AC9S8U03 Year 8 Science

This Content Descriptor from Year 8 Science provides the specific knowledge and skills students should learn. Use it to plan lessons, create learning sequences, and design assessments that align with the Australian Curriculum v9.

investigate tectonic activity including the formation of geological features at divergent, convergent and transform plate boundaries and describe the scientific evidence for the theory of plate tectonics

Elaborations

• 1 examining patterns of earthquake and volcanic activity over time and proposing explanations
• 2 evaluating the impact of tectonic events on human populations and examining engineering solutions designed to reduce the impact
• 3 modelling interactions at plate boundaries
• 4 investigating the relative significance of different forces involved in tectonic plate movement including slab pull, ridge push and convection
• 5 relating the extreme age and stability of a large part of the Australian continent to its plate tectonic history
• 6 constructing a timeline of evidence to show the development of the theory of plate tectonics
• 7 exploring how geologist and oceanographic cartographer Marie Tharp’s topographic maps of the Atlantic Ocean floor provided support for the acceptance of the theory of plate tectonics
• 8 researching First Nations Australians’ cultural accounts that provide evidence of earthquakes and volcanoes

Related Achievement Standards