Curriculum links
Social Studies level 5
Achievement objective
‘People’s management of resources impacts on environmental and social sustainability’.
These activities carry on from the September 2007 edition of StatZing!, which looks at the economic and environmental effects of New Zealanders’ heating fuels. These web
activities look at social sustainability and what students’ families are doing in their
own homes and why.
The first activity asks students to survey their class members and to create a table and suitable chart about heating fuels use in their own homes.
Activities 2 and 3 focus on the World Health Organization’s guidelines for indoor temperature and ask students to compare their own homes to these guidelines and come up with reasons for homes not conforming to these guidelines. Activity 4 follows on from this and asks students to think about what has/can be done to make their houses conform.
Answers
1. The table and graph will vary according to the group surveyed. However, make sure the electricity statistic is divided, so that 70 percent of the original figure is attributed to sustainable electricity and the other 30 percent to non-sustainable electricity. Also ensure the graph has all the necessities of a pie chart.
2 ,3, 4. The answers to these will depend on the families of the students in the class. Appropriate answers for 2c and 3c may include (but are not limited to) to save money, because these are the only areas of the house we’re in at night time, because our heater will only heat that part of the house, etc. Suggested answers for question 4 are included in the list within the question. 1a. Wood and coal.
1b. Coal is easily available and cheap on the West Coast because the West Coast produces large amounts of coal and it has been mined there since 1864.
1c. The environment (including access to resources) – either heating is not necessary (Northland) or particular sources of fuel are more accessible in certain regions; West Coast has a lot of coal, while gas from the Maui and Kāpuni gas fields has been piped to homes in Taranaki since 1970.
2.
Method of heating |
|
For the user |
For the environment |
Heat pump |
+ |
· Cheap to run
· No indoor air emissions
· Easy to use
|
· Level of environmental friendliness depends on fuel supplier |
|
- |
· Relies on electricity
· Expensive to install |
· Level of environmental friendliness depends on fuel supplier |
Oil column heater |
+ |
· No indoor air emissions
· Easy to use
· No installation
|
· Level of environmental friendliness depends on fuel supplier
|
|
- |
· Relies on electricity
· Expensive to run
|
· Level of environmental friendliness depends on fuel supplier |
Unflued gas |
+ |
· No installation |
|
|
- |
· Causes dampness inside
· Raises the level of nitrogen dioxide in the air inside
· Difficult to refill fuel supply
· Expensive to run
|
· Methods of finding fuel not environmentally friendly
· Need for fuel to be distributed nationwide by road
· Releases carbon dioxide and other gases into the air |
Flued gas |
+ |
· Cheap to run
· No indoor air emissions
· Easy to use
|
· Low outdoor emissions |
|
- |
· Expensive to install
|
· Methods of finding fuel not environmentally friendly
· Need for fuel to be distributed nationwide by road
· Releases carbon dioxide and other gases into the air |
Wood burner |
+ |
· Fuel is free (or cheap) for many
|
· Renewable energy source
· Carbon neutral fuel source* |
|
- |
· More difficult to use efficiently
· Dirty fuel to handle
· Expensive to install
|
· Air pollution (smoke and sulphur dioxide, made worse by use of wet fuel) |
Coal burner |
+ |
· Cheap to run |
· |
|
- |
· More difficult to use efficiently
· Dirty fuel to handle
· Expensive to install
|
· Methods of finding fuel environmentally unfriendly
· Releases carbon dioxide and other gases into the air
|
* As wood is a renewable energy resource and because trees recycle carbon dioxide, wood burning doesn't contribute to the problem of climate change as long as it is harvested in a sustainable manner. This means trees that trap the carbon
dioxide must be replaced, as we burn the wood that is releasing it.