Teaching use
Senior careers, science, technology, or whānau-based mentoring lessons that connect subject learning to real pathways in Aotearoa.
Science, Technology & Futures • Years 11-13 • Ready to teach
Career Pathways in STEM for Māori Students
Help ākonga explore STEM futures that honour mātauranga Māori, contribute to community wellbeing, and connect scientific and technological learning with whakapapa, place, and purpose.
Use this as a future pathways lesson, not a careers poster
This page is free to teach as-is. The premium workflow becomes useful when you want to localise pathway examples, generate mentor questions, or build class-specific planning sheets for different STEM interests and qualification goals.
- Swap generic careers language for pathways relevant to your rohe, hapori, and local industry.
- Generate differentiated planning prompts for university, trades, apprenticeships, or community projects.
- Save a class-specific pathway planner that you can reuse during option selection or whānau evenings.
Teacher planning snapshot
- Duration: 2 lessons of 50-60 minutes, or 1 lesson plus a follow-up mentoring / research task.
- Grouping: Whole-class tuning in, paired handout analysis, then small-group or individual pathway planning.
- Prep: Choose one local or Māori-led STEM initiative to spotlight and decide whether students will produce a profile, pathway map, or action plan.
- Pedagogy: Keep the lesson grounded in contribution and identity. Ask not only “What job could I do?” but “How could my learning serve whānau, hapū, iwi, and community?”
Resources provided here
- Cultural STEM assessment/rubric for evaluating pathway ideas
- STEM mātauranga integration lab handout for career examples
- Structured prompts for values, strengths, and contribution
- Career-planning discussion tasks and reflection scaffolds
- Curriculum companion page for senior planning and reporting
If this lesson asks students to compare pathways, interview role models, or justify a future direction, the key scaffold pages are linked below so teachers can pick up and teach without inventing the support material.
Ngā Whāinga Ako / Learning Intentions
- We are learning to identify STEM pathways in Aotearoa that connect with Māori values and aspirations.
- We are learning to recognise that STEM work includes cultural knowledge, innovation, design, data, environmental care, and service to community.
- We are learning to connect our own strengths, interests, and responsibilities to possible future directions.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can name at least three STEM pathways or roles relevant to Aotearoa and explain what each contributes.
- I can describe how Māori values such as kaitiakitanga, manaakitanga, or rangatiratanga might shape a STEM pathway.
- I can connect one possible pathway to my own strengths, interests, or future learning choices.
- I can produce a short pathway profile, action plan, or recommendation using evidence from the lesson resources.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
Use the curriculum companion to make the careers, science, technology, and key competency links explicit when planning senior programmes, option guidance, or whānau-facing pathway conversations.
Context, care, and kaupapa
STEM should not be framed as a neutral pipeline into generic jobs. This lesson works best when kaiako explicitly challenge deficit assumptions and make visible the long history of Māori innovation in navigation, engineering, data organisation, environmental observation, health, and design.
Invite ākonga to think about future pathways through a relational lens: who benefits from this work, what communities does it serve, and how might someone remain grounded in whakapapa and values while moving through tertiary study, trades, research, or entrepreneurship?
Lesson sequence
1. Tuning in: What counts as STEM work?
Ask students to brainstorm jobs or roles they think belong in STEM. Then widen the frame: navigation, rongoā research, environmental monitoring, coding for language revitalisation, engineering for marae and community infrastructure.
2. Explore Māori-led STEM examples
Students use the integration lab handout to read short examples of Māori scientists, innovators, designers, or entrepreneurs. They identify what knowledge, values, and skills each pathway requires.
3. Connect values, strengths, and contribution
Students map their strengths, interests, and values, then compare possible pathways. Encourage them to ask which pathways feel aligned with service, wellbeing, creativity, or environmental care.
4. Produce a pathway response
Students create a short pathway profile, presentation, or action plan showing one future direction, what learning it needs, and why it matters to them and their community.
5. Share, whakamana, and next steps
Peers offer warm/wise feedback. Finish by naming one concrete next step: subject selection, talking to a whānau member, researching scholarships, or contacting a local role model.
Ready-to-use scaffolds
Print / share / open
Print the two linked handouts, decide whether students will work in pairs or independently, and open the curriculum companion if you need explicit senior planning notes.
Settle before lesson starts
Choose one local or Māori-led STEM example you can speak about confidently, and decide whether the final output is a profile, action plan, or short oral presentation.
What good progress looks like
By the end of lesson one, students should be able to name meaningful STEM pathways, explain how Māori values can shape those pathways, and begin narrowing one possible direction for themselves.
Extension and adaptation ideas
- Invite students to profile a local scientist, technician, engineer, designer, or health worker.
- Turn the pathway response into a whānau interview or community presentation.
- Use Te Wānanga to generate subject-selection guidance tied to your school’s senior courses.
- Link this lesson to scholarship research, tertiary pathway planning, or enterprise project work.
🌍 Inclusion & Accessibility
ELL / ESOL support: Pre-teach key vocabulary before the lesson. Provide bilingual glossaries where available. Allow responses in home language as a first step.
Neurodiverse learners: Chunk instructions clearly. Offer choice in how students demonstrate understanding. Use visual supports and structured templates.
Scaffold & extension: Offer scaffold tasks and entry-level supports for students who need them. Extend capable learners with open-ended extension challenges.