Haere rā to 2025
Our pānui for Tīhema features new content and taste of what is to come in 2026.
Before we delve into content, we’d like to acknowledge your work in the education and science sectors. Change and the challenges this brings continue at pace. Thank you for your mahi during the year!
Spiderlings preparing to balloon
Square-ended crab spiderlings climb to the tip of a harakeke flower head in preparation to balloon.
Spiderlings use ballooning as a form of passive dispersal to find new habitats and avoid competition with siblings.
Animal dispersal and spiderlings
Dispersal refers to the movement of an organism from the place where it was born, which differs from migration. Dr Chrissie Painting compares dispersal to having a one-way ticket – moving to a new destination with no plans to return – whereas migration is more like having a return ticket. Chrissie has authored new resources that focus on animal dispersal – including the very visual and scientifically fascinating dispersal method used by spiderlings (baby spiders). These tiny creatures create silk parachutes and use air currents and the Earth’s electrostatic field to balloon into the great unknown. Ballooning can become very noticeable as spiderlings disperse to avoid competition for food and a place to live.
Ākonga can use the Spider parachutes activity to explore ballooning and dispersal, and why we use models in science.
Recent PLD webinars
Our recent webinars looked at conservation from very different lenses, and both are now available for online viewing.
Moanamana – taking action to protect our oceans has inspiring examples of marine ecosystem regeneration.
Mythbusting de-extinction to sort fact from fiction examines conservation via the ‘resurrection’ of a species, and whether we can or should do so.
Skull of an eastern moa
Genetic information can be obtained from moa bones even after thousands of years.
Eastern Moa, Emeus crassus, collected Pyramid Valley, New Zealand. Te Papa (S.000470).
A reminder that we have a wealth of edited webinars on our site. Each is timestamped so you can zero in on specific points of interest and they come with wraparound teaching resources.
A taste of what’s to come in 2026
We have lots of content in development. For example:
Stories of te taiao – using pūrākau to create richer, more inclusive ways to understand our world.
Co-existing knowledge systems – using bicultural design to create learning spaces where students can draw from multiple knowledge traditions and ways of knowing.
Exploring inclusive science education – a suite of PLD resources to prompt thoughts about what inclusion can look like in the classroom.
Exploring Mātauranga pūtaiao – a suite of PLD resources that supports kaiako to deepen their understanding of this knowledge system and the importance of its place in classrooms across Aotearoa.
We are also actively designing ways in which the Hub can help educators transition to the refreshed science curriculum.
Keep in touch
A reminder to those of you who are changing schools – please remember to update your email address, (under details in your profile), so we can stay in touch, and you don't lose your collections or favourites. Please email us at enquiries@sciencelearn.org.nz if you have any questions.
Haere rā to 2025 and happy holidays
Thanks again for your work and interest in science and pūtaiao in Aotearoa and for your support throughout 2025. Happy holidays from the Hub Team!
Cathy, Andrea, Vanya, Angela, Rachel, Simone, Greta and Tom.
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Your feedback
We hope you enjoy using the Science Learning Hub Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao in your teaching and would love to hear from you. Your comments, ideas and feedback can be emailed to enquiries@sciencelearn.org.nz.
Noho ora mai
Science Learning Hub Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao
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