Level 8: Aotearoa New Zealand’s biodiversity
The focus of this course is Aotearoa New Zealand’s unique inhabitants: its flora, fauna, and indigenous people.
Curriculum context
A course of this kind is very much in tune with The New Zealand Curriculum, which says (page 28):
The emphasis is on the biology of New Zealand, including the sustainability of New Zealand’s unique fauna and flora and distinctive ecosystems.
Te Marautanga o Aotearoa calls for students to “recognise and explain the changes undergone by species (especially those of Aotearoa) over long periods of time”.
It is possible to create a course for levels 7–8 that explores the unique species that have evolved in Aotearoa New Zealand, their distribution patterns (level 7), and their evolution and biogeography (level 8), in terms of adaptations to our particular environmental conditions and geological history.
When ecological principles are applied at level 7, for example, students could examine the impacts of introduced animals and plants on our ecosystem. At level 8 they could evaluate a variety of conservation strategies such as captive breeding programmes and the translocation of birds.
Many senior students have an intense interest in human evolution. This provides a rich opportunity to explore migration patterns in the Pacific Ocean and the evidence on which our understanding of Māori and Pasifika origins is based.
As Aotearoa New Zealand is heavily involved in this area of research, the NOS objectives Understanding about science and Investigating in science are amply met by learning in this context.
If students at level 8 are to make sense of the way genotype determines phenotype (adaptations), they require a sound understanding of molecular biology from level 7. They also need to understand the nature and significance of mutations as the raw material for natural selection and evolutionary change.
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Broadening the scope
The scope of this course can be broadened by tapping into the Planet Earth and Beyond strand and investigating how various Earth systems (ocean, geosphere, and atmosphere) are interconnected, or by exploring the evidence for and significance of geological events (such as glaciations) in our evolutionary history.
Students could also consider how climate change threatens our unique flora and fauna, and develop their own strategies for maintaining biodiversity and ensuring a sustainable future. The Treaty of Waitangi Report (WAI262) may provide a useful context.
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Focus question 1: How do Aotearoa New Zealand’s indigenous plant and animal species interact with their environment?
Students could consider the following:
- Organisms’ responses range from simple innate responses to complex learned behaviours.
- Any observed response must have an adaptive advantage for the organism(s) involved.
- A response can be analysed by linking the stimulus, mechanism, and resultant adaptive advantage of the response in a plant or animal.
- Intra-specific interactions affect the individuals involved and also the group, population, and species.
- Inter-specific relationships can be understood in terms of the ecological niche of the organisms involved.
- Homeostatic systems may adjust an organism’s internal environment in response to changes in its external environment.
Possible investigations
- The social interactions in a pukeko group.
- How do scientists track the migration routes of godwits?
- Homing in New Zealand limpets.
- How do wandering albatross navigate back to Taiaroa Head every second year to breed?
- Why is the pohutukawa called the New Zealand Christmas tree?
- How is the territorial behaviour of gangs similar to that of various animal species?
- How do mud crabs tolerate salinity changes in their habitat?
- The unique relationship between tui and native mistletoe species.
- Competition between pekapeka and possums as the pollinator of Dactylanthus flowers.
- Compare the variety of leaf forms across the Hebe genus and relate each to the environmental pressures being applied in its particular habitat.
Possible assessments
Learning in this programme could be assessed using a variety of standards – for example:
- Biology 3.1 Carry out a biological investigation.
- Biology 3.3 Demonstrate understanding of the responses of plants and animals to their external environment.
- Biology 3.4 Demonstrate understanding of how animals maintain a stable internal environment.
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Focus question 2: What evolutionary processes have resulted in Aotearoa New Zealand’s unique biota?
Students could consider the following:
- Evolutionary changes come about through natural selection and genetic drift.
- Genetic drift is particularly significant in small populations.
- Gene flow is prevented by a range of isolating reproductive mechanisms.
- Modes of speciation vary as to when and how reproductive isolation is achieved.
- Evidence provided by fossils, molecular biology, or biogeography is used to explain patterns of speciation.
- How Aotearoa New Zealand’s geological history has affected the evolution of its indigenous species.
Possible investigations
- Visit a local conservation reserve or interpretive centre, such as Wellington’s Zealandia.
- Did browsing by moa influence the evolution of Aotearoa New Zealand’s divaricating shrubs? What’s the evidence?
- Is the Black Robin species doomed as a result of the bottleneck effect?
- What has been the significance of our lack of mammalian predators? Explore the exceptions: the pekepeka (bat) and the ghost mouse (fossil rodent).
- Was Aotearoa New Zealand completely inundated during the Oligocene? What’s the evidence? (Scientific debate on this is ongoing as evidence is evaluated in different ways.)
- How significant was the last ice age in the evolution of Aotearoa New Zealand’s biota?
Possible assessments
Learning in this programme could be assessed using a variety of standards – for example:
- Biology 3.5: Demonstrate understanding of evolutionary processes leading to speciation (4 credits, external)
- Earth and space science 3.3: Demonstrate understanding of the evidence relating to geological events
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Focus question 3: How has human settlement affected our biodiversity and what strategies are available to conserve our remaining indigenous species?
Students could consider the following:
- How human settlers have exploited resources, modified habitats, and introduced exotic species to Aotearoa New Zealand.
- The impact of human settlement on indigenous species can be understood using ecological principles.
- An understanding of ecology and evolution can be used to develop strategies to mitigate the negative effects of human activity.
- Evidence from research in Aotearoa New Zealand puts us at forefront of conservation biology.
- Genetic manipulation techniques have potential for conservation biology.
- The biological implications of any given issue can be distinguished from its ethical and/or social implications.
- The Māori and Pasifika practice of rāhui or raui, tapu and noa, as a way to conserve species.
Possible investigations
- What is the best strategy for saving the kakapo? (An opportunity to interview a practising conservation biologist.)
- Using historical data relating to a New Zealand animal (for example, the saddleback), evaluate translocation as a conservation strategy for endangered species. (Investigating the history of science practices and exploring how ideas change over time)
- Do we have the right to produce hybrid animals in an attempt to preserve genetic diversity? (Exploring socio-scientific issues that arise from new scientific knowledge)
- What is the significance for Aotearoa New Zealand’s biodiversity of Australian birds that have self-introduced into Aotearoa New Zealand (for example, the harrier hawk and spur-winged plover)?
- Do whio (blue duck) prefer fast flowing streams or are they just stranded there? (Exploring alternative explanations based on the same data.)
- Are biosecurity checks at Aotearoa New Zealand’s borders really necessary?
- Who owns the rights to Aotearoa New Zealand’s medicinal plants? (Science is a culturally embedded practice.)
- Temperature-dependent sex differentiation in tuatara: does gene technology offer a possible solution to increasing male bias?
- Is cloning a feasible conservation strategy for endangered species?
- Evaluate the science on both sides of the 1080 debate. (Exploring socio-scientific issues.)
- Are microplastics getting into our kaimoana?
- What is the impact of environmental toxins on indigenous frog species?
- To what extent have farming practices permanently affected Aotearoa New Zealand’s biophysical environment? Consider, for example, the eutrophication of waterways and erosion of hill country soils. (Appreciate that science should underpin political and economic policy.)
Possible assessments
Learning in this programme could be assessed using a variety of standards – for example:
- Biology 3.2: Integrate biological knowledge to develop an informed response to a socio-scientific issue
- Biology 3.7 Demonstrate understanding of human manipulation of genetic material and its biological implications
- AS90829 Education for sustainability 3.2: Investigate the interrelationship between humans and a biophysical environment in relation to a sustainable future (4 credits, internal)
- AS90832 Education for sustainability 3.5: Develop and justify a strategy for an organisation that will contribute to a sustainable future (5 credits, internal)
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Focus question 4: How did humans evolve and where did Aotearoa New Zealand’s earliest settlers come from?
Students could consider the following:
- Trends in human biological and cultural evolution.
- The structural features (skull, hands and skeleton) of modern apes and humans can be used to explore their divergence.
- Evolutionary trends in hominids can be understood in terms of their adaptive advantage.
- A critical examination of the current scientific evidence for human evolution.
- The origins and dispersal pattern of humans, particularly in the Pacific region.
Possible investigations
- How did the discovery of Homofloresiensis contribute to current theories about human dispersal patterns? (Compare and evaluate alternative arguments in the scientific community.)
- Use bio-geographical evidence to explore how the Pacific region was peopled.
- What do languages tell us about the origins and subsequent migration of Pacific peoples?
- Is race an obsolete concept?
- How can we determine how closely different races and subgroups are related?
- How is mitochondrial DNA used as an evolutionary clock? (Scientific knowledge is tentative and may be advanced as new techniques and evidence become available.)
- Does Y-chromosome evidence support evidence from mDNA?
Possible assessments
Learning in this programme could be assessed using a variety of standards – for example:
- Biology 3.6 Demonstrate understanding of trends in human evolution
Last updated December 12, 2012
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