Data Analysis
A student records these results: 2, 4 and 6. What is the mean (average) of the results?
What is 4?
These four levels of organisation go from smallest to largest: cells, tissues, organs and these larger structures. Give an example of each level.
What are organ systems? For example: muscle cell → muscle tissue → heart → circulatory system.
This type of pure substance contains only one type of atom. Gold and oxygen are two examples.
What is an element?
This type of energy is possessed by a moving object, while a stretched rubber band and a book held on a high shelf store different types of this other form of energy. Identify all three types of energy.
What are kinetic energy, elastic potential energy and gravitational potential energy?
These four main layers make up the Earth, from the outside to the centre. Name them in order.
What are the crust, mantle, outer core and inner core?
A student measures plant growth and records 3 cm, 5 cm, 7 cm and 9 cm. What is the range of the results?
What is 6 cm? (9 − 3 = 6)
This system breaks down food and absorbs nutrients. Name the system, identify three main organs involved and explain its main job.
Digestive System. It includes the mouth, stomach and small intestine, and breaks down food so nutrients can be absorbed.
These three subatomic particles make up an atom. Name each particle, state its charge and describe where it is found.
What are protons (positive, in the nucleus), neutrons (neutral, in the nucleus) and electrons (negative, in the electron cloud surrounding the nucleus)?
When a battery-powered torch is switched on, energy changes from chemical energy in the battery to electrical energy and then to light and thermal energy. What is this process called, and what scientific law states that energy cannot be created or destroyed?
What are energy transformations and the law of conservation of energy? Energy changes form, but the total amount of energy is conserved.
Scientists have found matching fossils and similar rock formations on continents that are now far apart. These findings, along with the way continents fit together, provide evidence for this scientific theory.
What is the theory of plate tectonics, which explains the movement of Earth's lithospheric plates?
A student investigates whether the amount of water affects plant growth. They give different amounts of water to each plant and measure how much each plant grows. Identify the independent and dependent variables.
The amount of water (independent variable) and plant growth (dependent variable)?
These five plant parts or structures have different jobs: roots, leaves, flowers, xylem and phloem. Identify the job of each one.
Structures that absorb water and minerals (roots), make food by photosynthesis (leaves), enable reproduction (flowers), transport water and minerals upwards (xylem), and transport sugars around the plant (phloem)?
The periodic table is organised into horizontal rows and vertical columns. Name these two arrangements and explain what elements in the same column generally have in common.
What are periods (horizontal rows) and groups (vertical columns)? Elements in the same group generally have similar chemical properties.
A metal spoon becomes hot in a cup of tea, warm air rises above a heater, and the Sun warms your skin. Name the three methods of heat transfer in the order described.
What are conduction (through direct contact), convection (through the movement of fluids such as liquids and gases) and radiation (through electromagnetic waves)?
What are two types of plate boundaries?
What are convergent and divergent boundaries
A student repeats an experiment three times and calculates the average result. How does repeating an experiment help make the results more reliable?
Repeating the experiment to check whether similar results are obtained and to reduce the effect of random errors
In a grassland ecosystem, grass is eaten by rabbits, rabbits are hunted by foxes, and dead organisms are broken down by fungi and bacteria. Identify the producer, a consumer, the predator, its prey and the decomposers. Explain how competition could occur.
Competition occurs when organisms need the same limited resources, such as food, water or space.
An atom has an atomic number of 11 and a mass number of 23. Assuming it is neutral, state its number of protons, neutrons and electrons, and identify what the atomic number and mass number tell us.
What is an atom with 11 protons, 12 neutrons and 11 electrons? The atomic number gives the number of protons, and the mass number is the total number of protons and neutrons.
Ice melts, iron rusts, and vinegar reacts with baking soda to produce bubbles. Classify each change as physical or chemical, and name two signs that can indicate a chemical change.
Physical change (melting ice) and chemical changes (rusting iron and the vinegar–baking soda reaction). Signs of chemical change can include gas production, colour change, temperature change, light production or formation of a precipitate.
This type of rock forms when melted rock cools and hardens. Name the rock type and give one example.
What is igneous rock, such as granite or basalt?
A student investigates whether sunlight affects plant growth. Name two things they should keep the same for each plant and explain why.
What are controlled variables, such as the type of plant, amount of water or type of soil? Keeping these the same makes the test fair, so sunlight is the main factor being tested.
In a food web, grass is eaten by grasshoppers and rabbits. Grasshoppers are eaten by frogs, and frogs and rabbits are eaten by snakes. Explain how energy moves through this web, then predict two possible effects of a major decline in the frog population.
If frog numbers decline, grasshopper numbers may increase, putting more pressure on grass. Snakes may also decline because one of their food sources has become less available, although the actual outcomes depend on other food sources and interactions in the web.
A substance has the formula CO2. Identify every element present and calculate the total number of atoms of each element in one formula unit. Then explain whether this substance is an element, a compound or an alloy.
What is carbon dioxide, a compound containing 1 carbon atom, 2 oxygen atom.? It is a compound because it contains different elements chemically combined.
A chemical reaction causes its surroundings to become warmer, while another reaction causes its surroundings to become colder. Identify each type of reaction, explain the direction of energy transfer, and give one everyday example of each.
Exothermic reactions, which transfer energy to the surroundings (for example, burning wood), and endothermic reactions, which absorb energy from the surroundings (for example, an instant cold pack)?
Fossils are often found in sedimentary rocks. Explain how a fossil can form when an animal dies and is buried in sediment.
A fossil forms when an animal's remains are buried by sediment and preserved as the sediment hardens into rock over time