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Senior secondary · SACE · Geography
SACE Earth and Environmental Science lessons
Interactive lessons for the SACE Board of South Australia’s Earth and Environmental Science subject outlines, set out in the outlines’ order, Stage 1 and then Stage 2. Northern Territory students take the same subjects for the NTCET. Teachers can use them with a class and students can work through them on their own.
Stage 1 Year 11
All six Stage 1 topics have lessons. Under each topic are its lesson and the other pages that cover part of it. Rock identification, the rock cycle and plate tectonics were written for Year 8 Science and the Cyclone Risk Explorer for senior Geography, so plan to take students further. Earth system, Climate drivers, Climate evidence, Water and soil and Energy were written for Stage 2, so use the parts that match the Stage 1 statements.
Topic 1: Turbulent Earth
Earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis, meteorite impacts, and how hazards are monitored and predicted.
Other pages that cover part of this topic:
- Cyclone Risk ExplorerCyclone Tracy and four other cyclones as Earth hazards: hazard, exposure and vulnerability.
- Earth systemEvents in one sphere that change others: Mount Pinatubo’s eruption cooling the globe, lightning starting fires, and smoke from the 2019–20 bushfires rising into the stratosphere and feeding plankton in the Southern Ocean.
Topic 2: Composition of the Geosphere
Minerals, rocks, soil, and radiometric and relative dating.
Other pages that cover part of this topic:
- Rock identificationClassify eighteen rocks from their minerals and texture.
- The rock cycleHow igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks form.
Topic 3: Processes in the Geosphere
Reading the history of sedimentary rocks, what seismic waves and meteorites show about Earth’s layers, and the heat from Earth’s interior that drives plate movement.
Other pages that cover part of this topic:
- Plate tectonics: around your plateThe four edges of the Australian Plate and the evidence for plate tectonics.
- EnergyHeat from radioactive decay in the granite under the Cooper Basin, and a graph of temperature against depth that compares its geothermal gradient with the average.
Topic 4: The Earth’s atmosphere
Where the atmosphere came from, its layers, ozone and albedo, the greenhouse effect, air circulation, and El Niño and La Niña.
Other pages that cover part of this topic:
- Climate driversHow the atmosphere formed and how living things added oxygen and the ozone layer, albedo and the greenhouse effect, the wind belts and the Coriolis effect, and El Niño and La Niña.
- Climate evidenceHow climate models are built and tested, and why they keep changing; the Montreal Protocol and the recovery of the ozone layer.
Topic 5: Importance of the hydrosphere
Where Earth’s water came from, water in its three phases, and the global-ocean conveyor belt.
Other pages that cover part of this topic:
- Climate driversThe ocean storing heat, and the deep-ocean conveyor belt.
- Water and soilHow long water stays in each part of the water cycle, and the sustainability of Adelaide’s water sources, including stormwater recycled in Salisbury.
Topic 6: Biosphere
Early life, fossils and past environments, mass extinctions, and how energy and matter move through ecosystems.
SACE Stage 1 Topic 6: Biosphere Historical case study
Life through deep time: early life, fossils and mass extinctions
Work through four cases in the order the evidence came in: Miller and Urey, the oldest life in the Pilbara, Reg Sprigg’s Ediacara fossils and the end of the dinosaurs. Then read fossils and way-up structures, and weigh what killed Australia’s megafauna.
Printable activity: Case notebook
SACE Stage 1 Topic 6: Biosphere Project-based learning
Ecosystems and cycles: a coastal field study
Survey a transect across the dunes on Adelaide’s coast, then follow the energy and the carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus through the ecosystem and find out why the seagrass was lost. Each screen adds a section to a field study report.
Printable activity: Field study sheet
Stage 2 Year 12
All four Stage 2 topics have lessons.
Topic 1: Earth system
Topic 2: Earth’s resources
SACE Stage 2 Topic 2: Earth’s resources Jigsaw
Ore deposits: how metals are concentrated, found and mined
Expert groups learn how metals are concentrated into ore, then teach their home groups. Survey a buried deposit modelled on Olympic Dam, choose where to drill and how to mine, and judge how long Australia’s resources will last.
Printable activity: Survey grid
SACE Stage 2 Topic 2: Earth’s resources Concept attainment
Coal, oil and gas: how fossil fuels form, are found and are extracted
Work out from labelled examples what makes a rock coal, what makes a petroleum trap and what makes gas unconventional. Then run a seismic survey, choose where to drill, and study the Hazelwood mine fire and the Montara oil spill.
Printable activity: Draw the traps
Topic 3: Earth’s sustainable future
SACE Stage 2 Topic 3: Earth’s sustainable future Game-based learning
Water and soil: sustained or used up?
Play six rounds that run Adelaide’s reservoirs, a field’s topsoil and the Great Artesian Basin from 1878, then clear a hillslope to watch dryland salinity arrive.
Printable activity: Game sheet and water budget
SACE Stage 2 Topic 3: Earth’s sustainable future Decision-making
Energy: what should power South Australia?
Build a decision matrix for coal, gas, nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal and bioenergy as you gather the evidence. Then weigh the criteria yourself and test a mix for South Australia against a still winter week and a heatwave.
Printable activity: Decision sheet
Topic 4: Climate change
SACE Stage 2 Topic 4: Climate change Peer instruction
Climate drivers: the natural causes of climate change
Answer each concept question on your own, argue it with a partner, then answer again. The questions cover the evolution of the air, Earth’s energy budget and orbit, sunspots, continents moving away from Antarctica, and the wind belts, deep currents, El Niño and La Niña.
Printable activity: Heat capacity practical
SACE Stage 2 Topic 4: Climate change Learning stations
Climate evidence: how we know the climate is changing
Rotate through eight learning stations, from the Keeling Curve and 800,000 years of ice cores to frost fairs, grape harvests, melting ice and climate models of Australia.
Printable activity: Station record sheet
Senior secondary