On the islands of Sāmoa, the effects of climate change1 are being felt. Tsunamis2, cyclones and sea level rise are some of the natural hazards villages like Sa’anapu are having to contend with.
This article shows how the local Council of Matai are working together with a scientist and an architect from New Zealand to combine their cultural and scientific knowledge in order to build a safer future for the local people.
Check your school resource area for the article from the 2017 level 3 Connected journal ‘Mahi tahi’, download it as a Google slide presentation from Tāhūrangi ( or order it from the Ministry of Education.
The teacher support material (TSM) can be downloaded from Tāhūrangi (Word and PDF files are available). These materials focus on the science capability ‘Engage with science’ as well as the Planet Earth and Beyond strand. Activity suggestions include exploring the different materials and designs used to build houses and taking on different perspectives of people within an environmentally at-risk community.
Science and partnership with a Sāmoan village is a ready-to-use cross-curricular teaching resource that uses Building for the future as the starting point.
The Hub article Climate change – a wicked problem for classroom inquiry provides a wide range of opportunities to learn about the nature of science3 and science capabilities and to link science content knowledge to a current socio-scientific4 issue.
Related content
Learn more about the impacts of climate change by exploring the climate change topic.
The 2017 Connected article Rising seas describes how scientists investigate what is happening with sea levels and use evidence5 to suggest how we might adapt to the changes. The 2011 Connected article More than a box can help with learning about structures and building.
Weather6 and climate7 – the article Extreme weather explores the difference – and a number of resources look at weather forecasting and weather concepts and activities including the water cycle8.
Our interactive planning pathways and teacher PLD on climate change resources and tackling planning provide excellent support for teachers wanting to use this wicked problem9 to promote science learning in their classroom.
More information about how scientists work with models can be found in the article scientific modelling.
Check out our entire range of Connected articles here. We’ve curated them by topic and concepts.
Useful links
Before it is lost is a selection of essays published in the Guardian looking at the impact of the climate crisis10 threatening the survival of Pacific islands.
The Connected journals can be ordered from the Down the Back of the Chair website. Please note that access to these resources is restricted to Ministry-approved education providers. To find out if you are eligible for a login or if you have forgotten your login details, contact their customer services team on 0800 660 662 or email orders@thechair.education.govt.nz.
Acknowledgement
The Connected series is published annually by the Ministry of Education, New Zealand.
- climate change: The large-scale, long-term increase in the Earth’s average temperatures, with associated changes in weather patterns. There is significant scientific evidence that warming is due to increased quantities of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, with most of the rise due to human activity.
- tsunami: A series of massive waves generated in the ocean usually by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or submarine and coastal landslides, but they can also be caused by the impact of meteorites from outer space.
- nature of science: The Nature of Science (NoS), is an overarching and unifying strand of the New Zealand science curriculum. Through it, students develop the skills, attitudes and values to build a foundation for understanding the world around them – understanding how science works in order to make links between scientific knowledge and everyday decisions and actions.
- socio-scientific: Combining social and scientific factors.
- evidence: Data, or information, used to prove or disprove something.
- weather: Daily or short-term conditions like temperature, cloud cover, precipitation and wind affecting a certain area.
- climate: The weather conditions of an area averaged over a series of years, usually 30 or more.
- water cycle: The continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth (also known as the hydrological cycle).
- wicked problem: Complex problems that are extremely difficult to solve because of the many different aspects that interact. They often involve environmental, economic or political issues or a combination.
- climate crisis: Describes the urgency for change as the impacts of climate change are increasingly felt across the globe by people and ecosystems.