Kōkiri Lab
Kōkiri Lab
A young explorer looking out over a green, sunlit Aotearoa landscape

Kōkiri Lab · Years 7–8 STEM

Eight worlds. Eight real questions.

A Years 7–8 STEM curriculum for Aotearoa, built on the NZ Science and Technology curriculum.

Choose a worldHow learning works

The eight worlds

Progressively different kinds of systems

An inquiry world is a sustained learning context in which a coherent set of disciplinary knowledge and practices is developed through authentic phenomena, investigations, models and design challenges, with repeated opportunities to apply, connect and revise that learning.

Flexible programme · any term · combined Year 7–8 class

World 01Robotics & SystemsHow do systems sense, decide, act and respond?World 02Biodiversity & DiscoveryWhat lives here, and how can we know?World 03Ecosystem Health & RestorationHow do we know whether a system is healthy?World 04Earth Systems & SpaceHow can we understand what we cannot directly observe?World 05Evolution & AdaptationHow do populations change over time?World 06Ecohome & DesignHow can we design a home that works for people and place?World 07Regenerative Systems & LivingHow can human systems help living systems thrive?World 08Worldbuilding & NavigationCan we build a world that behaves like a real system?

Kōkiri is a flexible programme taught to a combined Year 7–8 class. Worlds can run in any term and in any order that suits the school. Over the two years of the programme the combined class works through all eight worlds, and so covers both the Year 7 and the Year 8 curriculum statements, at different points in time. The progression below describes growing sophistication for every learner, not a year level.

Encountering and explaining systems

Observeidentifyclassifymeasurecompareexplain

Changing and modelling systems

Explainpredictevaluatedesignmodeltestrevise

The Kōkiri learning pathway

Four areas, in every world

Every world asks you to gather evidence, construct an explanation, test and revise it, and communicate both the finding and its uncertainty, not merely to complete an activity.
  1. 01STEM InvestigateWhat evidence can we gather?Students encounter the phenomenon, build the knowledge needed to interpret it, and gather evidence directly.
  2. 02Think & CreateWhat explanations, models or designs can we construct?Students interpret evidence, form explanations, and generate design or model ideas, articulating and comparing their thinking with others.
  3. 03Make & TestHow can we test or improve them?Students build, test, and revise, whether a physical outcome, a digital artefact, or a documented explanation.
  4. 04Share & ImpactWhat can we communicate, decide or contribute?Students justify decisions, explain reasoning including its uncertainty, and share outcomes with a real or intended audience.

This is not a strict pipeline. A student may investigate, model, test, investigate again, revise, and communicate, in whatever order the actual inquiry demands.

VOICE: Question, Observe, Evidence, Compare, Interpret, Uncertainty, Finding, Next step · FORGE: Frame, Options, Represent, Generate, Test, Evaluate, Refine, Explain

VOICE and FORGE are instructional heuristics, not curriculum structures. They help teachers and students organise inquiry and design activity moment to moment, sitting underneath the four-part learning pathway. VOICE mainly operates within STEM Investigate and Think & Create; FORGE mainly operates within Make & Test.

Three modes of learning

Investigate, design, model

Each world names a primary mode; this is a statement of emphasis, not a claim that the other modes are absent.

Investigate

Students seek to understand something that already exists.

Dominant in: Robotics & Systems, Biodiversity & Discovery, Ecosystem Health & Restoration, Earth Systems & Space, Evolution & Adaptation

Design

Students use knowledge and evidence to create or change something.

Dominant in: Robotics & Systems, Ecosystem Health & Restoration, Ecohome & Design, Regenerative Systems & Living, Worldbuilding & Navigation

Model

Students construct a representation of a system to explain, predict or explore its behaviour.

Dominant in: Earth Systems & Space, Evolution & Adaptation, Regenerative Systems & Living, Worldbuilding & Navigation

Five kinds of scientific reasoning

What getting better at science looks like

All five dimensions recur across every world. Each world provides a context in which one or more becomes especially visible, not an exclusive assignment.
Five reasoning dimensions, from starting out to going further
DimensionStarting outGoing furtherEspecially visible in
Evidence-claim linkageWhat evidence supports this claim?How strong is the evidence, what alternative explanations remain, and what evidence would change our conclusion?Earth Systems & SpaceWorldbuilding & Navigation
Comparative reasoningIdentify similarities and differences.Compare explanations or models and justify which better accounts for the evidence.Evolution & AdaptationWorldbuilding & Navigation
Revision depthChange an idea after testing.Explain what evidence caused the revision and how the revised explanation differs from the original.Robotics & SystemsWorldbuilding & Navigation
Uncertainty handlingIdentify uncertainty.Distinguish types and sources of uncertainty and explain how they affect a conclusion.Biodiversity & DiscoveryWorldbuilding & Navigation
Causal and systemic explanationIdentify relationships.Explain interactions, feedback, unintended consequences and system-level effects.Ecosystem Health & RestorationEcohome & DesignRegenerative Systems & LivingWorldbuilding & Navigation

Specialist platforms

Six platforms, each serving a world

Platforms are developed in response to curriculum and inquiry requirements, not the reverse.
NuiBotOpen nowRobotics & SystemsFrom intent to a working robot. Students move from “I want the robot to do this” to a working, tested robot through the FORGE design cycle.MaramaTrapOpen nowBiodiversity & Discovery · revisited in Evolution & AdaptationLocal species records with AI-assisted identification. The AI's confidence is something students evaluate, not something they accept.AwaKaiOpen nowEcosystem Health & Restoration (diagnostic use) · Regenerative Systems & Living (design use)One platform, two modes. Diagnostic mode asks whether a system is healthy; design mode asks whether an intervention helped. That shift, from understanding to intervention, is a curriculum progression, not just a feature.SkyLabOpen nowEarth Systems & SpaceThe specialist platform for Earth Systems & Space.KāingaLabIn developmentEcohome & DesignThe platform for Ecohome & Design, where fair tests of materials and functional home models come together.AraQuestIn developmentWorldbuilding & NavigationThe platform for Worldbuilding & Navigation, where students build a playable model of a real system.

Curriculum coverage

What Kōkiri covers, and what it doesn't

Kōkiri does not attempt to deliver every Phase 3 Science and Technology statement. Where content sits more naturally within another subject's own disciplinary identity, Kōkiri leaves it there deliberately and relies on that subject to teach it. This is a curriculum design decision that gives Kōkiri a distinct focus, not a coverage failure.

Five of seven Phase 3 Science domains

  • Motion and Forces
  • Matter Interactions and Energy
  • Earth and Space
  • Organism Diversity
  • Ecosystems

Four of five Phase 3 Technology strands

  • Materials Technology
  • Systems and Control
  • Digital Technology
  • Design, Make, and Innovate (cross-cutting)

Left deliberately to other subjects

  • Food and Processing Technology. Sits with the school's cooking and food technology provision.
  • Reproductive and developmental content within Life Processes. Sits with Health and Physical Education, which the curriculum document itself specifies for the puberty-related content.

An open gap: Year 8 chemistry: mixtures, solubility and separation

A small body of Year 8 chemistry content concerning mixtures, solubility and separation does not yet have a natural home within Kōkiri or an obvious alternative subject, and remains an open item for the programme's ongoing development.

Assessment

Three layers in every world

Each layer draws on teacher assessment, student reflection, and Kōkiri analytics as a further evidence source. Without the analytics, the curriculum would remain teachable and assessable through teacher judgement, student work, observation and discussion.

Knowledge

Can the student explain the relevant disciplinary concepts?

Practice

Can the student investigate, model, design, test and communicate?

Reasoning

Can the student connect evidence and claims, compare alternatives, revise reasoning, handle uncertainty, and explain systems and causality?