Level 6 home economics
Achievement objectives
Home economics predominately derives learning contexts from strands A, C, and D.
Achievement objectives from these strands can be woven together to set directions for teaching and learning programmes that lead to national qualifications.
Teachers will design programmes guided by The New Zealand Curriculum, that meet the unique learning needs, interests and strengths of their students and make sense of the many connections within and across these strands, and with learning in other areas.
Strand A – Personal health and physical development
Students develop their understanding of factors which influence individual, whānau/family, and community well-being and learn to identify appropriate actions to enhance and sustain well-being.
Strand C – Relationships with other people
Students apply their understandings of personal and inter-personal relationships (in independent or caring situations with others) to selecting, preparing, and serving appropriate food.
Strand D – Healthy communities and environments
Students learn to make informed, ethical decisions about food choices, based on their knowledge of current issues in food and nutrition and their understanding of factors that influence preferences and behaviours at school and community levels.
Teachers will design programmes that meet the learning needs of their students and make sense of the many connections within and across these strands.
Home economics programmes involve both academic inquiry and development of practical food and nutrition skills related to personal and community health and well-being.
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Indicators
Indicators are examples of the behaviours and capabilities that a teacher might expect to observe in a student who is achieving at the appropriate level. Teachers may wish to add further examples of their own.
The following indicators have links to level 6 achievement objectives for the appropriate strand (for example, A1, B1, C1, etc) and achievement standards (for example, AS1.1).
These indicators show what learning at level 6 could look like for students, and may include curriculum learning beyond what the achievement standards assess.
- Explain the cultural, environmental, and societal influences affecting the well-being of teenagers, as these relate to food choices (A1, A3, A4, C1, C3, D1, D3; AS90956 1.1, AS90957 1.2, AS90958 1.3, AS90960 1.5, AS90961 1.6).
- Plan, prepare, and serve meals that demonstrate knowledge and understanding of nutritionally sound food choices for a variety of individuals, for example, sedentary/active teenagers or elite sports people (A1, A3, A4, C1, C3, D1, D3; AS90956 1.1, AS90957 1.2, AS90958 1.3, AS90959 1.4).
- Explain nutrient needs for optimum teenage health (A1; AS90956 1.1).
- Demonstrate how to safely prepare and serve food (A3, C2, C3, D3; AS90956 1.1, AS90959 1.4).
- Identify and explain the consequences of poor personal hygiene and unsafe food safety practices (A3, C2, C3, D3; AS90959 1.4).
- Describe the impact of individuals, family, and society on personal food choices (A1, A4, C1, D1; AS90957 1.2, AS90958 1.3, AS90960 1.5, AS90961 1.6).
- Explain how nutrition information and food packaging can inform or misinform food choices and affect well-being (A1, A4, D1; AS90961 1.6).
- Demonstrate understanding of well-being through care and consideration for others (A1, A3, A4, C1, C3, D1, D3; AS90956 1.1, AS90957 1.2, AS90958 1.3, AS90960 1.5, AS90961 1.6).
- Describe local or national initiatives that are intended to promote nutritional well-being (A1, C1, D1, D4; AS90957 1.2, AS90958 1.3).
- Describe the need for sustainable food practices and demonstrate ways in which greater sustainability could be achieved (A3, C1, C3, D1, D3; AS90957 1.2, AS90960 1.5, A90961 1.6).
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Possible context elaborations
Context elaborations are possible contexts for learning. The contexts can link to a number of relevant achievement objectives, however, each context could support learning for several achievement objectives.
The listed context elaborations are examples only. Teachers can select and use entirely different contexts in response to local situations, community relevance, and students’ interests and needs.
The contexts are listed with the relevant indicators and their associated achievement objectives and achievement standards.
- Explain the cultural, environmental, and societal influences affecting the well-being of teenagers, as these relate to food choices (A1, A3, A4, C1, C3, D1, D3; AS90956 1.1, AS90957 1.2, AS90958 1.3, AS90960 1.5, AS90961 1.6).
- Explain nutrient needs for optimum teenage health (A1; AS90956 1.1).
- Changing eating patterns: Explore the statement: “In New Zealand, there is a trend for families to consume more fast foods”. Use
SurveyMonkey to gather data from your friends about the frequency and timing of home-made meals and of takeaways and analyse your results to suggest what is happening and why.
- Good nutrition for teenagers: Create a social media page or a short video that promotes good nutrition for teenagers. Consider using the Ministry of Health’s health education pamphlet
Eating for Healthy Teenagers (HE120) to convey one of the several important messages for adolescents.
- Nutrition knowledge: Test your nutrition knowledge and undertake a health assessment using some online tests.
- Promoting nutrition knowledge: Design a simple quiz to reinforce nutrition knowledge (understanding of key nutrients, foods these are found in, their function in the body, and the reasons why they are needed during adolescence). Publish your quiz on the school’s intranet.
- Demonstrate understanding of well-being through care and consideration for others (A1, A3, A4, C1, C3, D1, D3; AS90956 1.1, AS90957 1.2, AS90958 1.3, AS90960 1.5, AS90961 1.6).
- Care in the community: Charitable agencies provide practical help to those in need, for example, Meals on Wheels, the Salvation Army, 0800hungry, Plunket. Agencies frequently struggle to find volunteers. Find examples of charitable agencies in your community that support families and improve their health and well-being. Design a recruitment flier to encourage people to volunteer for these organisations.
- Caring for others: Describe a role you have in caring for others, for example, siblings, grandparents, friends, parents. Identify what their needs are and how you meet their needs.
- Describe the impact of individuals, family, and society on personal food choices (A1, A4, C1, D1; AS90957 1.2, AS90958 1.3, AS90960 1.5, AS90961 1.6).
- Personal food choices: Record what you eat over a 24 hour period. Summarise your record, and discuss the good and bad points for all the foods and drinks listed. Write an eating plan that includes changes to or modifications of what you recorded so that you could meet the guidelines for healthy eating.
- What influences food choices? Interview a person from a different culture or background to establish what their favourite and least favourite foods are. Find out what significance each of the foods has for them (associations with people, celebrations, taste, and so on) and what they like or dislike about the foods.
- Plan, prepare, and serve meals that demonstrate knowledge and understanding of nutritionally sound food choices for a variety of individuals, for example, sedentary/active teenagers or elite sports people (A1, A3, A4, C1, C3, D1, D3; AS90956 1.1, AS90957 1.2, AS90958 1.3, AS90959 1.4).
- Preparing nutritionally sound meals: Use relevant
nutrition guidelines to plan a nutritious weekly dinner menu to be used either in a school cafeteria or on a school tournament week. Prepare and evaluate one of the suggested meals.
- Healthy snacks: Use nutrition information panels on the packaging or look up a food database to compare the nutritional value of different products (for example, favourite fizzy drinks, salty snacks, muesli bars, and so on). Assess the nutritional value of each item against guidelines for fat, salt, and sugar. Identify best choices to meet adolescent needs. Make a healthy snack and justify your choice of ingredients.
- Promote healthy eating: Make over a favourite family recipe and send it in to a magazine that publishes reader recipes. Alternatively, make a class list of healthy food products that teenagers love and send it to a magazine for publishing on a ‘what do you love page?’ Include reasons for your choices.
- Plan and prepare meals: Select a group (for example, teenagers) and study the recommended dietary intake (RDI) or recommended dietary allowance tables (RDA) to determine their nutrient needs. Plan a complete lunch or dinner menu and select one part of this menu to prepare in class. Information for this activity may be found in this document:
Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand Including Recommended Dietary Intakes.
- Explain how nutrition information and food packaging can inform or misinform food choices and affect well-being (A1, A4, D1; AS90961 1.6).
- Making informed food choices: Many consumers find it difficult to make informed decisions about what foods to buy. Describe how analysing information on food packaging can help.
- Conflicting messages about food: Gather a range of packaging for one type of food, for example, yoghurt or cereals. How does the promotional information compare to the information on the nutrition panels. Is it accurate or misleading? Redesign a package so that it helps shoppers make informed decisions.
- Demonstrate how to safely prepare and serve food (A3, C2, C3, D3; AS90956 1.1, AS90959 1.4).
- Identify and explain the consequences of poor personal hygiene and unsafe food safety practices (A3, C2, C3, D3; AS90959 1.4).
- Food safety issues and solutions: As a class, start a digital media file compiling clippings or articles related to food safety and food poisoning. Discuss the issues related to each article and develop an action plan to help address a selected issue.
- Public food safety: Visit a local establishment where customers serve themselves meals. Use your cell phone to record your observations, and then write a report on the measures taken by the establishment to reduce the possible contamination of food by customers. Include any information you gain from talking to the staff.
- Recognising food safety in practical situations: Make a food safety slideshow for junior classes on common kitchen mistakes illustrated with photos of your classmates acting out food preparation and handling bloopers.
- Food safety regulation: Invite a food inspector to do a mock check on the home economics room. Use the council’s system for assessing hygiene standards in your own kitchen at home and make recommendations for improvement.
- Relationships with other people: A family barbeque with friends and neighbours can sometimes highlight unsafe food practices, for example, chicken still pink after being cooked, dropped utensils, uncovered food left in the sun. Role play how you could deal with such a situation to minimise food risks without offending the people involved.
- Describe local national or international initiatives that are intended to promote nutritional well-being (A1, C1, D1, D4; AS90957 1.2, AS90958 1.3).
- Describe the need for sustainable food practices and demonstrate ways in which greater sustainability could be achieved (A3, C1, C3, D1, D3; AS90957 1.2, AS90960 1.5, A90961 1.6).
- People and the environment: What are sustainable food practices and why should we try to be more sustainable?
- Sustainability at home: Analyse a typical dinner at your house in terms of how sustainable it is. How could you adapt family meals so that you eat more sustainably?
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Assessment for qualifications
Consider how student learning could be assessed using the home economics achievement standards. Consider alternative linkages between the achievement objective and achievement standards.
- AS90956 Home economics 1.1 Demonstrate knowledge of an individual’s nutritional needs; Internal, 5 credits.
- AS90957 Home economics 1.2 Demonstrate understanding of societal influences on an individual’s food choices and well-being; Internal, 5 credits.
- AS90958 Home economics 1.3 Demonstrate understanding of how cultural practices influence eating patterns in New Zealand; Internal, 5 credits.
- AS90959 Home economics 1.4 Demonstrate knowledge of practices and strategies to address food handling issues; Internal, 5 credits.
- AS90960 Home economics 1.5 Demonstrate understanding of how an individual, the family and society enhance each other’s well-being; External, 4 credits.
- AS90961 Home economics 1.6 Demonstrate understanding of how packaging information influences an individual’s food choices and well-being; External, 4 credits.
At the time of publication, achievement standards were in development to align them with The New Zealand Curriculum. Please ensure that you are using the correct version of the standards by going to the
NZQA website.
The NZQA subject-specific resources pages are very helpful. From there, you can find all the achievement standards and links to assessment resources, both internal and external.
Learn more:
Aligned level 1 achievement standards were registered for use in 2011 and level 2 for use in 2012; level 3 will be registered for use in 2013.
Full information on the draft standards and the alignment process can be found on
TKI: Alignment of NCEA standards with The New Zealand Curriculum.
Last updated August 28, 2020
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