Students are investigating the different types of freshwater on Earth. The students study the diagram below.
Using data from the diagram, make a bar graph that shows the percentages of the types of freshwater on Earth.
A student in Missouri records the average number of daylight hours during four months of the year. The results are shown in the data table below
Which conclusion is best supported by the data provided?
A student takes a picture of the shadow of a house at four different times during one day. The pictures are shown below, but they are not in order according to the time they were taken.
Identify the correct order of the pictures according to the time of day when each picture was taken. Write the number of each picture in one of the boxes to show this order.
| Draggable item | arrow_right_alt | Corresponding Item |
|---|---|---|
Sunset | arrow_right_alt |
|
4pm | arrow_right_alt |
|
Noon | arrow_right_alt |
|
2pm | arrow_right_alt |
|
A zoo in Missouri wants to build a new enclosure for yellow mud turtles, which are native to parts of the state.
The table below shows some features of yellow mud turtles in the wild and some
characteristics of the new zoo enclosure.
PART A
Describe how the turtles will be both positively and negatively affected by the new zoo enclosure.
PART B
Describe one way in which the zoo enclosure could be changed to help the turtles.
A student made the following model of the water cycle.
Part A: The student adds a bag of ice on top of the plastic wrap. Describe how this change will affect the water vapor rising from the cup.
Part B: Describe how the model can be changed to increase the rate of water moving through the water cycle.
Part C: Identify the two Earth systems that are represented by the cup of water and the bag of ice in the model.
A student is investigating how the amount of daylight changes with the time of year in Missouri. The data table shown is used by the student in the investigation.
PART A
The student decides to collect data on the twenty-first day of each month. Explain why collecting data on the same day of each month is a good idea.
PART B
The student collects data for one year and notices a pattern. Describe this pattern.
PART C
Describe the relationship between the pattern in the amount of daylight during a year and the different seasons on Earth.
A scientist observes some layers of sedimentary rock on a cliff. The layers of sedimentary rock contain fossils. The scientist makes a drawing of the observations. The scientist’s drawing is shown.
PART A
Identify the oldest layer of rock on the cliff and use evidence from the drawing to explain your answer.
PART B
Explain how the environment in the area observed by the scientist changed over time. Be sure to include two different examples, with evidence from the drawing.
Students decide to replace part of a school’s grass lawn with native plants. Healthy grass lawns usually need a lot of care to be healthy. Native plants need less care because they are adapted to grow well in local conditions. The students decide to use buffalo grass, which is native to the school area. Buffalo grass needs less water and fertilizer than other types of grass and can live through periods without rain. Like other types of grass, buffalo grass spreads out to cover the ground. Aboveground stems, called stolons, grow outward from existing grass plants. New leaves and roots grow from the stolons, forming new plants. Buffalo grass only grows 8–10 inches high and the leaves tend to topple over and look short, so it requires less mowing as well.
Native plants are also more likely to attract native wildlife and pollinators. Pollinators can be birds, such as hummingbirds, or insects, such as bees and butterflies. Flowering plants produce pollen and nectar. These food sources attract pollinators. As the pollinators move from flower to flower collecting food, they transfer pollen from one plant to the next. The pollen transfer or “pollination” is
a necessary step in the production of seeds that grow into new plants. The students choose plants based on how well they will grow in local conditions and the kinds of pollinators they will attract.
Many pollinators also benefit from a source of water, such as a birdbath, for drinking and washing. A human-made pond can even attract frogs to a garden.
A student wants to investigate the role of stolons in buffalo grass reproduction. The student
performs the following steps in an investigation.
Buffalo Grass Investigation Steps
Plant buffalo grass in two plots of land.
Care for buffalo grass until it spreads over a large area in both plots.
Separate the buffalo grass by cutting the stolons between plants.
Which result would provide the best evidence that stolons help the plant reproduce?
Students would expect to see more frogs near the school with an increase in native plants.
Frogs have sticky tongues that they use to catch insects. Select the two statements that describe how a frog’s tongue helps it survive.
Butterflies are often observed in grassy areas with many flowering plants. They have a long, thin structure called a proboscis, which is used to collect nectar from flowers. Which statement best describes how butterflies would survive in a new area with some tall trees and very few flowering plants?
Students at a school are considering mixing rough bluegrass into the school’s lawn of buffalo grass. Rough bluegrass is not native to Missouri. It grows best in wet and shady areas. It stays green throughout the winter but will turn brown without enough rainfall or if too many people walk on it. Like buffalo grass, rough bluegrass also reproduces through the use of stolons.
Explain whether the students should use rough bluegrass in the school lawn in addition to buffalo grass. Be sure to include at least two reasons supporting your explanation.
A student began to develop the simple life cycle model shown below.
Which changes should the student make to the model to best represent the life cycle of buffalo grass?
Students are given a mixture of iron filings and sand.
Which method could the students use to separate the mixture into its individual components?
The drawing below shows a porcupine.
Write the number of each of the characteristics that help a porcupine survive in its environment in the table below.
The list below includes some characteristics of a puppy.
Puppy Characteristics
ears that face forward
tip of nose is dark colored
short coat (fur length)
scar on one of its front paws
A student states that all of the puppy’s characteristics in the list were inherited from its parents. Which statement best explains whether the student is correct or incorrect?
The table below compares some fish and the water temperatures in which they live.
PART A
Identify the fish that is able to live in the warmest habitat.
A student states that the chum salmon and the spotted bass can be found in the same river. Explain whether the data provided supports the student’s statement or not.
A model of an energy pyramid is shown below.
PART A
Describe the relationship between organisms in level W and organisms in level X in the model.
PART B
Explain why the number of snails with brown shells has increased over time.
PART C
Describe a possible change to the forest that could result in an increase in the number of snails with white shells.
A group of snails lives in a dark forest. Some of the snails have white shells, and some of the snails have brown shells. The drawings below show how the shell color for the group of snails changed over three generations.
PART A
Explain why having a brown shell in a dark forest is an advantage over having a white shell.
Describe how stirring the solution will affect the total amount of matter in this investigation.
A student performs the following procedure:
Procedure
1. Measure 25 grams of an unknown solid.
2. Measure 200 grams of water.
3. Pour the unknown solid and water into a beaker, which weighs 50 grams.
4. Stir the solution.
The student records the following observation:
Observation
About half of the unknown solid dissolves and the other half settles to the
bottom of the beaker.
PART A
The student calculated the combined weight of the unknown solid and the water to be 275 grams. Describe the mistake the student made in this calculation.
PART B
Describe how stirring the solution will affect the total amount of matter in this investigation.
A student is following a recipe to bake some cookies. The recipe is shown below.
Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
Procedure
Mix the white sugar, brown sugar, and butter until smooth.
Stir the eggs and vanilla extract into the mixture.
Mix the baking soda in the hot water until the water is clear and then add it to the mixture.
Stir in the salt, flour, chocolate chips, and walnuts until the cookie dough is formed.
Bake the cookie dough in an oven for 10 minutes at 350°F.
Magnets and Gravity
A student performed two investigations with paper clips. During the first investigation, the student held a horseshoe magnet at different heights above the paper clip. The data are shown in the table below.
During the second investigation, the student researched data on the Internet about how far a paper clip would fall each second after being dropped from a height of 100 meters. The data are shown in the table below.
The student wants to use the results from Investigation 1 to predict whether the paper clip will rise to stick to the magnet in a new investigation. Based on the data provided, determine the lowest height at which the paper clip will be unable to rise and stick to the magnet.
The student watched an online video of a falling paper clip. When the video was played in slow motion, the paper clip could be observed moving side to side as it fell to the ground. The student stated that the force of gravity was responsible for both the paper clip’s downward motion and its side-to-side motion. Identify whether the student is correct or incorrect and provide an explanation.
Which conclusion about why the paper clip only moved during two of the trials is supported by the data from Investigation 1?
Which statement accurately compares the observations made in both investigations?
The student uses the data table from Investigation 2 to make predictions about the behavior of other falling objects dropped from different heights. Which prediction can the student make about the behavior of other falling objects based on these data?
Based on the observations made in Investigation 1, which statement best describes the interaction between the horseshoe magnet and the paper clip?
The student has developed three options to model Investigation 2.
In the table below, circle the model that best shows how gravity affected the paper clip as it fell. Next, circle the source of the gravitational force that was acting on the paper clip.
The student makes a mistake and mixes the white sugar in the hot water instead of mixing the baking soda in the hot water. Which investigation setup would best help the student separate the white sugar from the water?
The student places some of the dry ingredients into a bowl and stirs the ingredients until they are mixed thoroughly. Dry Ingredients: - Flour - Salt - Brown sugar - Chocolate chips The student wants to use a screen to separate the mixture into its individual components. Which statement describes how the student’s plan will most likely work?
The student decides to perform a separate investigation to see how baking with white sugar compares to baking with brown sugar. The student performs the following two procedures.
In the table below, circle two ways the student’s investigation could be changed to make it a fair test.
Next, circle one observation that would help the student decide whether a new substance was formed during the investigation.
The student wants to develop a model to represent how the baking soda is affected in step 3 of the procedure. Which description of a model would best represent this process?
Before baking the cookies, the student measures the weight of the prepared cookie dough. Which graph best represents how the amount of matter inside the oven is affected by the cooking process?
The student measures the combined weight of all the ingredients before the cookie dough is made. After the cookies are baked in the oven and allowed to cool, the student weighs the finished cookies. The weight of the cookies is less than that of their ingredients.
Part A: Explain what happened to the matter that is not part of the finished cookies.
Part B: Identify one possible cause for the lighter weight of the cookies compared to that of the ingredients.
Galveston is an island near the coast of Texas. In September 1900, Galveston was the site of one of the worst natural disasters in United States history when it was hit by a major hurricane.
On the morning of September 8, 1900, people noticed that the height of the waves hitting the beach started to increase, flooding the lowest parts of the island. Meteorologists in Galveston recorded the weather that morning as partly cloudy skies with winds blowing at 20 mph. Later that day, the weather changed as rain came with lightning and thunder and the wind speed increased.
At about 6:00 p.m., the rain gauge and thermometer were blown off the weather station. The meteorologists recorded a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure, as shown by the data in Table 1.
As floodwaters started to rise and wind speeds increased, people were told to seek shelter and move to higher ground. A rise in the sea level, known as a storm surge, in the Gulf of Mexico caused flooding on the island. The storm surge reached a height of 15 feet. Since the island of Galveston is 9 feet above sea level, the island was completely flooded by the Gulf of Mexico.
There was not a system in 1900 to classify the strength of a hurricane. Table 2 shows how hurricanes are classified today.
After the floodwaters flowed back into the Gulf of Mexico and the winds returned to normal, the people of Galveston started to rebuild. A seawall was completed in 1904 to protect against future hurricanes. The concrete seawall was 3.3 miles long, 16 feet thick at its base, and 17 feet high. Sand was used to fill the space behind the seawall, increasing the height of the island. Rocks were put at the base of the seawall to break the force of waves. Since 1904, the seawall has protected Galveston from several other hurricanes.
Today, the seawall is a place where the people of Galveston play. The list describes some features of the Galveston seawall:
The top of the seawall is a trail for hiking and biking.
Fishing piers reach out from the seawall into the Gulf of Mexico.
A beach is located in front of the seawall.
Artists paint murals on the part of the seawall facing the beach.
Which statement explains why the Galveston hurricane of 1900 caused so much damage?
Use the information in Table 1 to create a bar graph of the atmospheric pressure in Galveston for the evening of September 8, 1900.
Which statement describes a cause-and-effect relationship between atmospheric pressure and a characteristic of a hurricane?
Based on Table 2 and other information in the scenario, which chart includes the most likely wind speed for the Galveston hurricane of 1900 and provides evidence to support that wind speed?
The Galveston seawall protects the island from hurricanes up to category 4. Which change to the current seawall is most likely to protect Galveston from a category 5 hurricane?
Building the seawall in Galveston has had both positive and negative effects.
Categorize the following effects by writing the number of each effect in one of the sections of
the chart below.
A map of Galveston Island with possible locations for the seawall is shown below.
In the chart below, circle the area where the people of Galveston most likely built the seawall in 1904. Next, circle the explanation that best supports this decision.
A seawall is designed to protect cities from the effects of a hurricane. A student developed two
seawall models to possibly reduce the impacts of a hurricane on a nearby city.
Which pair of statements identifies the model that would be most effective at decreasing the impacts of a hurricane and explains why?
