NCEA L3 Agriculture and Horticulture
AGH3 Course Description Recommended Prior Learning12 credits from a level 2 Science/Agriculture course or higher. Students with an interest in Primary Industries or the course may be considered.
Agriculture and Horticulture Level 3 offers standards for those students who wish to use the course as a University Entrance subject or as a Unit Standard based course with a Primary Industry focus. Students will need to have self-management skills to keep themselves on task to complete set work.
Those students wishing to do achievement standards have 3 standards which enable them to get UE subject endorsement as well as UE Literacy. Two papers will require independent work and research skills that allow students to collate information from multiple sources to write a report. Students must also correctly reference their sources. The third achievement standard is an external exam that looks at New Zealand primary production environmental issue- the exact topic changes every year.
The Unit Standard based course provides a selection of standards from many primary industries. Students will be expected complete US23542 around health and safety in a rural workplace before they can move on to other standards. Options include standards looking at animal anatomy, bee keeping, forestry and working dogs. Students will have workbooks that will need to be completed prior to an assessment.
Course Overview
Semester A
The Achievement Standard based course contains 4 assessments. All students will start with a Unit Standard that looks at health and safety in a rural workplace.
91528 - will investigate management practices and factors influencing primary production. This can be based on grape/wine production or honey production. Students will learn about the lifecycle of grapevines or bees and hives. They will investigate how tasks are carried out to influence the quality, quantity, timing or type of their product.
91529 - Primary production profitability- this research project can look at a primary industry and how climatic, social, technological, economic, political and cultural practices, on-farm and off-farm affect the farmers' profit. This involves research and reading to collate information from multiple sources into a report and students must reference their sources.
AS91532 looks at a new topic every year. They focus on New Zealand primary production environmental issues such as freshwater, greenhouse gases, and sustainable farming practices.
Semester B
The Unit Standard based course will start with a Unit Standard that looks at health and safety in a rural workplace. Students will recognise personal and external factors that contribute to injury as well as strategies to reduce these factors.
US19111 will look at working dogs. Students will know the types, breeds and uses of working dogs in New Zealand. They will be familiar with illnesses and treatment for many common health issues, also applicable to household dogs.
US22994 is a Forestry standard that looks at the effects of nutrition, drugs, dehydration, stress and fatigue on forestry workers. They will look at how these factors affect the performance of forestry workers and how to reduce the risk of these factors to manage the health and well-being of forestry workers.
US24575 is another Forestry Standard that looks at quality control in forestry operations- from planting, pruning, thinning through to harvest. It looks at factors such as training, equipment, or compliance that impact the efficiency of a forest operation and it also looks at how personal performance can affect productivity and product quality.
US18 looks at livestock form and function. Students will identify and describe the structural body parts, and internal anatomy of animals such as organs and their functions. They will learn how the organs and body systems work together, as well as the differences between ruminants and non-ruminants.
US30798 is a bee-keeping standard. It looks at the 3 caste of bees, queen, worker and drone- their structure, form and function. The students will also look at how bees communicate and their behaviours.
Year 13 (NCEA Level 3), Science - Pūtaiao
Career Pathways
Agricultural Technician, Statistician, Arborist, Automotive Technician, Farmer/Farm Manager, Biosecurity Officer, Butcher, Farm Assistant, Science Technician, Crop Worker, Forest Manager, Forestry and Logging Worker, Forestry Scientist, Groundsperson, Health and Safety Adviser, Nursery Grower/Worker, Packhouse Worker
Contributions and Equipment/StationeryStudents will require a 1B5 book.