Access to finite resources depends on a range of factors.

This term Team @ The Top is starting off learning through the transdisciplinary theme of: 'Sharing the Planet'.

An inquiry into the rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within and between them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.

Using the central idea of 'Access to finite resources depends on a range of factors.', we will be exploring the concepts:

• Scarce resources require responsible use. (Causation)

• How finite resources are accessed & distributed causes conflict. (Responsibility) 

We launched this unit of inquiry with a provocation focussed on measurement. After learning a little about how some children need to walk for 90 minutes each day to collect water for their families, we headed up to the Old School Reserve to experience what it would be like if we had to carry water in order to use it. While away from school everyone had lots of calculations to work on as well as do their part in class relays where everyone had to carry 5 litres of water to the next group in their class. 

When we returned to school the T@TT teachers tricked the year 7 & 8 tamariki into believing that the drinking fountains could not be used due to a water contamination issue. Classes worked out how much water they had in their containers (the ones from the Old School Reserve) and calculated how much water each student could have to drink. Once everyone had their allocation anyone who needed a drink had to carry a 5-litre container around the field three times before they could fill their cup. 

As you can imagine, there were a couple of sceptics, but the teachers kept the charade going and after some protests and disbelief, everyone got fully involved. 

As this unit of inquiry develops, we will be learning about the distribution and access to finite resources. T@TT classes will tune into this 'Sharing the Planet' Unit of Inquiry by learning about water as a finite resource and then tamariki will take this in a direction that interests them... I wonder what they might like to learn more about?