Y9 Science: Ecology in Aotearoa
🏷️ Biodiversity Tagger
Te Kēmu Tohu Momo - Learn to identify NZ species!
"Ko au ko te taiao, ko te taiao ko au"
I am the environment, the environment is me
🎮 Identify the Species!
📚 Species Reference / Te Aratohu Momo
Learn these species to improve your score!
🎯 What You'll Learn
- Species identification - Recognise native NZ species
- Te reo Māori names - Learn species names in te reo
- Scientific names - Introduction to binomial nomenclature
- Endemic vs Native vs Introduced - Understand the differences
- Conservation status - Which species need protection
📖 Key Concepts / Ngā Ariā Matua
Endemic / Taketake
Found ONLY in New Zealand, nowhere else in the world. Examples: Kiwi, Tuatara, Kākāpō
Native / Taketake
Arrived naturally (without human help) but also found elsewhere. Example: Pūkeko
Introduced / Tauhou
Brought by humans, often harmful to native species. Examples: Rats, Possums, Stoats
👩🏫 Teacher Notes
Duration: 15-20 minutes gameplay
Learning objectives: Species identification, scientific naming, classification vocabulary
Differentiation: Students can choose categories based on confidence level
Extension: Have students create their own species cards for 5 additional NZ species
Assessment: Use final scores and "species known" count for formative assessment
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will engage with this resource to build understanding of Aotearoa New Zealand's ecosystems, biodiversity, and the role of kaitiakitanga in environmental stewardship.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can explain key concepts from this resource using their own words.
- ✅ Students can connect the content to real-world environmental contexts in Aotearoa.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide sentence starters, word banks, or graphic organisers to scaffold access for students who need it. Offer entry-level and extension tasks to address a range of readiness levels.
ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach key vocabulary and provide bilingual glossaries where available. Allow students to respond in their home language first.
Inclusion: Use accessible formats. Neurodiverse learners benefit from chunked instructions and choice in how they demonstrate understanding.
Prior knowledge: Best used after the relevant lesson sequence. No specialist prior knowledge required for entry-level engagement.
Curriculum alignment
- Ecosystems — Knowledge: 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 …
- Organism Diversity — Knowledge: Traits are also influenced by the environment, for example:in humans, height is influenced by nutrition and genesin reptiles like tuatara, sex is determined by nest temperatur…
- Ecosystems — Practices: Observing local ngā tohu o te taiao, such as flowering of certain plants or bird migrations, and explaining why these indicators can be used to understand and predict other en…
- Ecosystems — Knowledge: Ecosystems can usually regenerate naturally, and humans can support this through conservation and restoration.
- Ecosystems — Knowledge: Human activity can alter environments faster than some species can adapt, leading to biodiversity loss.