How did Pasifika people manage to voyage for months across oceans to first arrive in Aotearoa? No boat building on YouTube, no Google Maps, no text message, no power. It’s almost impossible to imagine! Get hands-on with Aotearoa’s history by using design, technology, scientific and literary skills to appreciate the bravery, engineering and navigation prowess of our nation’s first people.

Collaborative & individual

This programme starts by providing learners a visual timeline of the major events that have spanned our history. We then delve into a particular area of national significance - voyaging to Aotearoa. This focus lends itself to a cross-curricular exploration into Māori engineering, ocean navigation and arrival to a new land. As a group we'll explore concepts individually and collaboratively, and through a range of lenses - as writers, scientists, or designers. 

Cross-curricular & student choice

The programme will also provide opportunities for students draw on their strengths. For example, after learning the science of floating, exploring natural materials and techniques, and collaboratively designing features of a successful raft, learners might choose to illustrate a waka in action and combine with a whakatauki, or they may opt for constructing a raft to test in the water. 

Supported independent learning

There will be several projects that students dedicate time to which also incorporate student choice. For example, after interacting with elements of ocean navigation - the Māori star compass, the behaviour of waves, predicting weather from clouds, preparation for a journey - students will decide whether their major project is to create an art piece or create a scientific model. 

Voyaging to Aotearoa is a pilot programme where students will need to be resourceful, creative and self-managing - in school support will play an important roll in student success. Students will use a wide range of skills in Zoom - problem solving, construction, design and annotation, small motor skills, Māori pronunciation, and their independent learning will take these further.

Year levels and NZC links

  • The programme ties strongly into the refreshed Aotearoa New Zealand Histories curriculum, specifically the Y4-5 key understandings and significant national contexts, and links to several other curriculum areas.
  • The programme is being designed with year 7, 8, 9 in mind, but can be adapted if younger students who have strong in school support.
Our country is constantly changing - the land, the people, and our perspectives. Understanding the way things are now is made easier by knowing where we've come from.