📚 Unit Plans → 🌍 Antarctica & Climate → 📖 Lesson 7: Kaitiaki Action Plan
Years 9–10 Pūtaiao / Science

Kaitiaki Action Plan

Lesson 7 of the Antarctica unit: the synthesis. Ākonga draw the campaign, case studies and carbon numbers from across the unit into a real three-tier Kaitiaki Action Plan — individual, whānau, community — grounded in kaitiakitanga and Te Tiriti, as their answer to what the warming ice is telling us.

🕘 Lesson at a Glance | Te Hōtaka

Do NowLook back, then commit⏱ 5 min 1 · Kaitiaki at every levelThe framework + a real model⏱ 12 min 2 · Your action planThree tiers, real commitments⏱ 30 min 3 · The class planCollective + Te Tiriti weight⏱ 18 min ExitSharing circle⏱ 5 min

Lesson Overview | Tirohanga Whānui

This is where the unit comes together. Over six lessons ākonga have met the warming ice, traced it to their own coast, weighed two ways of knowing, studied real campaigns and community solutions, and counted the carbon. Now they answer it. Each ākonga builds a real three-tier Kaitiaki Action Plan — one genuine commitment at the level of self, one with their whānau, and one in their community — drawing directly on their Lesson 4 campaign, Lesson 5 case studies and Lesson 6 footprint. The class then commits together, and we name why Te Tiriti gives this work weight. Not aspirational rhetoric — real, achievable, specific.

Learning Intentions | Ngā Whāinga Ako

  • Synthesise the campaign, case studies and carbon evidence from across the unit into one coherent kaitiaki response.
  • Design a real three-tier Kaitiaki Action Plan — individual, whānau, community — that is specific, achievable, and your own.
  • Explain how Te Tiriti o Waitangi and UNDRIP give climate action obligation and weight, not just good intentions.

⚡ Do Now

⏱ 5 min

Six lessons. Now the question turns to you: what will you actually do?

  1. Look back (3 min): skim your notes from Lessons 1–6. Write down the one thing that moved you most — the melting we didn't expect, a case study, a number, a kōrero. Why that one?
  2. Turn it (2 min): we can't refreeze Antarctica. But everything since Lesson 1 has been building to this — your response, where you actually stand. In one line: what is the change you most want to be part of?

Teacher: a quick pair-share surfaces what landed across the unit. Hold the framing: this isn't a fresh topic, it's the consolidation — today we turn knowing into a plan with names, dates and first steps.

Activity 1 · Kaitiaki at Every Level

⏱ 12 min

What it is: Kaitiakitanga isn't only personal, and it isn't only protest — it works at every level at once. This frame turns the three principles you've used all unit into a plan that runs from self to community, and you'll see it modelled by a real mātauranga-led restoration.

Watch with a job (first ~5 min): this is a real mātauranga-led restoration. Note (1) who holds the responsibility and over what timeframe, and (2) one thing they give back to the place. You're looking for how the three principles below show up in real action.

Whanaungatanga — relationships

Start from your relationships: to this place (tūrangawaewae), to people, to species, to those who come after. Who are you connected to, and who are you accountable to?

Tiakitanga — responsibility

A kaitiaki takes sustained responsibility — not a one-off, but a commitment you keep. What will you actually carry, and for how long?

Utu — reciprocity, balance

Climate action isn't only reducing harm — it's giving back to restore the mauri of what's been damaged. What do you return to the taiao?

Run it — find the levels

  1. Watch & note (5 min): the restoration clip, with your "watch with a job" task.
  2. Map it (7 min): in pairs, take one principle and name what it could look like at three levels — for you, for your whānau, for your community. These become the rows of your plan in Activity 2.

🪶 Mātauranga (frame with care): the restoration in the video belongs to the people who lead it. Engage it as a model to learn from, not a template to copy onto someone else's rohe. Where your plan touches a specific place, the mana whenua of that place lead.

Sources (verified): RNZ — Turning the Tide, Episode 2: Mātauranga-Led Restoration; kaitiakitanga principles as taught publicly across this unit.

Activity 2 · Your Three-Tier Kaitiaki Action Plan

⏱ 30 min

What it is: The heart of the lesson — and the unit. Each ākonga builds a real plan with three tiers, pulling directly on their own earlier work. Specific, genuine, achievable: commitments with names, dates and first steps, not slogans.

Tier 1 · Me Tōku ake

One change in my own life within a month. Draw it from your Lesson 6 footprint — the highest-impact, achievable one. By when? How will I know I did it?

Tier 2 · Whānau Tōku whānau

One action with my household in three months. It needs a real kōrero at home. Who will join me? What can we do together that I can't do alone?

Tier 3 · Community Tōku hapori

One community goal this year — built from your Lesson 4 campaign or Lesson 5 case study. Who's the decision-maker? What's my first step this week?

🧊 Back to the ice — why your plan reaches the pole

None of these tiers can refreeze Antarctica. But every one of them — eating lower-carbon, planting, restoring, advocating — acts on the carbon system you measured in Lesson 6, the same system warming the Southern Ocean and thinning the shelves from Lesson 1. Your plan is the honest answer to "we can't go there to fix it": you act where you stand, on the system that connects you to the ice.

Run it — Tōku Mahere Kaitiaki (my action plan)

  1. Identity (5 min): open the worksheet by naming the place you commit to protect and what connects you to it. The template offers two complete ways to write this — a pepeha for ākonga whose whānau have passed them their maunga, awa and iwi, or a kaitiaki statement of place for everyone else. Do not ask any ākonga to supply a maunga or awa they are unsure of; living near one is not a whakapapa relationship to it.
  2. Build the three tiers (18 min): complete Tier 1, 2 and 3 — each with a real action, a date, and how you'll know it's done. Reach back into your Lesson 4–6 work; this is where it pays off.
  3. Commitment statement (7 min): write 2–3 sentences — your kaitiaki commitment, in your own voice. You'll pressure-test it with your peers next lesson, so make it true and make it yours.

You'll need: Kaitiaki Action Plan template (one per ākonga); your notes and handouts from Lessons 4–6.

Activity 3 · The Class Plan & Why It Carries Weight

⏱ 18 min

What it is: Beyond individual plans, the class commits together — and we name the obligation that gives climate action weight in Aotearoa. Te Tiriti isn't decoration here; it's why the Crown owes a response.

Build the class plan (10 min)

  1. Values (3 min): agree three to five kaitiaki values for this class — e.g. "we're honest about the science," "we support action without shaming what people can't do," "we centre justice, not just sustainability."
  2. One shared action (4 min): from the Lesson 4 campaigns and Lesson 5 case studies, vote on one collective school-level action — name what, who leads, the decision-maker, and the timeline.
  3. Solidarity (3 min): who do we stand with — Pacific communities, Māori communities bearing more of the harm, the generations after us? Solidarity is recognising our shared waka, not charity.

📜 Te Tiriti o Waitangi (1840)

  • Article 2 guarantees Māori tino rangatiratanga over taonga — land, water, mahinga kai — which climate change directly threatens.
  • Article 3 — equal rights — means Māori should not bear a disproportionate climate burden.
  • The Resource Management Act 1991 names kaitiakitanga as a principle in law.

🌐 UNDRIP (NZ endorsed 2010)

  • Article 25 — the right to maintain a spiritual relationship with traditional territories.
  • Article 29 — the right to conservation and protection of the environment.
  • Article 32 — free, prior and informed consent for projects affecting Indigenous lands.

Make it count (8 min)

In pairs, answer one: "If the Crown has a Tiriti duty to protect Māori taonga from climate harm, what specific thing should we ask of decision-makers — and how would non-Māori ākonga support Tiriti-based climate justice without speaking over Māori voices?" If your class action involves a council or government submission, name how you'd reference Te Tiriti in it.

You'll need: a large sheet or shared doc for the class plan (a small group formats it before Lesson 8); the Te Tiriti / UNDRIP cards above.

Exit · Sharing Circle — He Rōpū Kōrero

⏱ 5 min

Each ākonga shares one line from their plan — their Tier 1 commitment, or a sentence from their kaitiaki statement. Pair up, or go round the room if the class is up for it. No comment needed — just heard.

Bring to Lesson 8: your completed action plan; your kaitiaki statement (you'll pressure-test it next lesson); any homework pieces for your portfolio; and — optional — a taonga, photo or object connected to a place you want to protect.

Teacher: close with the whakataukī "Māku e tū ana, māu e tū ana, ka tū tātou katoa" — when you stand and I stand, we all stand together. Individual commitments, heard in community, become collective strength. Next lesson: reflection, portfolios, and locking the commitment in.

🎯 Curriculum Links | Te Hononga ki te Marautanga

This lesson's focus: Ākonga draw on the interventions they researched across the unit — real campaigns and community case studies — to design their own intervention: a three-tier Kaitiaki Action Plan with specific, achievable, evaluated commitments. That use of case studies and local examples to shape a real solution is the heart of the statement below (the unit's curriculum map assigns this statement to Lessons 5 & 7).

Ecosystems — Core Connection (Phase 4 | Years 9–10)

"Researching interventions that address specific ecosystem disruptions, using case studies or local examples to explore the practicalities and outcomes of different solutions (e.g. conservation strategies, sustainable technologies)"

📑 View the full verified Te Mātaiaho curriculum alignment for this unit → — Phase 4 · Years 9–10 (statements pulled verbatim from the live curriculum).

📦 Materials & Resources

📋 Handouts & what you'll need

  • Kaitiaki Action Plan template — used through Activity 2 (identity, three tiers, commitment statement)
  • Your notes and handouts from Lessons 4 (campaign), 5 (case study) and 6 (footprint); a large sheet or shared doc for the class plan

🔗 For the Tiriti framing

  • Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Articles 1–3); Resource Management Act 1991 (kaitiakitanga)
  • UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), endorsed by NZ in 2010

🎥 Media

  • RNZ — Turning the Tide, Ep 2: Mātauranga-Led Restoration — embedded in Activity 1 as the real-world model, with a "watch with a job" task. Watch on YouTube ↗ (oEmbed-verified)
📊 Assessment Framework

This is a synthesis lesson; assessment is formative, reading the plan for readiness. The action plan and portfolio carry into Lesson 8, where the unit's summative reflection sits.

What to look for, mapped to the learning intentions

  • Synthesis (LI 1): does the plan visibly draw on earlier lessons — the footprint, a campaign, a case study — rather than starting from scratch?
  • The three-tier plan (LI 2): are all three tiers specific and achievable, each with a date and a first step — not slogans?
  • Te Tiriti (LI 3): can ākonga explain one genuine way Te Tiriti or UNDRIP creates obligation for climate action, and its limit?
Readiness signal: a plan with a real first step this week, and a commitment statement the ākonga is willing to stand behind in Lesson 8's pressure-test, is ready.
🚀 Extension & Mahi

👣Take the First Step

Self-directed. Actually take the Tier 1 first step before Lesson 8 — make the change, have the whānau kōrero, or send the message to a community group. Bring back what happened.

Bring back: evidence — a photo, a reply, a note — for your portfolio.

✍️A Real Submission

Turn the class action into a short written submission to your Board of Trustees or local council — and reference the Tiriti obligation explicitly, as you planned in Activity 3.

Deliverable: a one-page draft submission.

🤝Find Your Allies

Identify the real people and groups who could help your Tier 3 community goal — a teacher, local iwi contact, restoration or climate group — and note how you'd approach each.

Reflect: which ally makes the plan most likely to actually happen?
🔗 Unit Progression & Next Steps

This is Lesson 7 of the 8-lesson Antarctica unit — the synthesis, where six lessons become one plan. Where it sits:

← Lesson 6: Carbon Footprint

The numbers and the evidenced strategies that this plan now turns into commitments.

→ Lesson 8: Reflection & Commitment

Reflect on the whole journey, complete the kaitiaki portfolio, and lock in one real, accountable commitment.

Into Lesson 8: the personal action plan and kaitiaki statement built today are the centrepiece of the final reflection and the "Lock It In" activity. Keep them safe.

📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot

Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria

  • ✅ I can synthesise evidence from across the unit into one coherent kaitiaki response. (LI 1)
  • ✅ I can build a real three-tier action plan — individual, whānau, community — that is specific and achievable. (LI 2)
  • ✅ I can explain how Te Tiriti and UNDRIP give climate action obligation and weight. (LI 3)

Differentiation for this lesson

  • The plan: give entry-level ākonga a partly-worked Tier 1 drawn straight from their Lesson 6 footprint; ask extension ākonga to add success measures and a six-month review date to each tier.
  • Commitment statement / ELL: offer sentence frames and allow the statement in te reo Māori or a first language. In Lesson 8 the statement is pressure-tested in a small group — that step is invitational, never forced.
  • Te Tiriti framing: keep the focus on obligation and justice; be clear non-Māori ākonga support Tiriti-based action without speaking for Māori (see Activity 3).

Broader differentiation and the unit-wide mātauranga framing live on the unit overview.