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Teaching activity – Rapid response to Rena

This level 3-4 resource illustrates how students can engage with science using the Rena oil disaster as a real-life context.

Seaweed in the water.

Tags

  • AudienceKaiako
  • Curriculum Level34
  • Resource LanguageEnglish

About this resource

This resource uses a video from the Science Learning Hub Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao to identify the kind of data collected by scientists to help understand the Rena oil spill and to mount a response to the environmental disaster that was unfolding. It provides an opportunity to discuss, view, and note the data collection undertaken. 

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Teaching activity: Rapid response to Rena

Mātauranga Māori

The sea is considered to be the source and foundation of all life in te ao Māori, providing food, nourishment, and spiritual connection. Tangaroa is the atua of the seas, lakes, and rivers and the creatures that live within them. He is the son of Ranginui, the sky father, and Papatūānuku, the earth mother. See Te Ara’s Tangaroa - The sea.

The Science Learning Hub Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao video, The Rena Disaster, is useful for teachers as it provides an excellent description of how local Māori, working alongside Ngāti Pikiao’s Dr Kepa Morgan, used Dr Morgan’s mauri model to assess the disaster.

Learning focus

Students identify the data that was gathered and why this was important.

Learning activity

Rapid response to the Rena

Watch the video on the Science Learning Hub Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao.

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Before the students watch the video, ask them why scientists might want to quickly find out about marine life in the area where the ship was grounded. (They wanted base-line data so they could get a sense of the consequences of the oil spill on the ecosystem.)

Ask the students to pay attention while they watch the video to the types of data that were collected. (Photographs and video, samples of sea life, general descriptions, and notes including records of key species present and their distribution.)

This resource provides an opportunity for students to apply their developing understandings of science (how data are gathered, interpreted, and used) to a real-life context. Students need to be ready, willing, and able to do this if they are to become scientifically literate—that is, to participate as critical, informed, and responsible citizens in a society in which science plays a significant role. This is the purpose of science in The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum.

What are we looking for?

Do students realise what counts as data?

Do they realise the importance of base-line data?

Do they have a sense of how data are collected and sampling techniques?

Are they aware of how science can help inform our actions when trying to protect the environment?

This sort of discussion could accompany any video, article, or presentation about how scientists work.