Assessors should ensure student evidence at any achievement level includes understanding of tiakitanga in the context of responsible science practice in the local issue.  

Assessor involvement during the assessment event is limited to:  

• providing general feedback. They can suggest sections of student work that would benefit from further development, or skills a student may need to revisit across the work. Student work that has received sustained or detailed feedback is not suitable for submission towards this Achievement Standard.  
• giving guidance to students about the choice of contexts or issues to enable students to engage fully with all aspects of the assessment  
• helping students develop good practice that is not a requirement of the assessment, such as referencing and attribution of third-party content, and presentation of work. Students should not be limited to a method or decision about presentation — this decision can be made in consultation with the assessor.  

 At the start of the assessment event, assessors need to provide students with commonly used resources, tools, or equipment to support development of the student evidence. Assessors must monitor the process of evidence collection to ensure authenticity, for example, by regularly discussing student evidence or using checkpoints or milestones. 

Assessment activities that involve a practical component must follow relevant safety protocols, as described in Safety and Science/Pūtaiao Guidance for Aotearoa New Zealand Schools and Kura.   

Evidence for all parts of this assessment can be in te reo Māori, English, or New Zealand Sign Language. 

Gathering Evidence

Internal assessment provides considerable flexibility in the collection of evidence. Evidence can be collected in different ways to suit a range of teaching and learning styles, and a range of contexts of teaching and learning. Care needs to be taken to allow students opportunities to present their best evidence against the Standard(s) that are free from unnecessary constraints.  

It is recommended that the design of assessment reflects and reinforces the ways students have been learning. Collection of evidence for the internally assessed Standards could include, but is not restricted to, an extended task, an investigation, digital evidence (such as recorded interviews, blogs, photographs, or film), or a portfolio of evidence.  
Effective assessment should suit the nature of the learning being assessed, provide opportunities to meet the diverse needs of all students, and be valid and fair.

Ensuring Authenticity of Evidence 

Authenticity of student evidence needs to be assured regardless of the method of collecting evidence. This must be in line with the learning centre’s policy and NZQA’s Assessment Rules for Schools with Consent to Assess.   

Ensure that the student’s evidence is individually identifiable and represents the student’s own work. This includes evidence submitted as part of a group assessment and evidence produced outside of class time or assessor supervision. For example, an investigation carried out over several sessions could include assessor observations, meeting with the student at a set milestone, or student’s use of a journal or photographic entries to record progress.

Assessor involvement during the assessment event is limited to:  

• providing general feedback. They can suggest sections of student work that would benefit from further development, or skills a student may need to revisit across the work. Student work that has received sustained or detailed feedback is not suitable for submission towards this Achievement Standard.  
• giving direction by providing an intent for the overall context and skeletal method for the investigations  
• helping students develop good practice that is not a requirement of the assessment such as referencing and attribution of third-party content, and presentation of work.   

Students should not be limited to a method or decision about presentation — this decision can be made in consultation with the assessor. 

At the start of the assessment event, assessors need to provide students with commonly used resources, tools, or equipment to support development of the student evidence. Assessors must monitor the process of evidence collection to ensure authenticity, for example, by regularly discussing student evidence or using checkpoints or milestones. 

Assessment activities that involve a practical component must follow relevant safety protocols, as described in Safety and Science/Pūtaiao Guidance for Aotearoa New Zealand Schools and Kura. 

Students must be actively involved in any group component to this assessment and will need to identify their contribution. 

During the investigations students may wānanga, talanoa, consult with others, discuss with classmates, or consult a wider body of knowledge as they collect overarching findings. 

Evidence for all parts of this assessment can be in te reo Māori, English, or New Zealand Sign Language. 

Gathering Evidence

Internal assessment provides considerable flexibility in the collection of evidence. Evidence can be collected in different ways to suit a range of teaching and learning styles, and a range of contexts of teaching and learning. Care needs to be taken to allow students opportunities to present their best evidence against the Standard(s) that are free from unnecessary constraints.  

It is recommended that the design of assessment reflects and reinforces the ways students have been learning. Collection of evidence for the internally assessed Standards could include, but is not restricted to, an extended task, an investigation, digital evidence (such as recorded interviews, blogs, photographs, or film), or a portfolio of evidence.  

Effective assessment should suit the nature of the learning being assessed, provide opportunities to meet the diverse needs of all students, and be valid and fair.

Ensuring Authenticity of Evidence

Authenticity of student evidence needs to be assured regardless of the method of collecting evidence. This must be in line with the learning centre’s policy and NZQA’s Assessment Rules for Schools with Consent to Assess.   

Ensure that the student’s evidence is individually identifiable and represents the student’s own work. This includes evidence submitted as part of a group assessment and evidence produced outside of class time or assessor supervision. For example, an investigation carried out over several sessions could include assessor observations, meeting with the student at a set milestone, or student’s use of a journal or photographic entries to record progress.