AS 90828 annotated exemplars

This annotated exemplar is intended for teacher use only. Annotated exemplars are extracts of student evidence, with commentary, that explain key parts of a standard. These help teachers make assessment judgements at the grade boundaries.

For Excellence, the student needs to critically evaluate a personal action that contributes towards a sustainable future.

This involves drawing insightful conclusions, using qualitative and/or quantitative evidence, about how the outcomes of the action contribute towards a sustainable future. Insightful conclusions may include innovative and imaginative connections, aspects of systems thinking, exploration of less obvious implications, and/or use of higher level thinking skills such as analysis or synthesis.

The student has drawn some evaluative (1) and insightful conclusions (2) about how the action contributed to a sustainable future, focusing on environmental (3) and economic (4) aspects and using systems thinking about how the farm fits into the wider ecosystem (5). They have drawn insightful conclusions about the potential effectiveness of potential action (6), incorporating Maori concepts (7).

For a more secure Excellence, the student could further explore less obvious implications or provide more evidence of higher-level thinking skills such as synthesising and analysing as they did in the final paragraph.

For Merit, the student needs to evaluate in depth a personal action that contributes towards a sustainable future.

This involves:

• analysing aspects of sustainability and their connections in relation to the personal action
• drawing informed conclusions about how the personal action changed own attitudes or behaviours in relation to a sustainable future based on the aspects of sustainability.

They have analysed aspects of sustainability including the environmental (1) and economic (2) aspects, and connections between them (3).

The student has drawn informed conclusions about how they changed their attitudes (4) and behaviours (5) in relation to a sustainable future.

To reach Excellence, the student could use the qualitative and/or quantitative evidence they gathered to make insightful conclusions that are more innovative or imaginative. They could consider Māori concepts and values.

For Merit, the student needs to evaluate in depth a personal action that contributes towards a sustainable future.

This involves:

• analysing aspects of sustainability and their connections in relation to the personal action
• drawing informed conclusions about how the personal action changed own attitudes or behaviours in relation to a sustainable future based on the aspects of sustainability.

They have analysed aspects of sustainability - environmental (1) social (2), making connections in relation to their plan (3), and drawn informed conclusions about how they changed their attitudes (4) and behaviours (5) in relation to a sustainable future.

For a more secure Merit, the student could expand on their analysis of social sustainability beyond brief notes on health to acknowledge the need for equity within and between generations, and within and between ethnic and social groups. They could also include enhancing the cohesion of their community with action projects that involve all sectors of society.

They could draw out the links between economic and environmental aspects of sustainability by providing more detail contrasting the current short term economic accounting with longer term accounting that recognises environmental costs.

The general statements about changes to attitudes and behaviour could incorporate better evidence. Their attitude change, for instance, could have been recorded with ‘before’ and ‘after’ responses to attitude statements on a 5-point scale. The raising awareness behaviours they think are desirable could also be further explained.

For Achieved, the student needs to evaluate a personal action that contributes towards a sustainable future.

This involves:

• carrying out research and/or a practical investigation to develop and inform a plan for a personal action in relation to a current sustainability issue.
• undertaking the personal action in accordance with the plan and modifying the plan as necessary to reflect required changes.
• drawing conclusions.

The student researched the environmental (1) and economic (2) effects of greenhouse gases. They have considered options for action that they could undertake (3), and the expected outcomes (4).

They have given a timeframe for their steps of action (5) and explained how they can collect and analyse data (6). They provide a brief consideration of ethical issues (7).

The student has reported on their action with a small modification (8). They drew conclusions about their data and the effectiveness of their plan (9). They explained how their action can contribute to a sustainable future based on environmental (10) and economic sustainability (11).

To reach Merit, the student could have made more analysis of the links between aspects of sustainability and their action and explained how their own attitudes or behaviours had changed after undertaking their action. They could consider the effectiveness of offsetting carbon versus carbon reduction, considering Māori concepts and values.

For Achieved, the student needs to evaluate a personal action that contributes towards a sustainable future.

This involves:

• carrying out research and/or a practical investigation to develop and inform a plan for a personal action in relation to a current sustainability issue
• undertaking the personal action in accordance with the plan and modifying the plan as necessary to reflect required changes
• drawing conclusions.

The student has developed an informed personal action plan in relation to a sustainable issue (1), with reference to environmental (2) and cultural (3) aspects of sustainability.

The student includes possible actions (3), expected outcomes (4) and a timeframe (5).

The student undertaken the action plan with an explained modification (6), and drawn some conclusions about the reliability and validity data collected (7) (8).

The student has drawn some conclusions about the effectiveness of the plan (9), relating it to the aspects of sustainability chosen: environmental (10) and cultural (11).

For a more secure Achieved, the student could demonstrate their understanding by explaining what terms like ‘eutrophication’ and ‘mauri’ mean in the context of environmental and cultural sustainability. They could include more development of their thinking about a sustainable future.

For Achieved, the student needs to evaluate a personal action that contributes towards a sustainable future.

This involves:

• carrying out research and/or a practical investigation to develop and inform a plan for a personal action in relation to a current sustainability issue
• undertaking the personal action in accordance with the plan and modifying the plan as necessary to reflect required changes
• drawing conclusions.

This student has referred to aspects of sustainability in order to inform a plan related to a sustainability issue (1). They sought information from the community and chose an action (2), produced and conducted a survey to be given to children before and after the event (3), and thought about ethical issues (4).

They provided a timetable (5) and undertook the action (6) mostly evidenced by group notes. They collected data and commented on its validity (7), and explained modifications to their plan (8). Finally, they commented on how they believed their action may have contributed to aspects of a sustainable future (9).

To reach Achieved, the student could have shown consideration of a range of action and given details about their individual contribution to what was done. They could analyse the data from the surveys and given details to back up how their action contributed to aspects of sustainability.