In Year 11 Earth and Environmental Science, explore Earth’s Resources; Plate Tectonics. See the learning outline, assessment information and original sample before choosing.
Confirm your cohort: NESA implementation advice on the 2025 syllabus overview page (read 2026-11-12) states the new Earth and Environmental Science 11–12 Syllabus (2025) is to be implemented from 2028 and will replace the Stage 6 Syllabus (2017); 2026 and 2027 are plan-and-prepare years and Year 11 starts the new syllabus in Term 1 2028. Year 11 students in 2027 are therefore taught the 2017 syllabus. Rebuild on the 2017 syllabus decided by Andrew on 2026-11-11; this supersedes the manifest identity (2025 syllabus).
What will I learn?
Earth’s Resources
Year 11 / foundation stage3 more sources
Plate Tectonics
Year 11 / foundation stage3 more sources
Energy Transformations
Year 11 / foundation stage3 more sources
Human Impacts
Year 11 / foundation stage3 more sources
Module 5: Earth’s Processes
Year 12 guide — check cohort versionHow today’s biosphere began and developed: evidence for the origin of organic molecules (Urey and Miller’s experiments, communities around black smokers, meteorites and panspermia), cyanobacteria and stromatolites, the Ediacaran and Cambrian fauna and the conquest of land. How life changed the geosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere, including oxygen and banded iron formations. Modelling the plate tectonic supercycle and its effects on climate and evolution. Mould, cast and trace fossils, index fossils, uniformitarianism, superposition and absolute dating used to date events such as the Cambrian radiation and mass extinctions.
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Module 6: Hazards
Year 12 guide — check cohort versionPredicting where earthquakes and effusive or explosive eruptions occur from plate boundaries, and why earthquake focus depth changes across convergent and divergent boundaries. Earthquake hazards (ground motion, tsunamis) and volcanic hazards (ash, lava flows, lahars, gases), magma type and explosivity, and the point at which a hazard becomes a disaster. Impacts of eruptions on the biosphere and atmosphere, including a case study such as Mount Pinatubo; hailstorms, east coast lows, droughts, floods and bushfires and how human activity can make some disasters more frequent or severe. Evaluating prediction technologies, building codes, warning systems, education and meteorological forecasting.
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Module 7: Climate Science
Year 12 guide — check cohort versionThe natural greenhouse effect and natural causes of climate variation on different timescales: the plate tectonic supercycle, the Deccan and Siberian Traps, changes in Earth’s orbit, and ocean circulation. Ancient evidence (pollen, rock types, fossils and microfossils, isotope ratios in rocks and deep-sea sediments) and recent evidence (ice cores, dendrochronology, Aboriginal art sites, instrumental records, isotopes in speleothems and corals). The anthropogenic greenhouse effect, ocean acidification and flow-on effects on weather, ice and species ranges. Evaluating mitigation and adaptation strategies, including urban design, geo-engineering, alternative energy and agricultural practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and other cultural groups.
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Module 8: Resource Management
Year 12 guide — check cohort versionAustralia’s renewable resources and where they are; the environmental and cultural-site impacts of open-pit, underground and drilling operations and how mined land is reclaimed. Case studies of traditional owners’ involvement in planning, mining and restoration, and of an important Australian resource (how it is found, extracted, used and managed sustainably, and its past, present and future importance). Investigating waste composition, solid-waste management options and the sustainability of a named option. Definitions of sustainability, overharvesting, water pollution and habitat destruction, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as sustainable resource managers.
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Working Scientifically skills and depth studies
Year 12 guide — check cohort versionSeven skill outcomes run through the course: questioning and predicting, planning and conducting investigations, processing data, analysing data, problem solving and communicating. In the exam these appear as identifying variables, writing valid methods with safety measures, constructing tables, graphs and flow charts, calculating percentage change or periodicity, judging validity and reliability, reading the Geological Time Scale and building evidence-based arguments. Depth studies (at least 15 hours in Year 12), practical investigations (at least 35 hours) and one Year 12 fieldwork exercise are school-assessed.
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How will I be assessed?
School arrangements: Preliminary-course assessment is school-based under NESA requirements. Ask for the current school assessment outline. Original practice exams are not official HSC assessment tasks.
Needs verification: Year 12 guide (Earth and Environmental Science Stage 6 Syllabus (2017) — HSC Year 12 course (Modules 5–8)): The HSC exam is one written paper worth 100 marks: 5 minutes reading time and 3 hours working time. Section I has 20 marks of objective-response (multiple-choice) questions, about 35 minutes. Section II is worth 80 marks: questions may contain parts, with 20 to 25 items in total and at least two items worth 7 to 9 marks; allow about 2 hours 25 minutes. Modules 5 to 8 carry approximately equal weighting and Working Scientifically skills are integrated throughout. A Geological Time Scale is provided; NESA-approved calculators, a pair of compasses, a protractor and set squares may be used. Your HSC mark is the average of your exam mark and your moderated school assessment mark; the Year 12 school-based components are Skills in working scientifically (60%) and Knowledge and understanding of course content (40%). Confirm the syllabus and assessment schedule for your own completion year.
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Progression and companion subjects
No complete companion or exclusion review is attached to this profile. Check the official course-entry conditions, language eligibility and your school’s sequence before enrolling. Links between resource hubs show related learning; they do not establish a compulsory prerequisite.
Will I find it hard?
Difficulty depends on your experience, interests, teaching and assessment. These are our reflection prompts, not an official difficulty rating.
- Look at how much data, calculation and graph interpretation appear in the sample for this particular science.
- Can you explain the ideas in your own words as well as recall the terminology?
- Do investigations and evaluating evidence interest you? Check the course’s practical requirements.
Does it scale up or down?
Earth & Environmental Science, 2025. UAC Table A3 reports separate means for reported HSC marks and scaled marks per unit, with candidature for each course in 2025. These are cohort statistics. They do not supply individual raw exam marks or a conversion between the two columns. Historical cohort data cannot predict your result or a future scaling direction.
| Mean reported HSC mark per unit | Mean scaled mark per unit | Students |
|---|---|---|
| 37.3 | 22.8 | 2,678 |
Scaling is not a measure of difficulty or a guaranteed bonus. Prioritise content you can engage with and required subjects for courses you are considering.
Try a little of the subject
Earth’s Resources
Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago (4.54 Ga) as dust, rock fragments and planetesimals orbiting the young Sun collided and stuck together, a process called accretion . Kinetic energy from impacts, gravitational compression and heat released by radioactive decay raised the temperature until much of the planet melted. While it was molten, material separated by density ( differentiation ): dense iron and nickel sank to form the core, and less dense silicates rose to form the mantle and, later, a thin crust. A giant collision early in Earth’s history is widely accepted as the origin of the Moon and added more heat. The early atmosphere formed mainly by outgassing : volcanoes released water vapour, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and sulfur gases from the interior, while the first, hydrogen-rich atmosphere was largely driven off by impacts and lost to space. As the surface and atmosphere cooled, water vapour condensed and fell as rain, filling basins to form the first hydrosphere; comets and water-rich asteroids may have added more water. Zircon chemistry suggests liquid water existed by about 4.4 Ga. Free oxygen built up much later, once photosynthesising cyanobacteria were widespread; banded iron formations record oxygen reacting with dissolved iron, and a major rise in atmospheric oxygen, the Great Oxidation Event, began about 2.4 Ga. These changes show that Earth’s four systems are interrelated: the biosphere changed the atmosphere, which changed weathering of the geosphere and the chemistry of the hydrosphere. Technology-based evidence for internal structure. No drill hole has passed through the crust, so the interior is inferred from indirect evidence. Seismometers record earthquake waves. P waves (compressional) travel through solids and liquids; S waves (shear) trave
Original practice question: Which observation provides the strongest evidence that Earth’s outer core is liquid?
Show the worked answer
C
This is ATARMAxxing’s original sample learning material. It is not an official assessment task or a prediction of your school’s workload.
Explore the resources
Open the Earth and Environmental Science subject hub and free preview
Core subject information and planning are free. Full study resources are optional.
Sources, versions and verification dates
Profile source metadata last checked: 2026-11-12. A source check is not an endorsement by the authority or confirmation that a future course version is unchanged.
- Earth and Environmental Science Stage 6 Syllabus (2017) (DOCX) — NESA; 2026-11-12. Published version Stage 6 Syllabus 2017; Year 11 Modules 1–4, Working Scientifically outcomes EES11/12-1 to EES11/12-7, Year 11 knowledge outcomes EES11-8 to EES11-11; sha256 02e6e89eef7f336a4e4a42d3d0d5a8e61cf95634b9506734303669be90e5c5e3. Confirm applicability to your cohort.
- NESA Earth and Environmental Science Stage 6 (2017) syllabus page — NESA; 2026-11-12. Published version Landing page linking the 2017 syllabus DOCX. Confirm applicability to your cohort.
- NSW Curriculum: Earth and Environmental Science 11–12 (2025) overview, implementation panel — NESA; 2026-11-12. Published version Implementation advice only: the 2025 syllabus is implemented from 2028 and replaces the 2017 syllabus; not a content source for this hub. Confirm applicability to your cohort.
- ATARMAxxing Earth and Environmental Science Stage 6 Syllabus (2017) — HSC Year 12 course (Modules 5–8) guide — ATARMAxxing; 2026-10-04. Original existing study guide, not an independent official verification or a forecast of a future syllabus.
- UAC 2025 scaling report: Earth & Environmental Science — UAC; 2026-11-12. UAC Table A3 reports separate means for reported HSC marks and scaled marks per unit, with candidature for each course in 2025. These are cohort statistics. They do not supply individual raw exam marks or a conversion between the two columns.