Environmental Education and Mathematics in the New Zealand Curriculum

Number | Measurement | Geometry | Alegebra | Statistics

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Number

Strand Aims

The mathematics curriculum intended by this statement will provide opportunities for students to:

• Develop an understanding of numbers, the way they are represented, and the quantities for which they stand;
  
  Examples of student activities
  • Develop a number sense through exploring numbers of wings, feet, segments, antennae. (Level 1)
  • Solve problems involving percentages, such as calculating the percentage of land used for different purposes. (Level 5)
  
  
• Develop accuracy, efficiency, and confidence in calculating – mentally, on paper, and with a calculator;
  
  Example of student activity
  • Use a calculator and mental methods to round numbers of people who support a decision to fine students who drop litter in the playground. (Level 3)
  
  
• Develop the ability to estimate and to make approximations, and to be alert to the reasonableness of results and measurements.
  
  Example of student activity
  • Estimate the number of trees required to reforest a local hillside. (Level 5)

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Measurement

The mathematics curriculum intended by this statement will provide opportunities for students to:

• Develop knowledge and understanding of systems of measurement and their use and interpretation;

  Examples of student activities

  • Use a 2-dimensional scale to record and compare qualitative data on attitudes to genetically modified food. (Level 6)
  • Measure pollution rates in parts per million. (Level 5)

• Develop confidence and competence in using instruments and measuring devices;

  Examples of student activities

  • Make and use unconventional instruments, such as a water clock or a sundial, to measure time. (Level 2)
  • Measure the amount of rainfall in a given area over a defined period of time. (Level 3)

• Predict and calculate the effects of changes in variables and rate of change of variables on systems representable by simple mathematical models.

  Examples of student activities

  • Investigate whether a given volume of water will be fit to drink if a factory discharges a chemical into it at a given rate per hour. (Level 8)
  • Discuss how it is possible for birth rates to remain high for some years even if each woman has fewer children. (Level 8)

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Geometry

The mathematics curriculum intended by this statement will provide opportunities for students to:

• Gain a knowledge of geometrical relations in two and three dimensions, and recognise and appreciate their occurrence in the environment;

  Examples of student activities

  • Explore a variety of shapes and objects found in nature by touching, observing, and talking about them. (Level 1)
  • Specify locations in the local environment, using bearings or grid references. (Level 4)

• Develop spatial awareness and the ability to recognise and make use of geometrical properties and the symmetries of everyday objects;

  Examples of student activities

  • Identify symmetries in the natural world. (Level 2)
  • Sketch, and describe mathematically, curves that occur in the environment. (Level 8)

• Develop the ability to use geometrical models as aids to solving practical problems in time and space.

  Example of student activities

  • Investigate and report on the application of co-ordinate geometry to an environmental problem. (Level 7)

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Algebra

The mathematics curriculum intended by this statement will provide opportunities for students to:

• Recognise patterns and relationships in mathematics and the real world, and be able to generalise from these;

  Example of student activities

  • Find examples of patterns in the natural environment which demonstrate that some patterns continue without end. (Level 1)

• Develop the ability to think abstractly and to use symbols, notation, and graphs and diagrams to represent and communicate mathematical relationships, concepts, and generalisations;

  Example of student activity

  • Sketch a graph to show the height of a shadow from a nearby building at different times of the day. (Level 4)

• Use algebraic expressions confidently to solve practical problems.

  Examples of student activities

  • Use the concepts of "greater than" and "less than" to describe the numbers of particular types of trees in the school playground. (Level 2)
  • Form simultaneous equations to solve environmental problems. (Level 6)

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Statistics

The mathematics curriculum intended by this statement will provide opportunities for students to:

• Recognise appropriate statistical data for collection, and develop the skills of collecting, organising, and analysing data, and presenting reports and summaries;

  Examples of student activities

  • Collect objects from the natural environment, sort them into categories, count each category, and display and discuss the results. (Level 1)
  • Collect and present environmental data in stem and leaf graphs, dot plots, frequency tables, histograms. (Level 4)
  • Collect and display time series data on an environmental phenomenon, such as river heights. (Level 4)
  • Design and justify sample selection methods for an opinion poll on an environmental issue. (Level 5)

• Interpret data presented in charts, tables, and graphs of various kinds;

  Examples of student activities

  • Interpret the difference between the smallest and largest values, and explain the meaning of clusters or holes in a data display of animals in their local environment. (Level 2)
  • Estimate the median and mean in a data display of temperatures. (Level 4)
  • Critically evaluate data presented in media reports on an environmental issue. (Level 4)

• Develop the ability to estimate probabilities and to use probabilities for prediction.

  Examples of student activities

  • Classify environmental events, such as "the sun will rise tomorrow", "the grass will turn brown tomorrow", "it will snow when it's hot", as certain, possible, or impossible. (Level 2)
  • Use tables of multivariate data from environmental contexts to find the probabilities of everyday environmental events. (Level 6)
  • Select appropriate distribution (binomial, Poisson, or normal) to model the likely impact of a predator eradication project. (Level 8)

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