Questions / instructions:
Look at the 11 postcards from different places in New Zealand.
Think about where these places are in New Zealand. You have 11 stickers with place names. Put each sticker where you think it belongs on the map. Make sure that the arrow is right on the place, not just pointing to it.

Commentary:
This task identified students' knowledge of the map location of eleven prominent places throughout New Zealand. For marking purposes, accurate = actual to very close proximity; fairly accurate = in the general proximity; inaccurate = in correct island but seriously misplaced; wildly inaccurate = wrong island, Cook Strait on land, etc. The category 'inaccurate' was not used for Cook Strait or Stewart island because the boundary between the two was difficult to define. Averaged across the 11 places, 30 percent of year 4 students identified locations accurately or fairly accurately; 37 percent were wildly inaccurate or gave no response. For year 8, the corresponding figures were 65 percent and 12 percent, indicating substantial improvement of knowledge from year 4 to year 8.