📚 Unit Plans → 🌍 Unit 60: Mathematics in Aotearoa — Housing
Years 9–10 Tikanga-ā-Iwi / Social Sciences

Unit 60: Mathematics in Aotearoa

Applying mathematical methods to explore real-world issues: Housing affordability, tiny homes, and cultural statistics.

Years 9–10 justice pitch · This edition

Justice pitch: interrogate the measures

This edition asks who each housing measure serves. Ākonga compute the same statistics, then interrogate what the measure hides, who chose it, and what a fairer one would show.

  • Approach: Compute the measure, then critique what it measures
  • Evidence it produces: An argument about fairness grounded in figures ākonga computed themselves
Same unit at the other level: Numeracy pitch →
← Back to Unit Plans

Unit 60: Mathematics in Aotearoa

Housing, Sustainability, and Data

This unit is designed for the new NCEA Level 1 Mathematics and Statistics supervision. It focuses on (1.2) : "Use mathematical methods to explore problems that relate to life in Aotearoa New Zealand".

Whakatūwhera - Unit Opening

We face a housing crisis and a climate crisis. How can mathematics help us understand these problems and design solutions? By analysing data on housing affordability and using geometry to design efficient, sustainable "tiny homes", students see math as a tool for social and environmental justice.

📋 Kaiako Planning Snapshot

Ngā Whāinga Akoranga — Learning Intentions

  • Ākonga will apply mathematical thinking — statistics, geometry, and data analysis — to real-world housing and sustainability challenges.
  • Ākonga will understand how housing unaffordability and environmental degradation reflect systemic inequities, including impacts on Māori whānau.
  • Ākonga will draw on tikanga Māori and the concept of kaitiakitanga to evaluate sustainable design solutions.
  • Ākonga will design a mathematically-informed solution to a housing or sustainability problem in their community.

Paearu Angitu — Success Criteria

  • I can collect and analyse housing data using statistical methods and explain what it shows about equity.
  • I can apply geometric principles to design an efficient and sustainable living space.
  • I can explain how whanaungatanga and manaakitanga inform community-centred housing design.
  • I can present a mathematically justified solution to a real housing or sustainability challenge.

Entry / On-Level / Extension

  • Entry: Guided data tasks with visual scaffolds; pre-built graph templates; step-by-step geometry investigations with annotations.
  • On-level: Independent data collection and analysis; design a tiny home using specified mathematical constraints; community survey task.
  • Extension: Cost-benefit analysis of sustainable housing materials; design a community development proposal integrating mātauranga Māori principles.

Inclusion Guidance

  • ESOL / ELL learners: Pre-teach vocabulary for data and geometry. Use visual diagrams and worked examples. Partner tasks encourage language development through collaboration.
  • Neurodiverse learners / ADHD: Chunked investigations with clear milestones. UDL principle: graph paper, digital tools, and physical models as alternative representations. Choice of final format.
  • Dyslexia: Emphasis on visual and spatial tasks where possible; oral explanation of reasoning accepted alongside written work.

Tūāhuatanga Akoranga Pedagogical Foundations

Maths for justice is not a metaphor. It is what Paulo Freire called praxis — using the tools you have learned to name and change the world you actually live in. These theorists explain why teaching statistical literacy and housing economics together is not interdisciplinary novelty, it is what a just mathematics curriculum looks like.

Critical Pedagogy
Paulo Freire
The housing crisis is not a random fact pattern — it has causes, and those causes are legible in data. Freire’s problem-posing method asks students to name the reality first (who is priced out and where?), then understand the roots (what drives it?), then propose something (what would a student activist do?). That is the arc of this unit.
Kia Piki Ake
Graham Smith
Smith’s Kia Piki Ake principle connects economic material conditions directly to educational outcomes. The housing unit is Smith’s principle made statistically concrete: the data students gather is evidence of why Kia Piki Ake is a curriculum principle, not just a social aspiration.
Growth Mindset
Carol Dweck
Mathematics anxiety is a documented barrier, especially for students who have received the message that “maths people” are a category they don’t belong to. Dweck’s growth mindset research is why this unit uses real-world contexts rather than abstract exercises — purpose dissolves the anxiety that abstract drills reinforce.

→ Te Whare Ako — Teaching Theory

Part 1: The Numbers Behind the Housing Crisis

Learning Focus

Using statistical inquiry to understand trends in house prices, rent, and inflation over the last 20 years. Students will analyse multivariate data to tell a story about equity in Aotearoa.

Key Methods

  • Time Series Data: Plotting trends over time.
  • Percentages & Ratios: Comparing income vs housing costs.
  • Interpretation: What does "median" mean in this context?

Core Activities

Part 2: Tiny Home Geometry

Learning Focus

Applying measurement and geometric reasoning to design a sustainable "Tiny Home" or "Whare Iti". Maximising space and minimising waste.

Key Methods

  • Area & Perimeter: Optimising floor plans.
  • Volume: Calculating air flow and materials.
  • Scale Drawings: Creating accurate plans (1:50).

Core Activities

Part 3: Community & Culture

Learning Focus

Exploring data related to Te Reo Māori speakers, iwi demographics, and community wellbeing.

Core Activities

Related Handouts & Worksheets

Curriculum alignment

  • Number — Practices: - Applying a proportional increase or decrease to a number - Calculating the percentage increase or decrease between two numbers (e.g. What is the percentage increase between …
  • Measurement — Practices: - Applying a proportional increase or decrease to a number - Calculating the percentage increase or decrease between two numbers (e.g. What is the percentage increase between …
  • Statistics — Practices: - Applying a proportional increase or decrease to a number - Calculating the percentage increase or decrease between two numbers (e.g. What is the percentage increase between …
  • Algebra — Practices: - Applying a proportional increase or decrease to a number - Calculating the percentage increase or decrease between two numbers (e.g. What is the percentage increase between …
  • Geometry — Practices: - Applying a proportional increase or decrease to a number - Calculating the percentage increase or decrease between two numbers (e.g. What is the percentage increase between …
🔗 Unit Progression & Next Steps

Three lessons that use real mathematics to understand housing and people in Aotearoa:

  • 📖 Lesson 1: Data Detective — Housing in Aotearoa — Collect, display, and interpret real housing data.
  • 📖 Lesson 2: Whare Iti Design — Sustainable Geometry — Apply geometry and measurement to design a sustainable small dwelling.
  • 📖 Lesson 3: Statistics of Our People — Analyse demographic statistics and explain what the numbers reveal about Aotearoa's communities.

The unit connects mathematics to social justice: using numbers and design to understand — and argue about — real housing issues.

📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot

Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria

  • ✅ I can collect, display, and interpret real data about housing in Aotearoa.
  • ✅ I can apply geometry and measurement to design a sustainable small dwelling (whare iti).
  • ✅ I can analyse demographic statistics and explain what they reveal about communities in Aotearoa.

Differentiation & Inclusion

Entry-level learners: Provide pre-formatted data tables and calculation templates; use fully worked examples for the geometry before independent work.

ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach statistical and geometric vocabulary (mean, median, area, perimeter, scale); pair data with visuals; allow home-language discussion of what the numbers mean.

Accelerated learners: Source and clean their own dataset; justify design trade-offs in the whare iti with supporting calculation; critique how statistics can mislead.

Neurodiverse / Inclusion: Break multi-step calculations into visible steps; provide graph paper or digital geometry tools; keep the task structure predictable.

📖 Lesson Sequence

Lesson 1

Lesson 1 in the y9-10-mathematics-social-studies-maths-for-justice-housing-sustainability learning arc.

Lesson 2

Lesson 2 in the y9-10-mathematics-social-studies-maths-for-justice-housing-sustainability learning arc.

Lesson 3

Lesson 3 in the y9-10-mathematics-social-studies-maths-for-justice-housing-sustainability learning arc.

🧺 Ngā Rauemi Katoa | All Resources in this Collection

Curriculum Alignment

How Unit 60: Mathematics in Aotearoa — Housing aligns with the New Zealand Curriculum (Te Mātaiaho) — audited, verbatim statement connections.

Open