This document provides teacher notes for a unit intended to educate boys about natural environmental processes and disasters. The goals are to (A) educate students about natural processes and social impacts, and (B) equip students with skills like note taking, written work, and essay writing that are important for further education. The document then provides information about key environmental processes like tectonic plates, how they move through convergent, divergent and transform boundaries, and how this relates to natural disasters in New Zealand.

1. Teacher Notes
Remember the intentions of this unit are to;
A) educate boys about natural process and the
social affects of such disasters
B) Equip them with the skills and endurance to
do written book work, note taking and write
essays. These of which are essential skills in
social studies, senior geography and University.

4. Kete Kupu
Prominent
Process
Environmental

5. So what is an
environmental process?
It is processes, actions, operations, and cycles
that occur naturally in the environment without
the intervention or aid of man.
Natural disasters are a result of an or
combination of significant environmental
processes.

6. What do we already know?
What are all the different environmental
processes you know?

7. What are the most
prominent 3 in NZ?

8. +So… what do
we need to
understand
first?
Tectonic plates and how
they move

9. +
Layers of the earth
 Earth is made up of many different layers
 The interior layers of the earths are spherical,
like an onion.
 Layers of the Earth

10. +
Layers of the earth

11. +
Practical
 Create a model of the layers of the earth.
 Complete the layers of the earth work sheet.

12. +
Tectonic plates (copy this in full)
 The worlds surface is made up of many tectonic plates. There
are 8 main plates.
 When the plates move volcanoes, mountains, earthquakes,
and tsunamis are formed.
 Each tectonic plate is alongside another plate – like a puzzle.
Where they meet are called boundaries.
 There are three types of boundaries they are called;
convergent boundaries, divergent boundaries, and transform
boundaries

13. +
Tectonic Plates

14. +
Plate movement (copy this in full)
Tectonic plates can move in three ways;
 Convergent – one moves under the other
Convergent boundaries is when plates in the earth overlap, one goes under and the
other rises over to form mountain ranges. An example of a mountain range is the
Himalayas.
 Divergent - move away from each other
Divergent Boundaries are locations where plates are moving away from one another.
This occurs above rising currents. The rising current pushes up on the bottom of the
lithosphere, lifting it and flowing laterally beneath it. Divergent boundaries mostly cause
volcanoes
 Transform – they move along side each other
Transform Plate Boundaries are locations where two plates slide past one
another. Most transform faults are found in the ocean basin and connect offsets in
the mid-ocean ridges. San Andreas Fault is an example.

15. +
Divergence
 video

16. +
convergent
 video

17. +
subduction
 video

18. +
Mix and match all the squares so
they align with the titles
Divergent Convergent Transform
One moves under the they move along side move away from each
other each other other

19. +
ANSWERS
Divergent Convergent Transform
move away from each one moves under the they move along side
other other each other

20. +
The ‘Ring of Fire’ (copy the first 2 points)
 The "Ring of Fire” is boundary stretching from New Zealand,
along the eastern edge of Asia, north across the Aleutian
Islands of Alaska, and south along the coast of North and
South America
 The Ring of Fire is composed over 75% of the world's active
and dormant volcanoes.
Now complete the ‘Ring of Fire’ worksheet
- Fill the gaps
- Remember to glue it in your book

21. +
The ‘Ring of Fire’ - Answers