Today’s students are the citizens of the future who will have the responsibility of caring for the environment, feeding and caring for the world population, achieving sustainable life styles and ensuring a healthy planet for future generations to enjoy.
Future Focus provides a social studies/cross-curricula approach to the future that combines Future studies pedagogy with NZ curriculum understandings about globalisation, sustainability, citizenship and enterprise (NZC page 39). These important themes are explored through the topics of Human rights, Poverty, Hunger, Natural resources and Communities. Content is both international and specific to New Zealand, and activities are designed to develop all the Key competencies.
Click here to view Sample Pages online
While it is aimed at Year 9–10 students, this resource is rich enough to be extremely useable across a variety of age and year levels. It is also flexible enough to be studied in its entirety, or in part.
Future Focus concludes with an inquiry-based guided research project for self-managed study.
Introduction for teachers
Chapter 1 What’s my future?
A passion for prediction
Why do people think about the future?
What can our ideas about the future tell us?
How do people think about the future?
Chapter 2 Human rights
Introduction
Human rights
Non-human rights
Chapter 3 Poverty
Introduction
Poverty and inequality in the world today
Poverty and inequality in New Zealand today
What’s wrong with poverty and inequality?
Can we end poverty?
What causes poverty?
Economic systems that promote inequality
What alternatives to poverty exist?
Chapter 4 Hunger
Introduction
What causes hunger?
Alternatives to hunger
Chapter 5 Natural Resources
Introduction
Natural resources
Measuring our ecological footprint
Natural resource depletion
Looking for alternatives: Sustainable resource use
Chapter 6 Communities
Introduction
What is a community?
Why are communities important?
What threatens communities?
What protects communities?
Communities in the future
Chapter 7 Individual Research Project
Introduction
A project plan
Getting started on your research
Communicating your research
An essay planning guide
Reflecting on your research
Glossary
Eve Tonkin is an experienced author and secondary English and Social studies teacher with a passion for open curriculum and student-led learning. Currently she is Principal at Timatanga Community School in Auckland.
While it is aimed at Year 9–10 students, this resource is rich enough to be extremely useable across a variety of age and year levels.
Click here to view sample pages online