Best for
Climate literacy, environmental science, sustainability, and place-based inquiry where students need science explanation plus response judgement.
Science • Years 7-11 • Climate systems and response
Climate Change in Aotearoa
Use this inquiry page to help ākonga explain the greenhouse effect, trace how climate change affects places in Aotearoa, and distinguish between mitigation and adaptation responses.
Free climate systems page, premium localisation path
This resource already includes the science explainer, sorting task, and local response frame. If you need it built around your community, awa, flood event, or coastline, Te Wānanga can adapt the examples while keeping the science coherent.
- Swap in local climate impacts, images, or council adaptation plans.
- Create a junior scaffold with more sentence frames.
- Save and refine the adapted copy in My Kete or Creation Studio.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 40-60 minutes.
- Grouping: Whole-class model first, then pair sorting and individual written response.
- Prep: Optional local climate news item, map, or event image.
- Teaching move: Insist on the distinction between mitigation and adaptation. Students often mix these up.
Resources already provided
- Greenhouse-effect explainer
- Aotearoa climate-impact cards
- Mitigation/adaptation comparison table
- Local response planning frame
- Teacher-only curriculum companion
The page already contains the reading, sorting, and response materials you need for the lesson.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning how the greenhouse effect works and why human activity intensifies it.
- We are learning how climate change affects places, species, and communities in Aotearoa.
- We are learning to compare different kinds of responses to climate pressure.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can explain the greenhouse effect using accurate science language.
- I can identify one likely impact in Aotearoa and who or what it affects.
- I can distinguish mitigation from adaptation and justify one response.
Curriculum integration / Te Mātaiaho alignment
Use the companion page to connect this handout to climate systems, local environmental change, and issue-based inquiry. This resource is strongest when students explain causal relationships rather than listing climate facts.
Climate change is local, not distant
In Aotearoa, climate change shows up in flooding, drought, coastal erosion, marine heat, and changes to species and food systems. That means climate learning needs to stay grounded in actual places rather than floating as abstract global data.
Mātauranga Māori and kaitiakitanga strengthen the inquiry by asking what climate pressure means for whenua, wai, mahinga kai, and the relationships communities carry with those places.
Read the science
The greenhouse effect
Some gases in the atmosphere naturally trap heat and keep Earth warm enough for life. This is the greenhouse effect. Human activities such as burning fossil fuels, changing land use, and some farming practices add extra greenhouse gases, which means more heat is trapped than before.
That extra heat changes weather patterns, ocean temperature, rainfall, drought risk, and sea level. In Aotearoa, the effects differ by place, but the pattern is the same: climate change is already putting pressure on ecosystems, settlements, and infrastructure.
Impact sorting
Possible impacts
- Coastal roads or marae facing erosion and flooding
- Hotter, drier conditions affecting freshwater and farming
- Species and habitats under pressure from warmer temperatures
- More intense rainfall events damaging homes and communities
Your chosen local example
Place or event:
Who or what is affected?
Mitigation or adaptation?
| Action | Mitigation, adaptation, or both? | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| Improving public transport and reducing car emissions | ||
| Raising floor levels or moving buildings away from flood-prone land | ||
| Restoring wetlands to reduce flood risk and support ecosystems | ||
| Planting native species to strengthen slopes and capture carbon |
Support, core, stretch
Support
Use sentence frames: “Climate change affects...” and “This response is adaptation because...”
Core
Sort the actions accurately and explain one local impact using cause-and-effect language.
Stretch
Argue which combination of mitigation and adaptation would make the biggest long-term difference in one local place.
Students may respond orally, with bullet points, or through full explanatory writing depending on readiness and confidence.
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Curriculum alignment for this handout has not yet been verified against the live curriculum statements. A generated placeholder that stood here was removed on 2026-08-29 because it matched no real statement.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
Mātauranga Māori is a sophisticated knowledge system built through centuries of careful observation, hypothesis, testing, and refinement — the same processes that define scientific inquiry. Māori knowledge of ecology, weather patterns, seasonal change, and animal behaviour guided sustainable resource management for generations before Western science arrived in Aotearoa. Understanding science through a dual-knowledge lens — bringing mātauranga Māori and Western science into dialogue rather than hierarchy — produces richer, more contextually grounded understanding. The concept of kaitiakitanga reminds us that scientific knowledge carries obligations: understanding how natural systems work means accepting responsibility for how we treat them.
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
This handout is designed to be used alongside the broader unit resources available at Te Kete Ako handouts library. Related resources from the same unit are linked in the unit planner. All resources are provided — no additional preparation is required to use this handout in your classroom.
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will engage with this resource to explore how mātauranga Māori and Western science offer complementary frameworks for understanding and responding to environmental challenges — learning to read landscapes, ecosystems, and ecological change through both indigenous and scientific lenses.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can explain how mātauranga Māori environmental knowledge provides insights that Western science alone may miss.
- ✅ Students can apply both indigenous and scientific frameworks to analyse a local environmental issue in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide dual-lens analysis frameworks (mātauranga Māori lens | Western science lens) for entry-level comparison tasks. Offer extension challenges asking students to investigate a real environmental monitoring programme in Aotearoa that integrates both knowledge systems — for example, iwi-led water quality monitoring using both traditional indicators and scientific sampling.
ELL / ESOL: Environmental and scientific vocabulary (ecosystem, biodiversity, indicator species, sustainability, kaitiakitanga, taonga species) benefits from visual glossaries with images of local species and environments. Allow students to discuss environmental observations from their home countries as valid comparative contexts. Oral field observation is a powerful entry point that reduces language barriers.
Inclusion: Outdoor and field-based learning naturally supports diverse learners — sensory, kinaesthetic, and place-based engagement complements classroom tasks. Neurodiverse learners often thrive in structured outdoor inquiry. Ensure physical accessibility is considered for field components. Indigenous and Pacific students may bring family knowledge of traditional environmental practices — create space for this knowledge to be honoured, not just acknowledged.
Mātauranga Māori lens: Mātauranga Māori environmental knowledge is not folklore — it is centuries of systematic observation, classification, and adaptive management. Ngā tohu o te rangi (signs of the weather), ngā tohu o te taiao (signs of the natural world), and the detailed ecological knowledge encoded in place names all represent sophisticated environmental science. Kaitiakitanga is not simply "conservation" — it is a dynamic, relational ethic of guardianship that recognises humans as part of, not separate from, ecosystems. Marama Muru-Lanning and other contemporary mātauranga Māori researchers are demonstrating how this knowledge enriches environmental science.
Prior knowledge: Students benefit from foundational understanding of ecosystems and environmental science concepts. No specialist mātauranga Māori knowledge required — the unit builds this knowledge through inquiry.