Clarification details
Updated February 2014. This clarification has been updated to address issues that have arisen from moderation.
The intent
The intent is for students to analyse the accuracy, validity and bias of biological information in articles presented to the public from at least three different sources, identifying the purpose of the information and their impact on the intended audience.
Articles for analysis
Articles for analysis may be provided by the teacher, or selected by the student,in which case they must be approved by the teacher. Articles from a range of pieces of communication presented to the public may include advertisements, documentaries, newspaper articles, historical accounts or videos.
Context
Articles that give clear examples of accurate, inaccurate and biased information on biological features are required. Students need sufficient teaching and learning of the appropriate biological knowledge, in the context chosen, to support their understanding of the requirements of this Standard.
Identifying the purpose
‘Identifying the purpose’ means identifying who produced the information and the intended audience. ‘The general public’ is too vague. Where the intended audience is not identified, the student should predict what this could be, e.g. in the context of using 1080 to control possums, the intended audience could be members of the public who have an interest in the conservation of NZ native wildlife.
At Achievement
At Achievement students must recognise and describe biological features in each of at least three articles, as well as identify them as accurate, inaccurate or biased using their biological knowledge. Recognising and describing this information from each article on its own is not evidence for achievement, e.g. “The article gave the symptoms for…as…, this correlated with the second article…, which also gave the same symptoms.”
At Merit
At Merit, giving reasons on how or why the biology of at least one article is accurate, inaccurate or biased must be supported by evidence of understanding at level 7 of the curriculum.
At Excellence, the overall findings from the analysis of at least one article are summarised and conclusions made about whether the article achieved its purpose, i.e. how well it informed its target audience.
At Excellence
- ‘Prioritising’ means giving reasons why some information is more important than others for aspects of information in relation to its significance in the context chosen, e.g. ‘Firstly, the most important information in this article is…since…. Secondly, the next piece of important information is…because….”
- Evaluating the overall impact of an article is based on any bias and the balance of accurate and inaccurate information in the article.