It’s a Bug’s Life science resource for ECE and Primary

Teaching scientific skills, knowledge, and practices in ECE settings and primary schools is made easy with this hands-on resource.

Learning areas and strands The New Zealand Curriculum: Nature of Science (Level 1 & 2)
Education type Education resource
Suitable for ECE – Junior Primary
Te Whāriki Exploration, Belonging, Contribution, Communication

This resource helps educators to engage in science with children aged 2–8 years in their own outdoor environments.

We unpack the five science capabilities framework, and introduce the scientific process showing how useful these are for teaching and learning science at this level.

There are lots of helpful recommendations, activity ideas, case studies, and details about other resources, to inform, guide, and inspire your scientific journeys.

The resource is the result of our year-long It’s a Bug’s Life education research project – created by Te Papa in partnership with three Wellington-region ECE centres: Raumati South Kindergarten, Kiwi Kids Childcare (Karori), and Imagine Childcare.

Although our project focused on bugs, the content of this resource can help support teaching other living-world topics.

It’s a Bug’s Life project blog posts