Examples of expected student responses for this Achievement Standard can be found at the bottom of the page.

Mātauranga Māori constitutes concepts and principles that are richly detailed, complex, and fundamental to Māoridom. It is important to remember that the practice of these are wider and more varied than their use within the proposed NCEA Achievement Standards and supporting documentation.

We also recognise that the cultures, languages, and identities of the Pacific Islands are diverse, varied, and unique. Therefore the Pacific concepts, contexts, and principles that have been incorporated within NCEA Achievement Standards may have wide-ranging understandings and applications across and within the diversity of Pacific communities. It is not our intention to define what these concepts mean but rather offer some ways that they could be understood and applied within different subjects that kaiako and students alike can explore.

The intent of the Standard

The purpose of this Achievement Standard is for ākonga to show their understanding of interconnections between the life processes of a microorganism and its environment. Microorganisms do not exist in isolation. They both affect, and are affected by, their surroundings.

Some microorganisms have been thought of as beneficial, such as bacteria used in cheese making. Others have been viewed as negative or pathogenic, such as Phytophthora infecting kauri trees. This Achievement Standard does not assess the roles of organisms as beneficial or negative. Instead, it focuses on how a life process of a microorganism is affected by its environment, and how the microorganism can affect the environment in turn.

This Achievement Standard aligns with the following items of Significant Learning:

• explore the interrelations with an ecosystem to understand the dynamic nature of the environment
• recognise that nutrients cycle and energy is transferred through biological systems
• explore characteristics of life in an interconnected system including microscopic and submicroscopic level.

Nutrient cycles and species interactions should form part of the teaching and learning programme. This supports ākonga to develop a rich understanding of microorganisms in their environment, including effect of disruptions. Ākonga should make connections between biological and chemical interactions when nutrients cycle, and energy is transferred.

This Achievement Standard will assess how ākonga match their observations of the wider world to their understanding of biochemistry and microbiology. It does not assess investigation or observation-gathering skills.

Making reliable judgements

Life processes in a microorganism are not isolated, but ākonga will only need to describe one life process in detail. Ākonga will describe how the identified life process is affected by an abiotic or biotic factor of the environment. They must support their description with primary or secondary data.

At higher levels of achievement, ākonga will analyse the interrelationship between the microorganism’s life processes and its environment. Ākonga will use data to explain how changes to the abiotic or biotic factor in the environment can affect the life process of the microorganism. They will also describe how the microorganism has an effect on an abiotic or biotic factor of the environment. This could involve discussing how a change in an environmental factor affects a life process resulting in an increase or decrease in microorganism population, which in turn affects another factor of the environment. This analysis could involve different life processes, and a different biotic or abiotic factor to the one described before.

Collecting evidence

Observations used for this Achievement Standard may be collected by ākonga individually, as part of a group, or provided by their kaiako. The final assessment will be individual and could be written, oral, digital, or presented in a format agreed to in discussion with kaiako, and which allows ākonga to meet all aspects of the Achievement Standard.

Kaiako may use milestones to support ākonga with time management, and to collect evidence of authenticity. 

Practical work is not assessed.

Possible contexts

Ākonga should study a wide range of microorganisms in a rich teaching and learning programme. They should be assessed on their knowledge of one example of a microorganism. The microorganism chosen does not have to carry out all the traditional life processes (MRS GREN) but must undertake some. The traditional life processes are not an exhaustive list of life processes. For example, viral mutation or development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria could be considered as contexts.

In an interconnected environment, a microorganism acts as part of a system. Examples include:

• bacteria in a compost heap
• a protist or virus infecting the human body
• algae, fungi, and micro-invertebrates in an ecosystem such as a wetland or pond
• a food production process using microorganisms, such as poi, rēwena, yoghurt, or cheese.

Ākonga will explore an abiotic or biotic factor of the environment that affects the life process of the microorganism. Examples of a biotic factor include other organisms, or the defences that humans and other organisms have against microorganisms such as the skin barrier, immune system, vaccinations, antibiotics, disinfectants, and antiseptics. Examples of an abiotic factor include temperature, moisture, pH, and salt levels.

Ākonga should have opportunities to make observations in the field, laboratory, workplace, or wider world, rather than solely using information from texts or websites. Teacher guided practical work is recommended to situate modelling in the laboratory, and link this to real world contexts.

Observations can be any form of primary and secondary data. Examples include:

• microbial growth curves
• microscope observations
• appearance and formation of biofilm
• results from laboratory experiments
• fermentation data
• reports on species interactions.

Observations from a study of a local waterway could include:

• transect survey
• light meter readings
• spectrometry of water samples to identify light absorption
• measures of biochemical oxygen demand
• use of a haemocytometer to quantify algal or bacterial density in a water sample
• turbidity measures
• cultures made of microorganisms
• collected and collated data in tables or graphs.

Standard Exclusions

This Standard has one or more exclusions, or Standards that assess the same or similar learning. These Standards are excluded against one another to prevent assessing the same learning twice. You can only use credits gained from one of these standards towards your NCEA qualification.

Find out more about the NCEA Level 1 Exclusions List.

Examples of Expected Student Responses

[ Multiple File Download ]

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