Communicating in science resources

Using the equipment supplied students make a series circuit according to a circuit diagram. Then students are asked to construct another circuit using different criteria and draw as a circuit diagram.

Task: Answer questions about how a seesaw works and use an equation to calculate how to balance the seesaw.

Task: Transfer information from a table to a graph, label the bottom axis and describe the pattern of the data. Assessment focus: graph construction; graph interpretation.

Three key variables related to high altitude flight are displayed graphically. Students use the information provided to answer a series of questions about flight.

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

This assessment task requires students to graph data on the size of the ozone layer over Antarctica. Students then answer four short questions relating to the data and their graph.

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.

Using information about comets, students label a diagram of a comet and draw the orbit of a comet and the position of the comet in two places in its orbit.

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: Label a diagram. Assessment focus: relative positions of Earth and Sun for each season.

Students use provided data on the time of day and the length of the shadow to construct a line graph. Students interpret their graph to answer three questions.

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.

A diagram showing the position of Earth in each of the four seasons has been provided. Students use this diagram to identify the season we would experience in New Zealand at each of the numbered places.

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

For this task students use a diagram to explain the different seasons experienced in different hemispheres.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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 geological time scale which they use to interpret and answer a number of questions.

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