Download the relevant Te Papa teaching resource for your curriculum focus and year level. Use it to build students' prior knowledge and arrive with a genuine question — not a worksheet to complete, but something they actually want to find out.
Students sketch, photograph, and record what they encounter. For each object or exhibit that stays with them: what is it, what does it tell me, and what question does it give me that a photograph wouldn't?
Students bring their photographs, sketches, and questions to AI using the prompts below. AI is the research partner for what they found — not the authority on what it means or whose story it carries.
The assessable evidence of thinking sits alongside whatever Te Papa teaching resource the class is using. The Trace Scale records what the authentic encounter produced that no digital resource could.
| Level | Years 1–6 | Years 7–10 | Years 11–13 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I can describe one object or exhibit from Te Papa that I couldn't have experienced properly on a screen. | I can describe a specific object or exhibit and explain what its physical presence at Te Papa adds that a digital reproduction cannot. | I can analyse why the physical encounter with a specific object produces a qualitatively different kind of understanding from digital or AI-mediated access. |
| 2 | I can say whose story the object or exhibit tells and why that story is at Te Papa. | I can explain the historical, cultural, or scientific significance of a specific object and the context in which it was made, used, or collected. | I can situate a specific object within its broader context and identify the interpretive choices Te Papa has made in how it is displayed and described. |
| 3 | I can say one thing AI told me about what I saw and whether it matched what I experienced at Te Papa. | I can identify where AI's account matched the museum's own description and where it simplified, omitted, or introduced a different perspective. | I can critically evaluate AI's account against the museum's own interpretation, primary sources, and the perspectives of communities whose taonga or stories are represented. |
| 4 | I can say why being at Te Papa gave me something I couldn't have got from a book or a screen. | I can explain what direct encounter with museum objects adds to learning that secondary sources and AI cannot provide, using a specific example from the visit. | I can articulate the epistemological difference between encountering an original object, reading about it, and querying AI about it — and explain what each produces that the others cannot. |
| 5 | I can say one question the visit gave me that I still want answered. | I can identify a question raised by the visit that remains genuinely unresolved and propose what source, experience, or expert would help answer it. | I can propose a research question arising from the visit, identify appropriate sources and methods, and explain what additional expert knowledge would be needed to develop a well-evidenced response. |