	MOTUEKA HIGH SCHOOL

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Social Science

Social Science Staffing

Graeme Coleman - Head of Department
Sharon Beuke - History
Jodie Mitchell - Social Studies
James Tait - Social Studies
Tracey Ellery - Social Studies

Curriculum Development
New learning activities and common assessments are being implemented and updated for most Year 9 and 10 units for 2007. Some of these include creating board or game style games to reflect NZ’s identity and heritage for year 9. Some “Where on Earth” year 10 unit students have been looking at Global changes shaping the world through own topic selections, that have been very successful. These support one of our school-wide goals to boost student inquiry learning skills. SS learners have been using a common MHS inquiry sequence developed during 2006 staff training. The gaol is to have a common inquiry learning template across subjects.

Staff Training
Social Studies staff have attended valuable courses and seminars to support their teaching and range of learning activities. Eric Frangenheim, a well respected Australian educator, visited Nelson in term 3 to share practical planning skills to encourage Thinking Skills for Learners. Two Social Sciences staff attended and will build their experiences into SS lessons.

Learning with e-technology is a current school focus with SS staff attending the TUANZ (technology users) regional conference including very stimulating speakers such as Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach from the eastern USA. A SS staff member will also attend the national Ulearn technology conference in the October holiday break. In addition two SS staff are currently building skills in online visual learning sources through the Tasman LOOP training programme.

Field Events
Year 12 tourism students visited tourism operators in Nelson in their Term 3 field visit. Monaco Resort, the Nelson I Site Visitor Information Centre and the WOW Centre hosted the students. The visit focused on work roles and employer expectations in NZs tourism industry. The significant expansion of the cottage and hotel accommodation at Monaco impressed students, as did the quality of the Wearable Arts and Collectable cars at the WOW Centre.
Year 13 tourism students will be out in the field soon focusing on local features of historic interest to visitors and the extent of visitor activities in Mapua and Richmond.
Some year 10 classes studying the “Human Rights and Justice” theme have benefited from screenings of the movie “Amazing Grace” looking at efforts to abolish slavery.

Newspapers in Education
Year 10 students participate in this ‘Tuned In' programme using monthly inserts in the Nelson Mail. The aim is to foster interest in world and NZ events, leaders and change. Students can join at any stage with payment of $4.50 to the school office. Recent themes have included issues arising from gang activity and text partying, traditional fisheries in NZ and actions towards a more peaceful world.

Learners at work
The student efforts displayed are from recent class work and open evening displays.

Community Issues Term 4 2008 - Swimming Pool Survey

Report on the survey by the Community Issues class into “Does Motueka need a new, heated, community pool?”

After brainstorming ideas, the best seemed to come from the concern about the need for a new pool in Motueka, heated and covered, with therapy and learners pool.
When Mr Barry Dowler talked to Mr Reid about getting a new pool, we instantly decided we would like to hear more about it.
He came and talked to our class about concerns raised by the community, about cost for the initial building and then for maintenance.
He also talked to us about what the pool could bring to Motueka High school, and the community.
• It would be accessible during school hours to the students, through their own side gate entrance.
The public would have their own entrance and changing rooms accessible after school and through the weekend.
• The cost of building would be from $4 - $5 million and fundraising by the community would be about $1 Million.
• The TDC would borrow 80% and ratepayers would be liable for the costs of repaying that loan.
• The maintenance costs of the pool would be shared between the Motueka rate payers and the Ministry of Education.

RESULTS

Our class drafted a hypothesis “We think that most people will want a swimming pool, but not want to pay the costs of maintenance. We also think that with the Ministry of Education helping out with running costs people will be more inclined to say yes and help financially towards the building of the pool complex and pool.
• We interviewed 500 people and the majority were Females 31-60 and Males <18.
This may have been influenced by the time of day we ventured into town, when the main shopping is done.
• 79% of the people interviewed were residents of Motueka with just 21% from outside the district.
• Only 46% of the people interviewed were aware of the pool concept.
• Of the 500 people interviewed, 80% were keen to get a community pool at the High school, 12% weren’t interested in it and 8% weren’t sure.
• The most common amount of usage in the pool was anticipated to be around weekly to monthly. Approximately 130 people interviewed would use the pool weekly and near 150 people would use it occasionally. Never came to around 80 people, monthly 60 people and daily was the lowest at approximately 35 people.
• 58% of people interviewed would use the pool more if It had less chlorine in the system.
• About 44% indicated they were prepared to assist with fund raising.
• Understandably there was little interest in paying extra rates to pay on-going pool maintenance and repay the loan with nearly 30% not prepared to pay anything extra.
• The idea of sharing maintenance costs with the Ministry of Education was supported by 62%.
• Nearly half of those interviewed never used the existing pools over the summer months with 33% only using them occasionally.
• The Richmond Aquatic centre was used occasionally by 48% of the people interviewed while 45% have never used it.
• The main factors which influence peoples’ use of public swimming pools; 206 people prefer the river or beach, and 182 believe the cost of travel is to high ( for travelling to the Aquatic Centre in Richmond or one of the other Richmond or Nelson pools while 176 disliked crowds and 150 expressed dislike of chlorine.

Overall we found that people supported the pool concept but were reluctant to commit to financial support. The idea of sharing maintenance costs with the Ministry appealed as did the idea of using a low chlorine cleaning system.

The class selected the best two slide shows to present the results to Barry Dowler and Fred Hickling from the Pool committee and Mr Rex Smith. Amy Bandy and Jessie Cates were the chosen ones and they did a great job. Copies of the results were reported in the two local newspapers and More FM news. The Mayor of the TDC, Richard Kempthorne and local Community Board member David Ogilvie were also provided with copies of the results.

View the PowerPoint presentation created by Amy Bandy.

Community Issues Term 1 2008 - McDonalds

Introduction
During Term 1 2008, the Year 10 Community Issues class at Motueka High School conducted a survey on McDonald’s decision to build premises in Motueka. Our class first brainstormed for possible issues that could be of interest to our community. At this time McDonald’s decision was stirring considerable opposition from a number of concerned citizens who are known as Uniquely Motueka. The media noted their actions that included public meetings, letters to newspapers, and a petition calling for reconsideration of the resource consents decision in favour of McDonalds. Uniquely Motueka’s protest actions were even picked up by TV3’s news coverage.

The research process
We took the opportunity to invite Helen Guerrero from Uniquely Motueka to explain to our class what the issue was about. After this discussion and research on the internet about concerns about McDonalds, the class set about drafting a questionnaire. We finalised the questionnaire with a focus on the issue as it relates to the Motueka community rather than getting diverted into global issues.

The questionnaire which had a total of 12 questions is included with this report.

Our class then formulated an hypothesis “ We believe most people will support McDonald’s in Motueka, although a minority will oppose it’s location and object to the rubbish, traffic congestion and unhealthy food McDonald's will bring.” This was based on the actual questions asked in the survey and of course how the students believed the community would respond in the survey.

Over about 10 days in early April 2008 we interviewed 452 people. We canvassed a number of classes at High School ranging from year 9 up to Year 13. We then hit High Street over four class periods and managed to achieve a total of 452 interviews. 213 were at school while 239 were in High Street.

The results
We tallied the results into tables which are included with this report. The tables were entered into Excel and graphs were generated and then imported into Power point presentations.

The main results are:
Although we interviewed a wide range of age groups it became apparent that we gained 213 just in the under 18 group compared with 239 for 18 and over age groups. Students found interviewing adults a little more daunting than interviewing their peers.

86% of the people interviewed were residents of the Motueka district which we agreed covered the area within the school catchment.

The big question we asked was “Do you support McDonalds coming to Motueka?” The response was a resounding yes (78%) for the under 18s but the percentage support dropped to 60% for the 18-30s, 52% for the 31-60s and 61% for the over 60s. Overall the percentage support was 67%.

For the remaining questions we simplified the age group divisions by grouping the under 18s with the 18-30s and the 31-60s with the over 60s. We tested the popularity of McDonalds with the question “Have you eaten any McDonald’s food in the last month?” Almost 55% of the 30 and unders responded positively compared with 30% for the over 30s. Considering eating at McDonalds requires a visit to Nelson, these percentages are surprisingly high.

When asked “How frequently would you eat at McDonalds in Motueka?” occasionally featured most prominently with both age groups at 38% for 30 and unders and 43% for over 30s. 52% of 30 and unders would eat there monthly or more frequently compared with just 30% of over 30s. Only 16% of all surveyed would never eat at McDonalds.

In response to “What will Motueka gain from McDonalds?” there was remarkable agreement across all the age groups with about 40% citing greater employment followed by more food variety at 22% and more tourist earnings at 18%.

For the question “Which problems will be worsened by McDonalds?” Increased litter and traffic congestion were the two main problems identified by both age groups followed closely by the concern about an increasing unhealthy diet. Increased competition for local food outlets featured also but loss of unique identity and young people being targeted by advertising were of minor concern. Few people chose “none of the above” (12%) which indicates that most people in the community do have concerns about the impact of McDonalds.

When asked “Do you support the location of McDonalds on the corner of High and Whakarewa Streets? Results were very similar between the age groups with about 42% supporting the location but also 42% of over 30s opposed to this location. A high proportion of both age groups were undecided (18%). Clearly the community has misgivings about McDonalds location. The main worry seems to relate to worsening traffic congestion at this already busy intersection.

“Should McDonald’s sign be reduced because it will be located at the entrance to the commercial district?” This produced unclear results without a clear endorsement or condemnation. However, once again the community has concerns about this aspect of the issue.

“Do you believe the community has been consulted adequately by the TDC in granting resource consent? “Not sure” was the response for 40% of both age groups and an even split between “yes” and “no”. This underlines the uncertainty that the community has about how well the TDC consulted in the resource process.

“If no then what else should the TDC have done to consult further on the resource consent process?”
Of the 133 who chose “no” most favoured either public meetings or a community survey as the best ways for the TDC to improve their consultation with the public.

Conclusion
Overall we proved our hypothesis correct as 67% of the people surveyed supported the decision of McDonalds to locate in Motueka. A significant group were worried about the likely increase in litter and increase in traffic congestion. Concern about the rise in unhealthy food available was also expressed. The location of McDonalds on the High and Whakarewa Streets’ intersection is of particular concern as it is already congested. Turning right from Whakarewa Street into High Street is a difficult manoeuvre due to poor visibility to the right. The increased flow from McDonalds will compound this problem.