IB ESS ยท Topic 1 of 8

IB ESS Topic 1: Foundation

3 ready-made review sets for this topic, 41 questions in all, all standard level, to play as a class game on the projector. Free to host, and students join with a code.

A question from the sets

Worldview that believes technological developments can provide solutions to environmental problems?

  • Transformation
  • Anthropocentrism
  • Ecocentrism
  • TechnocentrismRight answer
From Topic 1: Foundation (part 1), 14 questions.

What Topic 1 covers

Topic 1 sets up the ideas the rest of the course uses. Perspectives: how values and worldviews shape the way people see environmental issues, and how values surveys measure them. Systems: storages and flows, transfers and transformations, open and closed systems, models, feedback loops, tipping points and resilience. Sustainability: what it means for the environment, society and the economy, environmental justice, and the indicators and models used to measure and plan for it, from ecological footprints to the planetary boundaries model, doughnut economics and the circular economy.

  • 1.1 Perspectives
  • 1.2 Systems
  • 1.3 Sustainability

Where students slip

  • A transfer moves energy or matter to a new place without changing it; a transformation changes its form, state or chemical nature.
  • An open system exchanges both energy and matter with its surroundings; a closed system exchanges energy only.
  • Negative feedback is not bad feedback. It counteracts a change and keeps a system stable; positive feedback amplifies the change, and can push a system past a tipping point.
  • Sustainability is not only environmental: the course looks at environmental, social and economic sustainability.
  • An ecological footprint larger than the area's biocapacity means a population is using resources faster than they can be regenerated.

The sets

Play this set opens the set in splycr, where you can read every question and host it for your class straight away. Hosting needs no account, and students join with the code on the board. A free account lets you copy a set and edit it.

The questions come from the Biology by Bradford flashcard bank. Each one plays as multiple choice, and the wrong options are other answers from the same set.

ESS has had a higher level course since the guide first assessed in 2026. Sets marked SL suit every ESS student, because higher level students study the standard level content too. Sets marked HL cover the additional higher level material in topics 2 to 8; Topic 1 has none, so its sets are all SL. The three HL lenses (environmental law, economics and ethics) have no sets yet.

Topic 1: Foundation (part 1)

14 questionsSL

  1. Worldview that believes technological developments can provide solutions to environmental problems?

    Answer: Technocentrism

  2. A flow involving a change in the location of energy or matter?

    Answer: Transfer

  3. A system that exchanges both energy and matter across its boundary?

    Answer: Open system

Play this setand 11 more questions

Topic 1: Foundation (part 2)

14 questionsSL

  1. Feedback that inhibits the original process, counteracting change and stabilizing the system?

    Answer: Negative feedback loop

  2. The minimum amount of change within a system that will destabilize it, causing it to reach a new equilibrium?

    Answer: Tipping point

  3. Meeting present needs without compromising future generations' ability to meet their own (Brundtland, 1987)?

    Answer: Sustainable development

Play this setand 11 more questions

Topic 1: Foundation (part 3)

13 questionsSL

  1. Area of land/water needed to sustain a population's resource use and absorb its waste?

    Answer: Ecological footprint

  2. Model identifying nine Earth-system processes and the human disturbance limits beyond which abrupt changes may occur?

    Answer: Planetary boundaries model

  3. Raworth's framework for an economy meeting everyone's needs within ecological limits, bounded by a social foundation and ecological ceiling?

    Answer: Doughnut economics model

Play this setand 10 more questions

Game modes that suit this topic

Every set plays in all eight modes. These two fit this topic best.

  • Boss Battle

    Topic 1 is built on pairs that look alike under pressure: transfer and transformation, open and closed, positive and negative feedback. A wrong answer heals the boss, so a class that guesses loses ground.

  • Kaboom

    The answers are short terms (system, model, resilience, biocapacity), so the bomb moves fast and every student answers many times. Nobody is knocked out: the holder just loses points when it goes off.

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