Science resources

Task: multiple choice questions and interpreting a diagram. Assessment focus: phases of the moon.

For this task students understanding of tides is explored. Students are asked to identify where high tides occur when the Moon is in a certain position and how often high tides occur.

Students are asked four short questions that explore their understanding of the Earth's rotation, Earth's revolution, and seasons.

Students are provided with a star map showing the path of comet Haley-Bopp 1997. Students use this map to answer three questions.

Students are provided with two star maps as seen from Wellington at two different times of the year. Students are asked to explain why the stars on the map appear in different parts of the sky depending on the time of the year.

Students answer two multiple-choice questions about full Moon and lunar eclipses.

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.

Students view an online animation which illustrates stages of a volcanic eruption, write their observations and answer question about eruptions. Assessment focus: observations based on a model, and knowledge of volcanic eruptions.

Student view an online animation of cliff erosion and then write a description of what they observe about this process.

Students are provided with a diagram showing rock layers. Students use this diagram to answer a number of questions.

Students are provided with a geological time scale which they use to interpret and answer a number of questions.

Students answer questions about major natural events that happened on the Earth in one week by interpreting a diagram showing these.

Students complete a diagram of a geyser by writing the correct labels from a given selection. Students are also required to answer what causes the water to heat up.

On a diagram students indicate how a cliff face might look different in 100 years from now, and explain the probable cause of this.