GEOGRAPHY TIPS 3.3
A SIGNIFICANT EVENT FROM A GEOGRAPHIC
PERSPECTIVE
(AS91428)
WHAT THIS STANDARD IS ABOUT?
This is a stand-alone assessment since it only occurs at this level. The intention is to introduce
students to some basic planning requirements and so see how geography can be applied. It is the
one area of senior geography in which it is possible to discuss issues such as the RMA and its
significance to New Zealand.
WHAT COMPRISES A SIGNIFICANT CONTEMPORARY EVENT?
This is about an event not a building. In other words it is something that only happens on occasions
- it could happen only once, be once or twice a year or only happen every few years.
In order to be geographic it needs have a spatial dimension and can be shown on a map. Geography
is about people/environment interaction and so it is only possible to look at such an issue from a
geographic perspective if it is also linked to a particular place. It does not matter if the ‘event’ is
based in a building since the impacts of coping with extra visitors in terms of transport and
accommodation make this geographic.
The term ‘contemporary’ is taken as an event that has happened within the last 5 years. In other
words it is ‘current’. It must be an event that has happened since the impacts of it need to be
investigated and backed up with evidence. The event also must have been planned and not
something, such as a demonstration that happens on the spur of the moment.
The term ‘significant’ event must be of a scale that means it has wide reaching effects on a large
area. This can be global, national or regional. Studying the effects of a school sport match would
have little impact on the region so would not be suitable. It is often easier to think of the numbers
of people involved – the larger this is the more impact it will have.
The event can be based anywhere in the world. However, do watch this unless it is of a size that
means information is easy to obtain. It is often easier for students to choose locations in New
Zealand they are familiar with and can easily find resources about. The ideal is to get students to go
to the event and collect data but this is not always possible.
WHAT EVENTS ARE SUITABLE?
As in the case of many Level 3 assessments the ideal is to get students to choose their own event to
investigate. However, this does pose a few issues in that the number of suitable events is often
limited.
You should also think of the ‘events’ that are both topical and of interest to your students. A
student in Wellington may be interested to cover the wearable arts awards while a student in the
South Island may wish to look at the Coast to Coast.
The number of different events possible is huge! What follows are just suggestions to get you
thinking.
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A major national or regional sporting event like a rugby test, cricket test, Triathalon,
Round The Bays, marathon, V8, Dragon Boating or coast to coast
A large music festival like Rhythm and Vines, Parachute or CoroGold
A large arts festival like Pacifika, Womad or Wearable Arts
An exhibition held for a limited time that can draw the crowds like the visit of the
Greenpeace ship, Warbirds at Wanaka or A and P shows like the Hamilton Field days.
A large conference such as the Pacific Forum
An awards ceremony or ticker- tape parade such as welcoming home our Olympic
Athletes, successful sports teams or the opening of premier films.
A large regional event like a Food and Wine Festival or Market Day.
OTHER MATTERS TO CONSIDER
This standard will take about 3-4 weeks of your teaching programme depending on whether
you assess it formally or in student’s own time. You may like to consider alternative forms of
assessment to a written assessment since this is ideal as a seminar, power point, film or
poster presentation. You can also use GIS to illustrate some of the aspects. As with other Level
3 internal assessments students are expected to collect some of the material themselves.
However since organisers and councils do not want to be bombarded by individual students it
may be a good idea for this information to be collected by the teacher and made available on a
school intranet site. Alternatively get the students to come up with the questions and the
teacher can send this to the organisers to make it manageable. It is also acceptable to provide
websites to assist students.
WHAT INFORMATION DO YOU NEED TO GET YOU STARTED
Ensure you have access to the following documents:
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The Achievement Standard AS91428
The conditions of assessment
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The generic assessment resource called ‘Plans and Impacts”
The geography clarification of standards from the moderator
Exemplar material such as those available on rhythm and vines or Mystery Creek field
days that identifies the grade mark boundaries
All of these resources can be found at:
www.nzqa.govt.nz/geography
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
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Event websites (the best)
Council Websites
Newspaper Articles
Brochures on the event
You Tube Clips
Photographs
Social Media Sites (for feedback)
Press Releases
Council documents
Interviews
Questionnaires
Visiting speakers / Phonecalls
THE ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
There are 3 main aspects to this assessment that are identified by the marking grid below. What
follows is a checklist of what to include in each of these.
Assessment Aspects
Not
Achieved
Achieved
Merit
Excellence
Outlining Nature of Event
Planning and Decision Making
involved
Social, economic and/or
environmental impacts
Outlining the Nature of the Event:
WHAT
WHEN
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WHO
WHERE
WHY SIGNIFICANT
- What the event is called
- When did the event take place?
- Where did it occur?
- Characteristics such as who is the event for? How many attended? How much did it cost?
- Why it is geographic – what are the spatial features, how it is spatial such as why the location was
chosen or how it shows people/environment interaction.
- The reasons why it is ‘significant’. This can relate to the numbers attending and/or the impact it
has.
- An annotated map showing the location and extent of impact of the event and may show its
significance
Planning and Decision Making Involved
BEFORE THE EVENT
DURING EVENT
AFTER EVENT
- A description of the planning needed before the event with reasons why this was needed –
A. Identify the different participant groups involved such as the role of the stakeholders,
sponsors, council, police, security, insurance, participants, traffic management, food needs, health
and safety needs (this will vary according to the event)
B. Go over the process of compliance or what was needed and why such as resource
consents, licenses, permits, notifying the public and meetings etc.
C. A timeline or flow chart of when these were developed prior to the event
-A description of the planning needed during the event with reasons why this was needed – the role
of emergency services and event staff.
-A description of the planning needed after the event with reasons why this was needed – clean up.
- An evaluation that makes a judgement on how effective the decision making was at each stage.
Who made the final decision? How was this influenced by different values and viewpoints?
Social, Economic and/or Environmental Impacts
SOCIAL (people’s health and well being)
IMPACTS
ECONOMIC (Business and Infrastructure)
ENVIRONMENTAL (Pollution and visual impact)
- An investigation as to the Social, Economic and/or Environmental Impacts. What happened? It is
important that at least two of these 3 categories are included (environmental can be hard to find in
some instances). You can consider this in both the short and long term as well as both positive and
negative
- An evaluation of these impacts. Which were the most important and why? You can also come up
with a cost-benefit analysis, sieve analysis or environmental impact report to see if it met its aims.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GRADES
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In each aspect it is expected at Level 3 that the student uses some geographic terminology and
concepts (see clarification of AS 91428. This can be accessed at:
http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualificationsstandards/qualifications/ncea/subjects/geography/clarifications/level-3/as91428/
Students must also back up their answers with evidence that relates to the event.
Aspect one only goes to an Achieve level so that the amount included does not have to be
extensive. However, to meet Level 3 requirements there should be an element of explanation in the
answer that says why it is a significant event.
In the case of aspects two and three explain is also the key instruction word. It is not enough to say
what happened regarding planning and impacts but to include some explanations as to why.
In order to gain Achievement with Merit it is important to not only explain but to back this up with
good evidence and show a good or in-depth understanding of the event.
At excellence the student must evaluate. This means assessing both the planning and decision
making of the groups involved as well as the relative significance of the impacts it had. At this
level it is also expected that the answer show some insight such as how the different groups are
connected and interact.
HOLISTIC APPROACH
You are reminded that while the aspects are often written as separate questions evidence for any of
them may be contained within any of the answers and students should be rewarded for this.
Since the assessment is marked holistically you need to read the answer provided as a whole and
make a judgement as to the level the answer is at. There is only one criterion for this assessment so
do not treat the questions as independent from each other.
SUGGESTED APPROACH
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Decide if you are going to choose the event or get students to choose the event
themselves.
Establish the event – if chosen by students get them to get this approved by you first
so you can ensure it meets the necessary criteria.
Write up your assessment tasks and assessment schedules. Get someone to check that
these fulfill the needs of the assessment criteria.
Source some information and make it available to students on a website.
Go over the requirements of the standard with students
Get students to start collecting information themselves and to keep a record of these
resources or sites. This can include blogs or social media sites such as facebook.
Pre-teaching of the topic. This should be general or use an alternative event as an
example. This should include:
- What is meant by a significant contemporary event
- How it is geographic in terms of its spatial nature and people/environment
interaction.
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Who are the interested parties in an event
What planning is required before an event? Brainstorm the different groups
involved and how they are involved.
What is the role of the event organisers. You could invite an events
organizer to visit the school.
What licenses, permits and consents are required and how do these work?
You could invite a planner to visit the school.
Go over the compliance timeline – what are the main stages and when did
they happen?
What planning considerations are there during and after an event?
What are the affects of the event? How we divide into social, economic and
environmental and both positive and negative and long and short term.
How to deal with decision making based on the strengths and weaknesses.
Look at examples of decision making techniques like Social Cost Benefit
analysis.
How to evaluate
Complete the assessment. This can be done in stages and each stage may be assessed
using different methods of presentation.
Get students to hand in their bibliography of resources used.
Marking and review
PROBLEMS DISCOVERED BY TEACHERS SO FAR
1. Accessing information is tricky. It takes a lot of time so make sure you start the process
well before it is needed. The best events are those that have their own website. This
will provide links to site maps, council documents and contacts.
2. It is a fine balance in getting enough information for students to find the answers to
the questions while not providing so much information they can just copy it. You need
to provide pathways and links to resources and rely on students being able to filter
these for the information.
3. It is a lot easier if students can go to the event and collect photos and resources
themselves. Alternatively there are you tube and video clips that add interest.
4. Be careful that students do not write too much. They can easily provide far too much
for each question. Check the standard to see where the depth is required. Task 1 for
example is an Achieved question only so does not need a lot of information.
5. Evaluation needs to be stressed as it is needed for Excellence in Task 2 and 3. Students
need to evaluate both the planning and decision making processes as well as the
impacts. This means they need to say how effective they are, compare the levels of
impact and the significance of each.
USEFUL RESOURCES
Apart from the TKI resources there is not a lot available as yet. Commercially the only resource
available is that provided by Geostuff Ltd (www.geostuff.co.nz) that contains a useful booklet for
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students to scaffold the information required about their event and an assessment outline with a
schedule for guidance
The AGTA also has put up information about Polyfest on its new website but you will need to be a
member to gain access to this.
It is to be hoped that schools within a certain area will share resources in cluster groups.
Jane Evans
Northland/Auckland/Central North Geography facilitator
Margaret Leamy
Lower North Island/South Island Geography facilitator
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