Communicating in science resources

Students are provided with an illustration of two different circuits. Students are required to draw the two illustrations as circuit diagrams.

Task: Draw, using symbols, circuit diagrams of three described circuits. Assessment focus: using conventions of circuit diagram; knowledge of circuit construction.

Students interpret two cartoon-style drawings of the enhanced greenhouse effect and write a short description of the artist’s message, as they see this.

Students indicate whether a series of statements apply to lunar eclipses, solar eclipses, or both.

This practical resource requires students to demonstrate some phases of the Moon.

Students are given a diagram that is used to describe the surface temperature and brightness of stars. Using the diagram and information provided, students indicate where different stars would be located.

For this assessment students read a paragraph of information about the stars. They use this to complete a table that summarises all this information.

Task: Answer questions about the temperature and brightness of types of stars. Assessment focus: interpreting a graph.

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.

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

Students use a diagram of a cutting showing exposed rock layers to answer questions about their formation, age, and geological history.

Students are provided with a weather map showing the lower North Island of NZ. Students are required to interpret this map to answer three short answer questions.

Task: Answer questions about what happens to water in open and closed containers and compare to the water cycle. Assessment focus: evaporation, the water cycle.

Students are provided with nutritional information on three different types of milk. Students use this information to answer a number of questions.

Task: Play a card game to join two sentence fragments to complete a sentence. Assessment focus: a) relationships of elements in a waterway, and b) science vocabulary.

Students are asked to explain why the Southern Cross appears not to be in the same place in the night sky that it was a few months previously.

Task: Complete a drawing of things found in or near a waterway, and describe relationships between them. Assessment focus: interdependence in a waterways environment.

Task: Read a table to answer questions about when birds are likely to visit a native garden for food. Assessment focus: interpreting a table.

Students use the periodic table and their own knowledge to complete the types of atoms present, and total number of atoms present for three compounds.

Task: Identify direction of currents and explain reason for pattern. Assessment focus: convection patterns.

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.

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

Task: Answer 2 multiple choice questions about how we would see Moon from Earth if its orbit changed. Assessment focus: relationship of Sun, Earth, and Moon.

Task: Match vocabulary and definitions, and select why these terms are useful to know when thinking about butterflies at risk. Assessment focus: understanding science texts.

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.