Creating kōwhai infographics
An important aspect of students’ scientific investigations and inquiry learning is summarising their findings. This activity gives students the opportunity to share their learning through the creation of an infographic. Infographics are the visual representation of information using images and text.
The focus of this activity is on mātauranga Māori of kōwhai trees. The activity includes links to resources that students can use for research as well as examples of infographics created by students.
Kōwhai infographic
This infographic provides information about kōwhai trees and its uses. It was made by a student in a year 5–6 classroom.
In this activity, students create infographics about kōwhai trees as a way of sharing their learning.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
locate and use facts about kōwhai trees
locate and use facts about mātauranga Māori of kōwhai
use their design skills to effectively convey this information.
Download the Word file (see link below).
Student inquiry
This activity works as a stand-alone lesson or as part of a wider teaching/inquiry sequence about mātauranga Māori of kōwhai. Additional activities include:
You can hear Chloe talking about these resources in our recorded webinar Exploring mātauranga in the classroom.
Nature of science
This activity supports learning in ‘Communicating in science’ – students combine words and drawings in reflecting/sharing their knowledge about kōwhai trees – and ‘Participating and contributing’ – students create infographics to inform an audience of scientific and sociocultural aspects of kōwhai trees.
Related content
The article Mātauranga Māori of kōwhai explains some of the uses for kōwhai.
The article Understanding infographics explains how infographics are used to convey knowledge using climate change as the context.
Students explore the components of an infographic and then create their own in the activity Using infographics.
Te Kāhui o Matariki – interpreting infographics provides additional opportunities to explore the literacy components of infographics.
We've curated a selection of bilingual and reo Māori infographics and diagrams in this handy collection. Visual representations provide excellent opportunities to develop literacy practices and learn new information.
Useful links
Use these resources to learn more about kōwhai and its uses:
New Zealand native plant use – New Zealand Marine Studies Centre
Kōwhai – Tāne’s Tree Trust
The spiritual importance of kōwhai – Pūkaha
Kōwhai – New Zealand Geographic
Kōwhai – Wikipedia
Kōwhai facts for kids – Kiddle
Kōwhai – Department of Conservation
The Science Learning Hub has curated a number of infographics in our science infographics Pinterest board.
Note taking is an important skill that needs direct, explicit teaching. Educators can model note taking using this tic tac toe template.
Acknowledgement
This article was written by Chloe Stantiall as part of the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative project Envisioning student possible selves in science: Addressing ‘plant blindness’ through place-based education. The project explores students’ sense of place and science-related possible selves through local curriculum units that focus on plants. Chloe was assisted by researchers Maurice M. W. Cheng and Bronwen Cowie from The University of Waikato.
