Past projects

Where In The World is New Zealand?

Prepared by Kathryn A. Jerves as part of the Fulbright-Hays Seminars 2002.

Grade: 5-7

Executive summary

I titled my unit of study "Where in the World is New Zealand?" because it is a well known phrase taken from a game of the same name about Carmen San Diego and it is recognizable. Most American students have no idea where New Zealand is and I thought this would be a good attention grabber. I have displayed on the bulletin board a map showing the world upside down, with an inverted compass rose showing South in the Up position. This very different view of the world is also intriguing to students as they study the world from a different perspective.

I decided to incorporate my knowledge of New Zealand and the teaching materials and books that I purchased there, by infusing the content into the existing standards for the fifth grade curriculum. Since these standards are based on skills, adding a different topic with the same standards embedded, will only serve to enrich their curriculum. The standards listed below are from the Department of Defense Education Activity Curriculum Standards Manual 2000.4-1, September 1998. I think any of these materials would be suitable for grades 5-7 and would enrich the World History at sixth grade or World Regions and Geography at seventh grade.

Table of contents

• Summary
• Grade level
• Standards
• Introduction to Study of New Zealand
• Key questions
• Background notes
• Instructional strategies
• Social studies
• Writing and technology
• Social studies resources
• Literature resources for students
• Science resources
• Bibliography of websites

Where In The World is New Zealand?

jervesk.pdf (972kB)