Earth systems resources

This assessment task provides students with four statements on recycling. Students circle whether each statement is true or false to determine their understanding of recycling.

Students suggest ways to prevent a steep bank slipping. The assessment focus is application of their knowledge about erosion.

Students are given a key list of words associated with earthquakes. Student use these and their own knowledge to write a paragraph explaining five key points about earthquakes.

Students are asked to explain how a stone from the top of a mountain could become sand on a beach. Students then identify the most likely way stones 'move' from the tops of mountains to the coast.

For this task students are provided with a diagram of a landslip and an example of a possible cause of this. Students are required to list four other possible causes of landslips.

Students are provided with a situation where the bank on the school field is eroding. They are asked to write a plan for a tree-planting programme that would help to slow down the erosion.

Students follow a story about searching for gold on an island. In the process they answer five questions about landforms.

Students use a diagram that shows a proposed site for a town that has a river running through it. Students identify where it would be best to collect drinking water, and how town planners could stop the town from flooding.

Students are provided with a newspaper article titled 'Gentle quake the latest in swarm' and use this to answer three questions.

Students are asked to identify two impending signs of a volcanic eruption and to describe four geological events that are linked to volcanic eruptions.

Students are asked to explain the meaning of the terms, recycle, reduce, and reuse.

Students explain a plastic recycling symbol. This resource assesses an aspect of knowledge helpful for making decisions about recycling.

Students read a map of a new school, and answer questions about the placement of some trees. They are assessed on their ability to suggest the trees' impact on the school environment.

This resource requires students to construct a graph on data for temperature and depth below the Earth's crust. Students then answer four questions about this.

This resource requires students to process information on an earthquake. This entails calculating the distance that the recording stations are from an earthquake's epicentre, locating the epicentre, calculating the magnitude, and answering general questions on earthquakes.

Students are provided with a map that has numbers on it representing various ash fall depths from a volcanic eruption. Students draw lines to link the similar numbers and answer questions about these. They also explain three major problems an ash fall could cause.

Students are provided with information about the Earth's interior. Using this information and a provided scale, students construct and label a scale diagram of the Earth's interior.

Using data from three different locations, students calculate the time difference between the arrival of P and S waves and the distance of each location from an earthquake's epicentre. Students use these distances to locate the epicentre on a map of NZ.

Using a stimulus diagram showing plate tectonics, students explain why the following geological features or events; earthquakes, mid-ocean ridge, ocean trench, and volcanoes are present.

Students are provided with a diagram of a roadside cutting. They are asked to mark the fault line and the youngest rock layer in this cutting. Students then suggest two explanations for the pattern shown in the diagram.

Students are provided with a diagram showing layers of rock and three possible results of changes that could occur. Words and phrases are provided to help students answer several short answer questions about the possible cause of the changes.

Students are provided with two diagrams, one showing the focus of earthquakes in NZ and the other the Earth's plates. Students interpret these diagrams and use them to answer three short questions.

A diagram representing an area of a civil emergency is provided and students are asked to identify the geological event that has caused this. Students then give six hazards or problems that could result from this geological event.

For this task students are asked to explain the cause of weathering of rocks and to identify the hardest and the softest rock in a column of rock.

Students view four sequential diagrams on fossilisation, and then write explanations about this process using the diagrams and their own knowledge.