FIFA world cup: Where do Australia and NZ belong?

Following on from yesterday's heads up on the Stats NZ interactive mapper resource, it is with great trepidation that I provide this link . I have often wondered if the study of global sporting events encourages more fragile understanding than deep knowledge.#

Caveat aside, if you take a look at the list of competing countries in the FIFA world cup you'll notice that Australia and NZ have been placed in the well known continent of 'Other'. Now, my memory of this mystical place called 'Other' is clear enough to recall the setting of 'Other' from the 1997 Social Studies Curriculum, but I'm sure NZ and Australia weren't in it (although the whole of Africa might have been!). Just goes to show, how we look at something may be greatly influenced by where we are looking from.

On a more serious note, how might this perception of Aussie and NZ be incorporated into some powerful learning about social constructs of geographical boundaries? For let us not forget, that Australia and NZ were both in Oceania before Australia jumped waka to the Asian qualification route. Can international allegiences be chopped and changed as quickly for countries as it can for Winston Reid or Irene van Dyke? Does this only happen in sporting contexts or are there geopolitical examples from history that we know of? Why might we re-draw maps? Are there economic and/or cultural reasons for doing so? Does redrawing maps create winners and losers? Who has the power to redraw maps? Do we all agree on the new boundaries of redrawn maps?

In any case, is any of this applicable, in a substantive way, to any of the social studies achievement objectives of the current New Zealand Curriculum?



# Deep knowledge of sustainability issues could be derived from the Sydney, Beijing and the forthcoming London Olympics. A far cry from the fragile understanding of flags, maps and biographies of the sporting elite.

Interactive Boundary Maps

Statistics New Zealand have long provided valuable census data material for schools. Their interactive boundary maps are no exception. Using mesh block (the smallest unit of data available), area unit, Terrotorial Authority or Regional data you can find out information on number of dwellings, ethnicity, age/sex, education, work, income, family, transport, telecommunications data.

Supereruptions: all you wanted to know but were afraid to ask

Inaugural Professorial Lecture to be given by Colin Wilson, Professor of Volcanology.

Supereruptions are the biggest of all explosive volcanic eruptions, with thousands of cubic kilometres of material ejected in single events. This talk shows how these eruptions and the underground chambers that stored the molten rock before an eruption are being reconstructed using innovative forensic studies from field and laboratory techniques.
Held in the Hunter Council Chamber, Level 2, Hunter Building, Gate 1 or 2, Kelburn Parade, Wellington.
6pm, Tuesday 25 May
Email mailto:rsvp@vuw.ac.nz?subject=Sullivan with ‘Wilson’ in the subject line (acceptances only) or contact the Information Desk on 04-463 6700 to register your interest in attending.
Refreshments will be served following the lecture

The social & economic consequences of the relatively minor eruption of Eyjfjallajokull were significant enough...imagine what the consequences of a supereruption would be...

Geo Cube Teaching Resource

Geocube is an attractive online resource about Geography. Geocube is based on the principle of the Rubik Cube with six faces and 54 topics. It is a virtual and easily accessible website which is available online for free. Move the Geocube around with your mouse and explore the faces and topics.Geocube provides an accessible way to read, see and watch what Geography is and geographers do. This is a European initiative developed by HERODOT, the European Network for Geography in Higher Education and is available to anyone who is interested in Geography.

WASSA has a quick play and the 6 Rubik Cube faces have the following themes, each with 9 sub topics:

Fascinating Earth
Living Together
Exploring our World
Useful Geographies
Earth from all Angles
Shrinking Planet

Very addictive and can be found here.

Obama Health Reforms Go-ahead

The breaking news is that the Democratic drive to push wide-sweeping health reforms has narrowly squeaked through 219 votes to 212 in the House of Representatives. The reform is reported to cost a whopping $US940 Billion, which unsurprisingly is a tad unpalatable to those Republican objectors worried about a pretty shakey economy as it is.

What might be seen as a reverse of economic decision-making orthodoxy is that we are seeing a move away from the market driven policies to a state intervention model to help the aged, poor and needy in order to reduce inefficiencies. Market driven inefficiencies? Surely not, guv! Wasn't the market meant to sort them out? And as for the return to "'Soviet-style socialism'" - yikes, the world is being turned on its head.

Of course, all this might be a bit beyond a 12-14 year old studying social studies. Or is it? At least it may offer an interesting debate about the responsibilities of government, and brings in an ethical dimension to learning about society.

It may also dovetail into the privatisation, marketisation, privatisation (and who know's, possibly some more marketisation?) of Godzone's Kiwi Rail.

UPDATE: A Fulbright scholar from NZ has recently given a lecture about the first 16 months of the Obama presidency. Watch it here.

What's in a name?

Wellington City has come in for some legal attention from the custodians of the 'HollyWood' letters. A tongue in cheek exercise that celebrates the 'creative capital' or a feeble attempt at self promotion? Whatever your thoughts, this would make a nice starting point for the idea of 'Identity' for a primary level social studies class. The readers of the Dom Post have been quick to exercise their markers of Wellington here. Note that the Wellywood Sign Generator here leads to the Facebook Gallery which are less family friendly :-(

For Wellington in particular, this could be furthered by an examination of the public art related to the windy city tag, that Wellington probably (certainly?) deserves. Older children may also like to explore the many pieces of NZ creativity that we identify with Kaikoura, Methven, Taupo, Ohakune, Paeroa, Taihape, Tekapo, Te Puke.....

Survey for NZ Youth: Save the Children/Global Focus Aotearoa

A big Kia Ora from the desk of Dr Fi
Sorry for any cross posting but I need your help to get this survey out to NZ youth.
Save the Children NZ and Global Focus Aotearoa are presenting a youth report to the United Nations in July this year on young people’s perspectives of their rights in NZ. We need you to pass on the link to the Article 12 website to all your networks of young people so that they can participate in the survey. Please pass it on – without your help, we lack the resources to get the ultimate voice to the UN.

We also have some slots for digital story telling focus groups and have surveys for young people in organisations working with under 16s. If your organisation is interested in doing a digital story (we have five slots left - two outside the greater Wellington Area for organisatons and schools able to complete the story by the end of March) or the survey please contact Sara at Global Focus Aoteaora. Let’s get together to get our youth voice heard at the UN.
Dr Fi (Fiona Beals) and Spex (Sara Tamati)Go to http://a12aotearoa.ning.com/ to see some of the stories created so far, participate in forums and take the survey (any one any age can join the site)Email sara@globaled.org.nz for information on project