Grade 7 · Social Studies · Unit 1 of 10
Landforms & Change
How Earth's surface is shaped
What your child practises
Landforms, the natural processes (tectonic forces, weathering, erosion, deposition, glaciation) and human activities that change them, and how to read topographic maps with contour lines.
Ontario Curriculum expectation: Geography A3.1–A3.3 · landforms, the processes that change them, and topographic maps
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
What is a valley?
- The top of a mountain
- A large body of salt water
- Low land between hills or mountains
- A high, flat area
Show answer
Low land between hills or mountains
Hint: Rivers often flow through valleys.
Question 2
How many metres higher is Mount Logan than Kilimanjaro?
Height above sea level (m) answer boxm
Show answer
64 m
Hint: Subtract: 5959 − 5895.
Question 3
Why do tectonic plates move?
- The Moon pulls them apart
- The oceans push them
- Strong winds shift them
- Heat inside Earth slowly moves the hot rock beneath them
Show answer
Heat inside Earth slowly moves the hot rock beneath them
Hint: Currents in the hot mantle drag the plates a few centimetres a year.
Question 4
A topographic map has a contour interval of 20 m. A hiker walks straight uphill and crosses 5 contour lines. How many metres higher is the hiker at the end?
answer boxm
Show answer
100 m
Hint: Each line crossed is one interval of 20 m higher: 5 × 20.
Question 5
Which landform is high, flat-topped land?
- a plain
- a mountain
- a plateau
- a valley
Show answer
a plateau
Hint: A plateau rises above the land around it but has a broad, flat top.
Question 6
Why do large deserts often have sand dunes on their downwind side?
- Glaciers push sand in
- Plates collide there
- Rivers deposit sand there
- Wind carries sand and drops it where it slows down
Show answer
Wind carries sand and drops it where it slows down
Hint: Deposition happens where moving wind loses energy.