2013 Notes from the Marking Centre – Earth and Environmental Science
Introduction
This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Earth and Environmental Science course. It contains comments on candidate responses to the 2013 Higher School Certificate examination, highlighting their strengths in particular parts of the examination and indicating where candidates need to improve.
This document should be read along with:
- the Earth and Environmental Science Stage 6 Syllabus
- the 2013 Higher School Certificate Earth and Environmental Science examination
- the marking guidelines
- advice for candidates attempting science examinations
- Advice for HSC students about examinations
- other support documents developed by the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW to assist in the teaching and learning of Earth and Environmental Science in Stage 6.
Section I
Part B
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- describing the process of heat transfer in the mantle that helps drive plate motion (Q.22)
- explaining the climatic effects of ash from volcanoes (Q.21b)
- describing the subduction process (Qs.22, 23a)
- using appropriate annotated diagrams in answers
- identifying alternatives to pesticides (Q.27)
- describing trends in graphs (Q.29).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- recalling geographic locations of significant tectonic features (Q.23)
- understanding the role of volcanic aerosols in determining climate impacts (Q.21b)
- providing relevant examples in explanations of phenomena
- understanding the term validity (Q.28a)
- understanding the process of evolution and why models of evolution are useful (Q.24)
- understanding types of extinction events (Q.25).
Section II Options
Question 31 – Introduced Species and the Australian Environment
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- knowledge of a broad range of introduced species (part b)
- applying knowledge to the stimulus material (part c)
- selecting an abiotic factor that was easily measured (part d).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- responding in a less generic manner by including specific detail and examples where relevant
- demonstrating understanding of the conduct of a valid and reliable investigation (part d).
Question 32 – Organic Geology – A Non-renewable Resource
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- defining a non-renewable resource (part a)
- describing trends for production and consumption of oil and coal and reasons for those trends (part a)
- identifying a hypothesis (part d).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- describing the difference between a structural and stratigraphic trap (part b)
- choosing an appropriate and valid experiment to test the energy efficiency of a non-fossil fuel (part d).
Question 33 – Mining and the Australian Environment
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- defining an ore (part a)
- outlining reasons for conducting environmental impact statements (part a)
- describing the trends using the data from the graphs provided (part c).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- providing the main geological features of an Australian metal-producing locality in an island arc terrane (part b)
- choosing a valid geophysical experiment to test for ore minerals in a rock (part d)
- writing a hypothesis (part d).
Question 34 – Oceanography
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- identifying the correct features of an organism at different depths in the ocean
- defining salinity (part a)
- outlining the process of the origin of salinity in the Earth’s oceans (part a).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- selecting and describing appropriate evidence to support theories of sea floor change (part b)
- ensuring the validity of an experiment (part d)
- writing a hypothesis (part d).
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