Self guided online resources
Welcome to Te Papa Investigator
This resource is designed for teachers to use when they wish to guide their own classes on visits to Te Papa. The resource integrates the New Zealand curriculum with the Te Papa experience and is suitable for students in years 1-13, achievement levels 1-8.
Each of the objects selected for this resource has supporting information that includes:
- curriculum links
- possible topics for discussion
- links to further information
- suggestions for topics the objects can support
- suggestions for the amount of time spent at each object
- background information
- material about related taonga (treasures) in Te Papa.
The first item below contains information on how to help your students make of the most of their Te Papa visit.
This resource is printable. We suggest that you print a map and the objects that you would like to include in your visit and bring this with you to Te Papa.
All self-guided visits must be booked. Booking your visit helps us give you better service and enables us to provide you with more information about Te Papa.
This section looks at how to get the most from Te Papa as an educational tool and resource: the ways teachers work in museums are different to those used in schools.
Click here for maps to help you find the objects and exhibitions listed in this resource.
Come and see this colourful speed demon, an amazing example of ‘Kiwi ingenuity’ that broke four world records.
Check out this rare and amazing cloak made from the feathers of 20,000 birds. It was given to Captain James Cook in Hawai'i as a mark of enormous respect.
This outdoor exhibition, dense with the bush that once surrounded Wellington Harbour, has plenty for budding explorers, archaeologists, geologists, botanists, ecologists, and physical geographers.
See this painting by one of New Zealand's better known and controversial artists, Charles Frederick Goldie.
Felt the earth tremor beneath your feet lately? Te Papa’s Earthquake House recreates what it felt like to be in one of New Zealand’s most expensive earthquakes.
This junkshop comes alive at night! When the doors are locked and the blinds come down, a high-impact film screens amid an ingenious array of animated objects.
Is it a car? Or is it art? This once fully-functional station wagon merges two kiwi icons together and offers a challenge to New Zealanders’ views of what constitutes art.
This is a unique recreation of a sixteenth century wharepuni or sleeping house.
See spectacular, scale models of two extinct birds that roamed New Zealand some 600 years ago - about to fight, possibly until one of them dies.
One of four Discovery Centres at Te Papa, NatureSpace is a fun, interactive place for children and adults to learn about science and natural history.
Available from late October 2007.
One of four Discovery Centres at Te Papa, PlaNet Pasifika provides an interactive area featuring objects, activities, and stories from the Pacific.
Get close to a giant piece of pounamu (greenstone) - a unique treasure formed by the amazing forces that shape New Zealand’s natural environment.
Availabe from late October 2007.
Ever seen a bull like this grazing in the paddock? Check out this amazing sculpture made with recycled tins by one of New Zealand’s better-known Pacific artists, Michel Tuffery.
See the skeleton of a young male who was attacked by a gang, left for dead, and then tragically killed in an ocean highway accident.
Become a part of Te Papa’s genealogy by finding your heritage inside The Marae, a fantastic example of marae design using contemporary techniques to tell traditional stories.
Find out what it was like to be a migrant travelling to New Zealand in the nineteenth century - the days below deck, the disease, the hunger, the boredom.
Please note: This artwork no longer on display.
Explore this visual karanga that calls our visitors onto Te Papa’s Marae. This artwork is more complex than meets the eye and depicts the traditional stories of six female atua (gods) through the use of contemporary materials.
This elaborately carved waka was once a mighty war canoe on the Whanganui River, paddled by thirty warriors ready for battle.
The Tiger Moth was once a common sight in skies all over the world, especially during World War II. This 1941 New Zealand-made Tiger Moth hangs in Level 4.
Please note: This artwork is no longer on display.
Take time out to reflect on this awesome artwork by one New Zealand’s best-known artists, Colin McCahon.
From the depths of the Southern Ocean comes the Colossal Squid! This online resource is designed to assist teachers to prepare for their self-guided visit to the Colossal Squid.
Take a close look at the intricate carvings on this unusual piece of New Zealand history.
Our Space is a multimedia interactive exhibition, which utilises technology, digital images, and video footage to explore themes of New Zealand’s national identity.
Maths and Art? Its all here! Three dimensional effects, wild lines of symmetry, rotating motifis which absorb and reflect light. Pacific Patchwork to appliqué and its called Tivaevae!
Check out Te Papa’s massive collection of marine mammal skeletons.
Search the crates and boxes for dangerous foreign plants and animals that could invade New Zealand.
Be amazed by the skills of people in Aotearoa hundreds of years ago. Come and take a closer look at this wonderful object.
Discover the amazing world of old-time shopping in the Kiwi Corner Store.
One of four Discovery Centres at Te Papa, Te Huka a Tai provides an interactive area featuring objects, activities, and stories from Aotearoa New Zealand.
Was it really this big? Why has it had such a hard life? Come and immerse yourself in the founding document of Aotearoa New Zealand.