The Big Ideas of Science are the knowledge developed within the Science Learning Area. This includes conceptual and procedural knowledge drawn from both western science and from mātauranga Māori bodies of knowledge and their respective knowledge-generating processes. 

Teachers of Science are quite familiar with the Big Ideas of Science that connect the 'content' of this discipline. These ideas are organised into the contextual strands in the New Zealand Curriculum (Living World, Material World, Physical World and Planet Earth and Beyond). Some of these Big Ideas sit largely within a single strand, for example, evolution as a source of biodiversity, and others, such as the conservation of energy, weave across all strands.

Four overarching Big Ideas about Science have also been identified and developed. They are derived from the New Zealand Curriculum and involve aspects of mātauranga pūtaiao and Science that will provide young New Zealanders with the skills, attitudes and capabilities to engage fully with life. They are an amalgam of:

● Nature of Science

● Key Competencies from NZC

● Values and vision from NZC

● Science capabilities

● Mātauranga pūtaiao.
 

Big Idea 1: Investigating in Science

Investigations are used to generate and evaluate knowledge both in science and in mātauranga pūtaiao, to answer questions. A variety of investigation methods exist that involve making observations, gathering evidence, and collecting and interpreting data. Different investigation approaches are appropriate for answering different questions. Approaches may include pattern-seeking, exploring and observing, investigating models, classifying and identifying, making things, developing systems, and fair testing. Key aspects of investigating in science include formulating questions, using an appropriate investigation approach to generate evidence, and evaluating both the suitability of the approach and the rigour of the evidence generated. All steps are important to ensure the findings of an investigation are robust and fit for purpose.

Investigations enable scientists to create, test and clarify knowledge and understanding which builds the body of science knowledge. Investigations allow learners to not only test current science understanding, but also to question and challenge the status quo, with the potential to create new knowledge and understandings. Learners have questions they want answers to, and these range in nature and complexity requiring various investigation approaches. Learners who are curious about the natural world will collect data to seek patterns or to gain a greater understanding of the phenomenon in question. Everyone has the capacity to produce and use primary data from a variety of contexts and sources, including the ability to consider narratives and human experiences as authentic and valid inputs. By engaging in investigations themselves, learners are more likely to think critically about information, data, and claims from the investigations of others. A life-long learner is able to investigate, evaluate, and collect data to enhance their participation in society.

Big Idea 2: Using science to engage with real world issues

Science and mātauranga pūtaiao offer ways for students to engage with real world issues (including problems, needs, and opportunities) at a personal, community, and/or global level. Students will bring their own world view, experiences, and knowledge while building new capabilities such as disciplinary meaning making, perspective taking, and critical inquiry to develop evidence-based opinions, and respond to real world issues at a local level.

Students are empowered when they learn to explore different perspectives, develop and express their own reasoned opinions, and make decisions to take action. Students will use the practices and knowledge drawn from multiple knowledge systems including mātauranga Māori and western science to inform their perspectives, opinions, and actions. When they explore real world issues, as well as considering science perspectives, they will also need to consider relevant cultural, social, environmental, ethical, economic, and political implications. Using science to engage with real world issues provides a tangible purpose for learning, builds student agency, and enables science-informed actions that contribute to communities.

Big Idea 3: Science as a human endeavour

Science and mātauranga pūtaiao involve particular processes and ways of developing and organising knowledge, and these continue to evolve. Both recognise the importance of creativity and curiosity, and neither deals with absolutes. Developments in culture, history, technology, and philosophical viewpoints have changed what science can explain. People currently working in these fields learn from and build on knowledge that has been generated by those who came before them. By understanding how science knowledge has developed, extended, and changed over time, learners can appreciate how science and mātauranga pūtaiao operate and can use appropriate tools in their own science practice.

Understanding how science and mātauranga pūtaiao have developed over time, and familiarity with the tools used to generate scientific knowledge allows students to contextualise content knowledge gained across the strands of the science discipline.

By exploring the stories, the models used to generate and test ideas, the experiments carried out to explore concepts (including classic failures), and the development of theories and laws, students gain some understanding of the history and philosophy of science and of mātauranga pūtaiao. Through their explorations, they come to appreciate the tentative and robust nature of science.

Big Idea 4: Communicating in Science

Science offers a way for students to interpret representations, critique evidence, and communicate knowledge, thus enabling their active participation in society. While mātauranga pūtaiao and science represent their ideas in different ways, both help our understanding of the natural world, giving us two rich perspectives. The rigour of the conventions used in both mātauranga pūtaiao and science means science ideas remain testable which justifies their inclusion in the growing body of science knowledge. Science ideas are presented in different ways depending on whether they are communicated to other scientists or to the public.

There are conventions in the way science knowledge is generated. When science-related information is communicated to the public, it may be presented in various forms, including primary research findings (scientific reports and scholarly articles), pūrākau (narratives containing scientific wisdom), and popular media such as TED Talks, infographics, and illustrated narratives – among others. The way science information is conveyed to the public may not use all the formal science conventions but knowing what these conventions are and how they work can help us interpret and evaluate scientific claims and ideas in the public space.

Young people are bombarded with a huge volume of information from the internet and other sources. Those who are able to critique information and arguments involving evidence, and assess the validity of that evidence will make informed decisions. The tools to discern valid evidence and to distinguish science from pseudo-science are vital in this information-rich world. Students are also communicators of science. Different audiences will require them to communicate their own findings and understandings in different styles.

What’s the relationship between mātauranga pūtaiao and science?

Deep indigenous understandings of the natural world are found in many nations around the world. In Aotearoa New Zealand the broad indigenous body of knowledge and way of engaging with the world is called mātauranga Māori. An integral part of mātauranga Māori is what has become known as mātauranga pūtaiao – those aspects of mātauranga Māori concerned with understanding and interacting with the natural world around us.

Mātauranga pūtaiao expresses the existence of and the relationships between organisms and systems in the natural world through specific concepts such as whakapapa, mauri, kaitiakitanga, and derived conceptual frameworks.

The term 'natural world' encompasses all four strands of the NZC – living world, chemical world, physical world, and planet Earth and beyond. For Māori, it expresses the existence of and the relationships between all organisms as well as the interconnectedness of all realms and aspects of their environment.

For Māori, the natural world is whatever their local environment provides. Māori have a place-based understanding of their environment. Even in an urban environment displaced from their ancestral whenua, Māori apply the concepts of mātauranga pūtaiao to interpret and interact with their local environment within the wider world.

The key to accessing mātauranga pūtaiao is through concepts such as whakapapa, whanaungatanga, mauri, tapu, noa, and kaitiakitanga. These concepts do not sit within any one curriculum strand and cannot be separated because in te ao Māori they are fully integrated. A te ao Māori view is holistic. For this reason, in the Learning Matrix, some focus questions have been provided that span the strands of Significant Learning we associate with 'subjects' in order to provide opportunities to work with the interconnectedness of the Māori world view. This is a rich opportunity to move away from the compartmentalising of teaching and learning.

One key aspect of mātauranga pūtaiao, for example, is the way Māori view themselves as an integral part of all systems in the natural world, rather than being outside of the system. This relates to the concept of whanaungatanga, and contrasts with the more detached perspective that has historically been a feature of western science understandings and activity. Incorporating this way of viewing the world helps ākonga to see themselves in the learning of science.

The knowledge that we call mātauranga pūtaiao informs the world view of Māori – so mātauranga pūtaiao is less about the knowledge itself and more about how engaging with it provides a Māori perspective on the world.

When we incorporate mātauranga pūtaiao into our programmes of learning it is important to avoid inserting it in, or comparing it to western science. The two world views and bodies of knowledge are separate and need to be considered separately. One should not be given greater status than the other – both have authority.

Why should we consider alternative world views in our teaching of science?

An appreciation of the existence and nature of mātauranga pūtaiao and its relationship with science is a key aspect to being a New Zealander.

It is imperative in order to provide educationally powerful connections for ākonga Māori who have the right to engage in learning that recognises their language, culture, and identity.

Other learners, including Pacific, are also entitled to have their language, culture and identity recognised in their learning.

All learners can and should learn from indigenous knowledge systems at a time when new approaches are needed to deal with the challenges faced by all.