Tawa College
10 Social Studies
Course Description
Teacher in Charge: S. Avery
Social Studies
Year 10 Social Studies is important because it focuses on important aspects of New Zealand society and global relationships. It is an ideas based subject.
The first two topics directly relate to being a citizen of New Zealand. The Treaty of Waitangi gives an overview of some causes, the event and some consequences of the Treaty. Contrary to myths about knowledge of the Treaty Year 10 students seldom know any detail about the treaty. Our second topic looks at our system of democracy and contrasts it with examples of dictatorship. Aspects of international relations, present or past,is done in the last term.
Content is flexible depending on teacher decisions and a degree of student choice.
There are four assessments, one essay, a perspective, a presentation and an unsighted resources exam.
Course Overview
Term 1
The topic is the Treaty of Waitangi. This is a huge area to study so teachers select what aspects to focus on ensuring they look at something about why there was a treaty, the signings and some consequences of the Treaty. Causes involve early contact between Maori and Pakeha and consequences could include such aspects as the Wellington conflict, war in the 1860's, loss of land, the Waitangi Tribunal. It is important to realise that a programme of around 26 lessons does not give much scope for detail in our studies.
Assessment is an an essay and a perspective task.
Term 2
The topic looks at our system of democracy in the 21st century. It contrast s our MMP democracy with dictatorships. During the Term each class goes on a day visit to a guided tour of the District Court, old High Court and Supreme Court followed by a tour of parts of Parliament House and observing question time from the public gallery. We study aspects such as the voting system, political parties, select committees, the role of cabinet, the layers of courts and legal rights.
Term 3
In a study of a single or multiple dictatorships we look at such ideas as how and why dictators attained and maintained. power. An often studied dictatorship is Hitler's Third Reich. Others studied might go back to ancient times, tyrannical monarchs or North Korea.
We think understanding of NZ's system of government is vital for citizenship and studying dictatorships is important as it shows students how much of the world is and has been governed.
Assessment is a presentation comparing NZ's democracy and a dictatoship.
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Term 4
The Term Four topic looks at international relations in the past or present. We think it is important to do this because we are very much part of a globalised world and students need to think about how states relate and about important issues that divide, unite and challenge them. The course could be based around current news stories, , historical examples such as the Cold War or Greek Wars in antiquity or issues such as water resources, migration, the UN, just to give some examples.
The assessment is a two hour exam based on unsighted resources.
Contributions and Equipment/Stationery
Computers, ruler, pen, pencil, coloured pencils, scissors
Recommended Prior Learning
Year 9 Social Studies
Pathway
Pathway Tags
Policy analyst, lawyer, manager, academic, tour guide, travel agent, psychologist, town planner,
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