Unit Award Scheme

demonstrated the ability to

1. indicate how a problem relevant to the unit can be investigated

2. handle equipment and materials safely

3. record the results of an experiment

4. state what has been found out in the experiment

shown knowledge of

5. the cracking of the Earths crust and upper part of the mantle into a number of large pieces called plates

6. convection currents in the mantle causing the plates to move very slowly

7. the occurrence of earthquakes and/or volcanic eruptions at the boundaries between plates and the difficulty of predicting these

8. the proportions of nitrogen and oxygen in the Earths atmosphere and the presence of small amounts of other gases

9. the chemical unreactivity of noble gases allowing them to be used in lamps and fluorescent tubes

10. helium being much less dense than air and being used in balloons

11. volcanic activity during the first billion years of the Earths existence releasing the gases that formed in the early atmosphere and water vapour that condensed to form the oceans

12. plants producing the oxygen now in the atmosphere by photosynthesis

13. most carbon from the carbon dioxide in the early atmosphere becoming locked up in rocks and the release of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels increasing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

14. the use of data to evaluate effects of human activities on the atmosphere.