge and where they name different aspects of the same phenomenon.

Deliverable: Annotated digital or physical photo-journal with at least 10 observations, labelled in both frameworks.

Developing Extension — Kaitiakitanga Audit

Students conduct a systematic environmental impact audit of their home or kura — waste generation, water use, energy consumption, native vs. non-native plant ratio in grounds. For each finding, they propose one improvement backed by scientific evidence AND one improvement grounded in kaitiakitanga principles. The constraint: the proposed actions must be genuinely implementable, not aspirational.

Deliverable: Two-page audit report with evidence-backed recommendations, submitted to the school environment committee or kaitiakitanga group if one exists.

Mastery Extension — Dual-Knowledge Research Brief

Students investigate one real environmental issue facing their rohe — freshwater quality, tuna (eel) decline, coastal erosion, urban heat island, or similar — drawing on both NIWA/DOC scientific data and mātauranga Māori (at minimum one kaumātua interview or oral record, one historical environmental observation). The research brief explicitly maps where the two knowledge systems agree, where they diverge, and what that divergence reveals.

The brief is written for a real audience: a local council submission, a DOC youth engagement programme, or a school newsletter. The audience constraint forces clarity and forces students to explain both knowledge frameworks to someone who may not share their context.

Deliverable: 1,000–1,500 word research brief with an appendix documenting sources and knowledge-system mapping.

Learning arc: Six lessons move from local observation to integrated action. The sequence is deliberate: students must have a felt connection to a real local problem (Lesson 1) before they can meaningfully compare knowledge systems (Lessons 2–3), analyse data (Lesson 4), model predictions (Lesson 5), or propose integrated solutions (Lesson 6). Skipping Lesson 1 produces students who understand environmental science in the abstract but cannot apply it in context. The summative Environmental Action Taiao Project is not a test of Lesson 6 — it is a demonstration of everything learned across all six.

• Lesson 1 — Environmental Detective: Students identify real local environmental problems using systematic observation alongside traditional knowledge frameworks. The framing — "what can you actually see, measure, and fix right here?" — grounds the whole unit in a specific place. This is not a generic environmental unit; it is about this school, this awa, this rohe. The inquiry question that emerges from Lesson 1 becomes the thread students follow through to Lesson 6.
• Lesson 2 — Water Health Check (Testing Our Wai): Students carry out scientific water-quality testing at school while learning traditional Māori indicators of healthy wai, and combine both to assess the health of their local water. This sets up the unit's method: two knowledge systems reading the same place, each revealing what the other cannot.
• Lesson 3 — Biodiversity Count (Measuring Life Diversity): Students run systematic biodiversity surveys to measure ecosystem health, learn to identify native and introduced species, and use what biodiversity reveals about local environmental problems to sharpen their team's focus issue.
• Lesson 4 — Climate Data Analysis (Reading Nature's Warning Signs): Students engage directly with NIWA climate data for their local area — actual temperature and rainfall trends. "Reading the numbers" is also a question of epistemology: numbers require interpretation, and traditional tohu provide a complementary interpretive frame that asks not just "what changed?" but "what does the change mean for how we live and what we owe the land?"
• Lesson 5 — Solution Testing (Designing Environmental Fixes): Students design and pilot-test practical solutions to the problem they have investigated, combining scientific methods with traditional approaches, and build a monitoring plan for judging whether the solution works.
• Lesson 6 — Action Implementation (Making Real Change): Students implement their solution, document the process with photos and measurements, begin collecting "after" data against their Week 1 baseline, engage the community, and plan how the change will be sustained. The Unit Assessment then asks them to report impact in both frameworks.

Beyond the unit: The Environmental Action Taiao Project implements real change in the school or community — a composting system, a native planting programme, a water quality monitoring protocol. The unit's highest aspiration is that something physical and living remains after the assessment is marked. Students who complete this unit are equipped for Community Action (Year 9–10 Social Sciences) and for senior Biology, Environmental Science, and Geography. The habit of asking "what does mātauranga Māori say about this?" belongs in every science classroom that follows.

Ngā Whāinga Akoranga — Learning Intentions

• Students can analyse environmental problems using both mātauranga Māori (ngā tohu o te taiao, maramataka) and modern scientific methods, identifying what each reveals that the other cannot.
• Students can apply kaitiakitanga as a decision-making framework when evaluating environmental solutions — asking who bears long-term consequences and whether the action increases or depletes the mauri of the environment.
• Students can use mathematical modelling (statistics, probability, trend analysis) alongside qualitative traditional knowledge to interpret and predict environmental patterns.
• Students can develop and communicate integrated environmental solutions that honour both knowledge systems with cultural appropriateness and scientific rigour.

Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria

• I can identify at least three ngā tohu o te taiao from the maramataka and explain what each indicates about ecosystem health or seasonal change. (LI 1)
• I can compare traditional and scientific monitoring methods for the same environmental variable and explain what each reveals that the other does not. (LI 1)
• I can apply kaitiakitanga to evaluate a proposed solution by asking: who bears the long-term consequences of this action, and does it increase or deplete the mauri of this environment? (LI 2)
• I can use NIWA climate data and traditional seasonal knowledge together to interpret an environmental trend, explaining what both datasets contribute. (LI 3)
• I can present an integrated environmental solution that explicitly draws on evidence from both mātauranga Māori and modern science, with appropriate cultural protocols observed. (LI 4)

Differentiation & Inclusion

• Entry: Provided observation frameworks (ngā tohu checklist + scientific data table template). Supported group work in Lesson 1 audit. Focus on identifying one real local problem before comparing knowledge systems. Pre-teach core vocabulary: kaitiakitanga, ngā tohu o te taiao, maramataka, ecosystem, biodiversity.
• On-level: Full 6-lesson sequence with milestone check-ins after Lessons 3 and 5. Peer critique at lesson transitions using both cultural appropriateness and scientific rigour criteria.
• Extension: Self-directed investigation with authentic community stakeholders (kaumātua, local council, DOC, tangata whenua environmental groups) from Lesson 4 onwards. Mastery EA pathway available.

Cultural Safety

• Māori students may hold personal relationships with the tohu, tikanga, and whenua discussed. Never require students to share personal whakapapa connections. Invite community and whānau environmental knowledge as expert input — not as object of study or evidence to be evaluated.
• ELL/D: Bilingual environmental vocabulary wall (te reo + English) for key tohu and ecological terms maintained throughout. Observation tasks use visual and physical sources before text-heavy analysis.
• Neurodiversity: Each lesson has a predictable structure — focus question, activities, differentiation note. Multiple output modes available across lessons (written, visual, oral, mathematical). Maramataka observation tasks suit learners who engage better with physical outdoor work than desk tasks.