Three glowing doorways in a forest, each opening onto a different world

World 08 · Any term · Combined Year 7–8 class

Worldbuilding & Navigation

Can we build a world that behaves like a real system?

Start the journey Read first

Your mission

World Builders: can we make a world that behaves like the real one?

What you'll make

A playable model of a real system, tested against real data, with an honest note of where it fails.

Who it's for

Another class plays your model; whānau showcase

How long

About nine one-hour sessions, in any term. It can be shorter or longer.

NZ curriculum, Years 7–8:Technology: Digital TechnologyTechnology: Design, Make, and Innovate· Topics: computer modelling, Scratch, simulation, predator–prey models, maps, navigation, star compass, systems modelling

Your journey

Nine weeks from question to something you're proud of

Each week has one job. You ask, investigate, make sense of it, design, build, test, improve and share.

Nine weeks, one hour each

Tap a week to see that lesson. Each world runs as nine one-hour weeks; it can be shortened to five weeks or stretched to 11–12.

5 weeks

Quick build

Change one rule in a starter predator–prey model and test it against real data.

9 weeks

Full journey

Build, test, playtest and explain your own model of a real system.

11–12 weeks

Go further

Add a second system, compare two algorithms, or publish to a class gallery.

Big ideas

What this world is really about

Big idea 1
A model is a representation of a system, tested against how the real system actually behaves.
Big idea 2
Rules, feedback and constraints can be used to represent real relationships.
Big idea 3
A model that fails to behave as expected is still a valuable source of evidence.

Up close

Things you'll meet in this world

The Southern Cross and the dark Coalsack nebula: stars used for finding south.
Photo: ESO/S. Brunier, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Whanganui River from the air: a real system you could model and map.
Photo: Duane Wilkins, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Read first

Background reading

Short readings to read with a partner. Stop at each “Think about it” and talk it through.

Patterns are rules in disguiseRead

Nature is full of patterns: the spiral of a shell, the branching of trees and rivers, the cycle of the seasons. Branching patterns spread water or nutrients to every part of a system. Seasonal cycles time when plants grow and animals breed.

When you build a model world, your rules make the patterns. A good model produces patterns that look like the real system.

Think about it: What pattern should your model produce if it is working? How will you know?

Source: Regenpreneur PDC "Pattern Understanding".

Maps are models tooRead

A map is a model of a real place. It shows some things and leaves others out. Mapmakers choose:

what to show (roads, rivers, place names, land parcels) as separate layers;
how to show numbers: a choropleth map shades each area on a colour scale by a value, such as the number of people or the density of people;
which projection: a projection is the way the round Earth is flattened onto a map. Each one is designed for a particular part of the world; a projection made for Alaska looks wrong for New Zealand. Every layer has to use a matching projection, or the layers won't line up.

Think about it: If your model world had a map, which three layers would matter most for your system?

Source: Massey GIS course material, "Map Projections Tutorial" and "Choropleth Mapping Activity".

Reading the shape of the landRead

Topography is the shape of the land. Slope is how steep it is. Gentle slopes (0–5%) drain well and suit farming with machines. Steep slopes (15% and above) erode more easily in heavy rain, so they are often planted with trees whose roots hold the soil. Aspect is the direction a slope faces (in New Zealand, north-facing slopes get more sun).

Think about it: If your model world has hills, what rule would you write for what happens to soil on a steep slope in heavy rain?

Source: Regenpreneur PDC "Understanding and Leveraging Farm Topography".

One more reading draws on mātauranga Māori and will appear once our cultural advisor has checked it.

Go deeper: from Science Learning Hub and DOC

Why scientists build modelsRead

A model is a simpler version of something real (an object, a process or a whole system) that helps us explain it or predict what it will do. Some are things you can hold, like a globe. Some are drawings. Some are sets of rules run on a computer.

Scientists use models when the real thing is too big, too small, too slow, too fast or too far away to study directly. For example:

Climate models predict how the world may change with more carbon dioxide in the air.
Fisheries models estimate how many fish can be caught without the population collapsing.
Fire models predict how fire would spread through a tunnel or building.

Every model is wrong in some way. A model is only as good as the data and rules inside it. So scientists test their models against real observations (called ground-truthing), and improve them when new evidence arrives. Globes took centuries to become accurate.

That is exactly what you do in this world: build a model, test it against real data, and say honestly where it fails.

Think about it: What is one thing your model world gets right, one thing it leaves out, and how could you test it against reality?

Adapted for Kōkiri Lab from “Scientific modelling”. Source: Science Learning Hub – Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao, The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato, www.sciencelearn.org.nz Read the original

Explore more

Trusted places to find out more

Videos, articles and activities from Science Learning Hub and other trusted sites, matched to the week they help most.

These links open other websites. Kōkiri Lab checked them in September 2026.

How you'll learn

Investigate, think, make, share

Every world moves through the same four areas. Pick one to see what you actually do here.

What evidence can we gather?

Students encounter the phenomenon, build the knowledge needed to interpret it, and gather evidence directly.

What you actually do in this world

Research the real system the model will represent, drawing on knowledge and evidence from an earlier term.

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

Make something

Investigate it. Build it.

Hands-on science investigations and build projects for this world, each linked to the week it fits. Open one to see what you need and how to do it.

Science investigations

VOICE: ask a question and find out with evidence

Play the modelDoes a starter predator–prey model behave like real nature?Open

You need

device with Scratch · starter model

Steps

Run the model 5 times and record the populations.
Look for a pattern: do they rise and fall together?
List one thing the model leaves out.

How you'll know: You can describe the pattern and one way it differs from real life.

Go further: Find real data to compare against.

Fits Week 1 →

Change one ruleWhat happens when we change one number in the model?Open

You need

Scratch model

Steps

Predict what will happen if predators breed faster.
Change only that number.
Run it 5 times and compare with before.

How you'll know: Your results support or reject your prediction, and you can say why.

Go further: Find the value that keeps both populations alive.

Fits Week 6 →

Map itHow do maps show the same place in different ways?Open

You need

two maps of your area (street and topographic)

Steps

Find your school on both.
List what each map shows and leaves out.
Decide which map suits which job.

How you'll know: You can explain why no map shows everything.

Go further: Draw a map of your model world with a legend.

Fits Week 3 →

Build projects

FORGE: design, make, test and improve

Model worldCan we build a world that behaves like a real system?Open

You need

Scratch or a board-game kit · your research on a real system

Steps

Write 3–5 rules in plain language.
Build version 1 and test each rule.
Compare with real data and change one rule at a time.

How you'll know: Your model produces a pattern like the real system, and you can say where it fails.

Go further: Add a 'what I left out' panel.

Fits Week 5 →

Playtest swapCan someone else understand and play our model?Open

You need

your model · feedback form

Steps

Swap with another group.
Play without help and write down what's confusing.
Fix the top two problems.

How you'll know: The second group can play it without asking you questions.

Go further: Add instructions inside the game.

Fits Week 8 →

Data dashboardCan we show what our model does in one clear picture?Open

You need

model outputs · graph paper or spreadsheet

Steps

Choose the two most important numbers to show.
Make a graph that updates each run, or draw one by hand.
Add a title and a one-line finding.

How you'll know: A visitor understands your model's main pattern in under a minute.

Go further: Show real data and model data on the same graph.

Fits Week 9 →

More ideas from the Kōkiri library

Makerspace build ideas

Ready-made ideas from the Kōkiri maker library that suit the Make & Test part of this world.

Stretch challenges

Add randomness and explain what it stands for.
Make your model predict something, then check it.
Add a “what I left out” panel to your game.

Where AI helps

AI is your thinking partner, not your ghost-writer

AI turns up at particular moments in this world, to help you think harder. The ideas, the making and the explaining stay yours.

Kōkako, your AI mentor
Weeks 6–8, while you test
What it does
Asks you one question at a time, such as “What does your model leave out?”. It never tells you the answer or whether you are right.
What you do
Decide which rule to change, one at a time, and retest.

Our AI promise

AI asks. You decide.
AI never writes your explanation or does your making for you.
AI never gives you a mark or a score.
If AI is unsure, it says so, and that is useful evidence too.

A map scroll with a question mark beside a forest path

Your platform

AraQuest

The specialist platform for building and testing a playable model of a real system.

This section introduces the platform. Its tools are still being built.

Open AraQuest

For teachers: curriculum, reasoning and inquiry stages

Essential knowledge

Taught to the whole combined class. Over the two-year programme the class covers both the Year 7 and Year 8 curriculum statements.

Digital TechnologyDigital systems: algorithms, pattern recognition, variables, sequence, selection and iteration, applied here to model rules and behaviour rather than a single program.
Phase 3 curriculumSystems thinking, subsystems and feedback, revisited from Robotics & Systems and applied to a constructed world.

The whole combined Year 7–8 class investigates the same phenomenon, with the same fieldwork, equipment and inquiry problem. Instead of splitting the class by year level, every task has three levels of support (Getting started, On track, Stretch), so each learner goes as deep as they are ready to.

Dominant mode:

Model
Design

All five kinds of reasoning, at once

A working model has to hold evidence, comparison, revision, uncertainty and systemic logic together at once.

Evidence-claim linkage

Starting out: What evidence supports this claim?
Going further: How strong is the evidence, what alternative explanations remain, and what evidence would change our conclusion?

Comparative reasoning

Starting out: Identify similarities and differences.
Going further: Compare explanations or models and justify which better accounts for the evidence.

Revision depth

Starting out: Change an idea after testing.
Going further: Explain what evidence caused the revision and how the revised explanation differs from the original.

Uncertainty handling

Starting out: Identify uncertainty.
Going further: Distinguish types and sources of uncertainty and explain how they affect a conclusion.

Causal and systemic explanation

Starting out: Identify relationships.
Going further: Explain interactions, feedback, unintended consequences and system-level effects.

All five dimensions recur across every world. Each world provides a context in which one or more becomes especially visible, not an exclusive assignment.

VOICE and FORGE stages

Document 33 stage names, used across Kōkiri. The week plan above shows which stages each week works in.

Te reo groupings shown are provisional, pending cultural advisor review.

VOICE: investigating

Mainly in STEM Investigate and Think & Create.

Kite · te reo group (provisional)

Question · What do we want to find out, and why does it matter?
Observe · What do we notice?
Evidence · What did we actually record?

Whakaaro · te reo group (provisional)

Compare · What is the same or different?
Interpret · What might the evidence mean?
Uncertainty · How sure are we, and why?
Finding · What can we say?
Next step · What should happen next?

FORGE: designing and making

Mainly in Make & Test, ending with Explain in Share & Impact.

Wero · te reo group (provisional)

Frame · What is the problem, who is it for, and what counts as success?

Kite · te reo group (provisional)

Options · What are at least two real ways we could do it?

Whakaaro · te reo group (provisional)

Represent · Can we sketch, flowchart or model it before we build?

Auaha · te reo group (provisional)

Generate · Make it.

Tohu · te reo group (provisional)

Test · Does it work? Record what actually happened.
Evaluate · How well does it meet the criteria, and why?
Refine · What one change will help, and why?
Explain · How do we explain it, and the evidence, to someone else?

Aotearoa and place

Māori navigation, mapping and settlement, and national historical infrastructure; a playable model of Whanganui itself, if the class chooses this as its subject.