WACE ATAR Earth & Environmental Science case studies
WACE ATAR Earth & Environmental Science · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The WACE ATAR Earth and Environmental Science course is a Western Australian senior secondary subject assessed through a written external examination set by the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA). It suits students who want a science pathway into university and who are curious about how the solid Earth, atmosphere, oceans and living systems interact. The WACE ATAR Earth & Environmental Science case studies are 5 cases and about 3,242 words.
1Coastal groundwater salinity after abstraction increase
A coastal town of 9,000 people draws drinking water from a sand aquifer whose water table sits 2.1 m above sea level at the pumping well, 600 m inland from the shoreline. The aquifer has a horizontal hydraulic conductivity of 12 m/day and an effective porosity of 0.25.
678 words, about 3 min2Basalt versus granite in a road cut
A road-widening project exposes a 40 m cutting through a dark, fine-grained rock containing scattered 2–4 mm pale phenocrysts and abundant vesicles in its upper 3 m. Below the vesicles the rock is massive with columnar jointing.
598 words, about 3 min3Isotopic and stratigraphic evidence for a mass extinction
A 60 m sedimentary section in a basin contains a thin (5 cm) clay layer separating diverse fossil-rich limestone below from sparser, small-shelled fossils above. Below the clay, fossils include large brachiopods, corals and ammonites; above it, only thin-shelled bivalves and a few burrowing worms appear, and diversity recovers gradually over the next 12 m.
649 words, about 3 min4Urban heat and a new reservoir: local climate judgement
A city of 1.2 million people sits in a broad basin. A regional weather station 30 km outside the city records a mean annual temperature of 17.4 °C and 620 mm of rainfall.
653 words, about 3 min5Soil carbon and fertiliser decisions on a degraded paddock
A 200 ha paddock has been cropped continuously for 40 years. Soil tests show organic carbon of 0.9% in the top 10 cm (bulk density 1.4 g/cm³), pH 4.8 (CaCl₂), and available phosphorus at 12 mg/kg.
664 words, about 3 min