Environmental Education and Social Studies in the New Zealand Curriculum

Social Organisation | Culture and Heritage | Place and Environment | Time, Continuity, Change | Resources and Economic Activities

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Social Organisation

Level 1

• Why people belong to groups
  e.g., Kiwi Conservation Club.

Level 2

• How participation within groups involves both responsibilities and rights
  e.g., the rights and responsibilities of campers.

Level 3

• How and why people make and implement rules and laws
  e.g., noise control legislation.

Level 4

• How people organise themselves in response to challenge and crisis
  e.g., civil defence emergencies.

Level 5

• How and why people seek to gain and maintain social justice and human rights
  e.g., the work of Aboriginal land rights organisations.

Level 6

• How and why people organise themselves to review systems and institutions in society
  e.g., the role of pressure groups on environmental issues.

Level 7

• How and why international organisations become established and influence people and societies
  e.g., Greenpeace.

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Culture and Heritage

Level 1

• Features of the culture and heritage of their own and other groups
  e.g., significant landmarks in the local environment.
• Customs and traditions associated with participation in cultural activities
  e.g., the uses of natural materials to make clothing, special foods for ceremonies.

Level 2

• Ways in which communities reflect the cultures and heritages of their people
  e.g., signs of different cultures in the local environment.

Level 4

• Why and how individuals and groups pass on and sustain their culture and heritage
  e.g., the use of songs and dances and written, oral, and visual records about environments.

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Place and Environment

Level 1

• Why particular places are important for people
  e.g., special places in the natural or cultural environment.
• How and why people record the important features of places and environments
  e.g., the use of maps, photographs, and stories.

Level 2

• How people's activities influence places and the environment and are influenced by them
  e.g., the location and use of water sources.
• How and why people describe places and environments in different ways
  e.g., what place names reveal about environments.

Level 3

• How different groups view and use places and the environment
  e.g., different environments in which people live, such as the tundra, atolls, and war zones.
• How and why people express a sense of belonging to particular places and environments
  e.g., the use of photos and diaries.

Level 4

• How places reflect past interactions of people with the environment
  e.g., sites that are important to Māori.
• Why and how people find out about places and environments
  e.g., explorers and adventurers.

Level 5

• Why people move between places and the consequences of this for the people and the places
  e.g., landless migration in Brazil leading to deforestation.
• Why particular places and environments are significant for people
  e.g., sacred sites of indigenous peoples.

Level 6

• The implications of changes to places, for people and for the environment
  e.g., the effects of population change.
• How people's descriptions of places and the environment reflect particular purposes and points of view
  e.g., Māori and Pākehā attitudes to the use of natural resources.

Level 7

• Why and how people regulate the use of places and the environment
  e.g., the Resource Management Act.
• How people's perceptions of places and environments are reinforced or changed by information or experience
  e.g., the effects of an environmental awareness campaign.

Level 8

• How and why people seek to resolve differences over how places and environments should be used
  e.g., the role of the Planning Tribunal.

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Time, Continuity, and Change

Level 2

• How past events changed aspects of the lives of communities
  e.g., the effects of natural disasters on communities.

Level 3

• How the ideas and actions of people in the past changed the lives of others
  e.g., individuals and groups who have worked to preserve the environment.

Level 4

• Causes and effects of events that have shaped the lives of a group of people
  e.g., natural disasters, environmental damage caused by wars.

Level 5

• How the ideas and actions of individuals and groups that have shaped the lives and experiences of people are viewed through time
  e.g., ways in which changes to the environment, such as mining and logging, are viewed now.

Level 6

• Beliefs and ideas that have changed society and continue to change it
  e.g., "reduce, reuse, recycle", "think globally, act locally".

Level 8

• How and why people's past experiences are reinterpreted and how records of past events are revised
  e.g., the Treaty of Waitangi settlements process.

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Resources and Economic Activities

Level 1

• Different resources that people use
  e.g., home vegetable gardens, the use of materials in the local environment to build shelters.
• Different types of work that people do
  e.g., that of the conservation officier.

Level 4

• How and why people view and use resources differently and the consequences of this
  e.g., environmental preservation versus logging or mining.

Level 6

• Factors that affect people's work opportunities and conditions
  e.g., the health and safety requirements of the Employment Act.

Level 7

• How and why individuals and organisations gain access to the resources of nations other than their own, and the consequences of this
  e.g., the ivory trade, the export of native timbers.

Level 8

• How the policies and actions of governments and international organisations result in economic change and the social consequences of economic change
  e.g., the Earth Summit in Rio.

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