NCEA L1 History

History ask students, and helps them answer, today’s question by engaging with the past and imagining and speculating on possible futures. We present students with dilemmas, choices and beliefs of the past.

• Introduction to historical concepts - who was to blame?
  • Consider the sinking of Titanic, JFK assassination and other controversial events.
• New Zealand in WW2
• Inspiring Change - Martin Luther King and Whina Cooper
• Historical concepts
  • Springbok Tours
  • What's in a name?

You will be mainly studying topics from the twentieth century, though with a few older events considered. It was a century of great triumphs and great tragedies. By the end of the year you will understand how segregation in the United States was broken down. You will learn how World War II broke out, engulfed the world and was hugely significant to New Zealanders. You may also get to go on a field trip to Wellington either in HIS 100 or HIS 200. MBC has organised several trips to Europe in the past and plan to in the future. In 2023, students have the opportunity to travel to the USA.

History is made up of people and no doubt you will have heard of some of the most famous from the 20th Century such as Hitler, Mussolini, Churchill and Roosevelt. However, you may not have heard of – Angela Davis, Peter Fraser, Georges Clemenceau, Robert Muldoon, Stokely Carmichael and David Lloyd-George. 

Besides learning about these events and people you will also pick up some useful skills. By the end of the course, you will be able to: 

• Assess the significance of historical events and the significance of historical evidence
• Gather and select information from a variety of sources (books, posters, pictures, documents, films, tapes, video, computers, cartoons, maps, graphs, diagrams) 
• recognise specific points of view, bias and propaganda 
• understand and analyse historical relationships ie. cause and effect, continuity and change 
• recall historical material in context 
• present information effectively ie. in debates, role plays, panels, timelines, posters, reports, articles, paragraphs, essays 
• present an argument and support it with well-chosen evidence and reasoned conclusions 

These skills are highly valued by employers. The ability to communicate your ideas clearly is vital in all areas of life. Some of the main areas History students have found employment have included law, the media, government departments, teaching, public relations and business.

Figure 1: MBC students at Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre, 2022

Figure 2 MBC Students at the Palace of Versailles, France 2017