Year 7: explain the distribution
Ākonga compare counts across two or more sites and explain the difference using habitat evidence — vegetation, predators, food, disturbance — rather than assertion.
- Year 7 move: Site comparison with an evidence-based explanation
- Evidence it produces: A difference explained by a named habitat variable, with the data behind it
Before you plan from this: Te Kete Ako carries three routes through this kaupapa, not two. The lesson body below is currently near-identical to the Years 4–6 route's — this panel describes the intended difference between those two, which is not authored yet, so choose between them on year band rather than on this pitch. The third route sits at this same Years 7–8 band and is genuinely different in shape: noticeably shorter lessons, with its own video anchor for each week. All three are kept; none is being retired.
🌳 Week 3: Habitats & Impacts
Students investigate the fundamental needs of birds and the human-driven threats to their survival. They use cause-and-effect mapping and community interviews to deepen their understanding.
Focus Question
What do manu need to thrive, and what is stopping them in our area?
🎥 Media Anchor (8 mins)
Media Anchor: Habitat Pressures and Restoration
Watch: Use the clip to identify real habitat pressures and the restoration choices made in Aotearoa.
- Name one habitat pressure shown and its likely impact on manu populations.
- What restoration strategy from the clip could be applied around your kura?
Ngā Mahi - Week 3 Activities
1. Sorting Needs & Threats (15 mins)
Activity: A quick visual sort. Display photos of varied environmental features and have students categorise them as "Habitats" (Needs) or "Hazards" (Threats).
- Needs: Berry trees, clean water, dense nesting shrubs
- Threats: Litter, predators (rats/cats), habitat fragmentation, urban noise
- Discussion: "How does one threat lead to multiple problems for a bird?"
2. Cause → Effect → Action (25 mins)
Activity: Pairs work through the Cause/Effect Organiser. They pick one major threat (e.g., lack of food) and trace it back to a cause and forward to an action.
- Pick a threat: Litter in the school garden
- Analyse: Why is it there? What does it do to the manu?
- Brainstorm: What is one realistic action a Year 7 student could take?
3. Voices of Kaitiaki: Interview Prep (15 mins)
Activity: Students prepare to gather "expert" testimony using the Interview Prompts. This can be done with an invited guest or as a homework task.
- Practice: Roleplay interviewing a whānau member or local kaitiaki
- Success check: Ensure students know how to record a direct quote correctly
- Reflection: "Why is it important to include community voices in our reports?"
💡 Differentiation Strategies
- scaffold support: Use a 'Word Bank' for the cause/effect sheets; provide a pre-written interview script
- Support: Have a shared class interview with a guest speaker where students take notes on the board
- Extension: Research a specific predator (stoat or rat) and find a local trapping program to map its progress
Curriculum alignment
This lesson teaches, verbatim from the live Te Mātaiaho curriculum (Science · Phase 3 · Living World):
"Humans are part of ecosystems and can change them through their actions (e.g. clearing land, growing crops, changing waterways, planting trees, restoring habitats)."
Week 3 is where ākonga meet this statement directly: they sort habitat needs from human-driven threats, then trace one threat through a cause → effect → action chain — building the exact understanding that people are part of the manu's ecosystem, and our actions change it for harm or for restoration.
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will investigate the ecological roles of ngā manu o te taiao — the birds of the natural world — within local habitats, drawing on both science and mātauranga Māori to understand why native birds are taonga and what kaitiakitanga requires of us in their protection.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
Assess this week against its own criteria above. The unit-wide criteria live once on the unit overview — they are not repeated here, so nobody marks the week against the wrong list.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: A comparison table for two sites with a conditions column. Extension: quantify one habitat variable rather than describing it.
ELL / ESOL: Habitat variables taught as things that can be measured, not adjectives.
Inclusion: Where the local decline has a named cause with local history, treat it as contested evidence, not settled fact.
Mātauranga Māori lens: If manu are tohu, a decline is a message about the habitat, not just about the birds. That reframes this week's question from 'what is killing them' to 'what has changed here' — which is a wider and more answerable question for ākonga.
Prior knowledge: Best used after introductory ecology concepts. Connects well to science food webs and biodiversity units.