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Environmental ScienceQ&A by dot point
A short Q&A bank for every Scotland Environmental Science syllabus dot point. Each question and answer is drawn directly from our worked dot-point page, so you can scan key concepts before opening the long-form answer.
Area 2: Earth's Resources
- Soil formation by weathering; the composition of soil (mineral particles, organic matter, water, air and organisms); soil types and their properties; and soil degradation and its causes.2Q&A pairs
- The four Earth systems (geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere) and how they interact; the global distribution of biomes and the climate factors that determine them.2Q&A pairs
- The water cycle and its processes; sources of fresh water; water as a resource; and the treatment of water to make it safe to drink and to deal with waste water.2Q&A pairs
- The composition of the atmosphere; the difference between weather and climate and how they are measured; the greenhouse effect and the enhanced greenhouse effect; and the causes and consequences of climate change.2Q&A pairs
Area 1: Living Environment
- Biodiversity defined at the species, genetic and ecosystem levels; the importance of biodiversity for ecosystem services and human wellbeing; biodiversity hotspots; and how biodiversity is measured and indicated.4Q&A pairs
- Ecosystems, habitats and niches; biotic and abiotic factors; food chains, food webs and energy flow through trophic levels; and the interdependence of organisms within a community.2Q&A pairs
- Human impacts on biodiversity: habitat loss, pollution, overexploitation, invasive species and climate change; the effects of population growth and resource demand; and conservation methods including biological control.2Q&A pairs
- Nutrient cycling in ecosystems: the role of decomposers, and the cycling of carbon and nitrogen between organisms, the soil, water and the atmosphere.2Q&A pairs
Skills of Scientific Inquiry, Fieldwork and the Assignment
- Skills of scientific inquiry and fieldwork: sampling techniques (quadrats and transects), measuring abiotic factors, identifying variables, presenting and processing data, drawing conclusions, and evaluating reliability and validity.2Q&A pairs
- The National 5 Environmental Science assignment: an externally marked report on a candidate-chosen investigation with an underpinning environmental science focus, its structure and how it rewards the skills of scientific inquiry.3Q&A pairs
Area 3: Sustainability
- Renewable and non-renewable energy resources; fossil fuels and nuclear power; renewable sources (solar, wind, hydro, wave, tidal, geothermal, biomass); and the advantages and disadvantages of each for sustainability.2Q&A pairs
- Sustainable development and the ecological footprint; sustainable management of resources; balancing economic, social and environmental needs; and making and evaluating decisions about environmental issues.2Q&A pairs
- Sustainable food production and land use; the environmental impacts of intensive farming; methods that make food production more sustainable; and the issue of feeding a growing population.2Q&A pairs
- Waste management and the waste hierarchy (reduce, reuse, recycle); methods of disposal and their impacts (landfill, incineration); recycling and composting; and the problem of pollution from waste.2Q&A pairs