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The teacher understands the process of scientific inquiry and the history and nature of science.

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The teacher understands the process of scientific inquiry and the history and nature of science.

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The beginning teacher:

1. Understands the characteristics of various types of scientific investigations (e.g., descriptive studies, controlled experiments, comparative data analysis).

2. Understands how to design, conduct and communicate the results of a variety of scientific investigations.

3. Understands the historical development of science and the contributions that diverse cultures and individuals of both genders have made to scientific knowledge.

4. Understands the roles that logical reasoning, verifiable empirical evidence, prediction and peer review play in the process of generating and evaluating scientific knowledge.

5. Understands principles of scientific ethics.

6. Develops, analyzes and evaluates different explanations for a given scientific result.

7. Demonstrates an understanding of potential sources of error in inquiry-based investigation and the use of multiple trials to increase reliability.

8. Demonstrates an understanding of how to communicate and defend the results of an inquiry-based investigation.

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The teacher understands how to manage learning activities to ensure the safety of all students.

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The teacher understands how to manage learning activities to ensure the safety of all students.

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The beginning teacher:

1. Understands safety regulations and guidelines for science facilities and science instruction.

2. Knows procedures for and sources of information regarding the appropriate handling, use, conservation, disposal, recycling, care and maintenance of chemicals, materials, specimens and equipment.

3. Knows procedures for the safe handling and ethical care and treatment of organisms and specimens.

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The teacher understands the correct use of tools, materials, equipment and technologies.

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The teacher understands the correct use of tools, materials, equipment and technologies.

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The beginning teacher:

1. Selects and safely uses appropriate tools, technologies, materials and equipment needed for instructional activities.

2. Understands concepts of precision, accuracy and error with regard to reading and recording numerical data from a scientific instrument.

3. Understands how to gather, organize, display and communicate data in a variety of ways (e.g., construct charts, tables, graphs, maps, satellite images, diagrams, written reports, oral presentations).

4. Understands the international system of measurement (i.e., metric system) and performs unit conversions within measurement systems.

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The teacher understands how science impacts the daily lives of students and interacts with and influences personal and societal decisions.

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The teacher understands how science impacts the daily lives of students and interacts with and influences personal and societal decisions.

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The beginning teacher:

1. Understands that decisions about the use of science are based on factors such as ethical standards, economics and personal and societal needs.

2. Applies scientific principles and the theory of probability to analyze the advantages of, disadvantages of or alternatives to a given decision or course of action.

3. Applies scientific principles and processes to analyze factors that influence personal choices concerning fitness and health, including physiological and psychological effects and risks associated with the use of substances and substance abuse.

4. Understands concepts, characteristics and issues related to changes in populations and human population growth.

5. Understands the types and uses of natural resources (renewable, non-renewable) and the effects of human consumption on the renewal and depletion of resources.

6. Understands the role science can play in helping resolve personal, societal and global challenges (e.g., recycling, evaluating product claims, alternative energy sources).

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The teacher knows and understands the unifying concepts and processes that are common to all sciences.

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The teacher knows and understands the unifying concepts and processes that are common to all sciences.

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The beginning teacher:

1. Understands how the following concepts and processes provide a unifying explanatory framework across the science disciplines: systems, order and organization; evidence, models and explanation; change, constancy and measurements; evolution and equilibrium; and form and function.

2. Demonstrates an understanding of how patterns in observations and data can be used to make explanations and predictions.

3. Analyzes interactions and interrelationships between systems and subsystems.

4. Applies unifying concepts to explore similarities in a variety of natural phenomena.

5. Understands how properties and patterns of systems can be described in terms of space, time, energy and matter.

6. Understands how change and constancy occur in systems.

7. Understands the complementary nature of form and function in a given system.

8. Understands how models are used to represent the natural world and how to evaluate the strengths and limitations of a variety of scientific models (e.g., physical, conceptual, mathematical).

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1. Of the following substances, which is safest to use in a fourth-grade lab activity?

1. Lemon juice

2. Dilute hydrochloric acid

3. Laundry chlorine bleach

4. Ammonia-based window cleaner

Answer is A

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2. Of the following, which represents the largest distance?

1. One nanometer

2. One micrometer

3. One light-year

4. One astronomical unit

Answer is C

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3. Of the following, which is most appropriate to use to measure atmospheric pressure?

1. Geiger counter

2. Barometer

3. Graduated cylinder

4. Ohmmeter

Answer is B

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4. Which THREE of the following are typically done before conducting an experiment in a middle school classroom?

1. Making observations

2. Developing a hypothesis

3. Designing an experiment

4. Drawing conclusions

Answer is A, B,C

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5. Which of the following statements about the historical development of science is true?

1. The major concepts of molecular biology were developed by the ancient Greeks.

2. Prior to the development of x-ray technology, little was known about the human skeleton and muscles.

3. Although the first lightbulb was developed in the late nineteenth century, many concepts about electricity were known for centuries prior to 1800.

4. The concept of atoms was first developed in the twentieth century.

Answer is C

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6. Carbon dioxide is produced and emitted into the atmosphere during the operation of which of the following?

1. Combustion engine

2. Solar panel

3. Wind turbine

4. Nuclear reactor

Answer is A

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8. The concept
of force is involved in the explanation of which TWO of the following?

1. Plate tectonics

2. The color of leaves

3. Gas pressure

4. The mass of an atom

Answer is A and C

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A group of scientists studied some trees in a pine forest. In the densely forested areas, the trees were within 1 m of each other. The scientists observed that these trees had dead branches near the ground. They measured the height above the ground at which the first living branches were found on different-sized trees in the forest. Then they repeated this procedure on the same kind of trees in an open meadow. This graph summarizes the scientists’ data. Which inference is best supported by these data?

A Pine trees in a dense forest can grow taller than pine trees in an open meadow.

B Pine trees in a dense forest compete for sunlight with the surrounding trees.

C Pine trees in a dense forest are part of a less-complex food web than pine trees in an open meadow.

D Pine trees in a dense forest have more living branches than pine trees in an open meadow.

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A student models convection currents in a laboratory activity. How are the convection currents in the student’s model different from the convection currents in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans?

A The warm air in Earth’s atmosphere and the warm water in Earth’s oceans sink instead of rise.

B The heat source for Earth’s atmosphere and oceans is the sun, which heats from above instead of below.

C Convection cells in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans flow in the same direction instead of opposite directions.

D Cold air in Earth’s atmosphere and cold water in Earth’s oceans are less dense than warm air and warm water instead of being more dense.

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A scientist named Joseph Connell studied two species of barnacles on the shore of a Scottish island. In the area between the average tide and the neap high tide, he found that the population of Species A was smaller than that of Species B. He removed Species B from one area but left both Species A and B in a similar area. The graph below shows the results of this study.

Based on these data, which hypothesis was Connell most likely testing?

F The populations of both species of barnacles increase more in warm water than in cool water.

G Barnacles grow larger when they are isolated from other species.

H The two species of barnacles compete with each other for resources.

J The two species of barnacles are closely related to each other.

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The table below shows the distances of three stars from the sun. Students were asked to make a model of the three stars and to include the sun and Earth in the model. They chose to use a scale of 1 meter : 1 light-year.

Which model best represents the data?

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Four students volunteered to help a librarian move containers of library materials. The graph shows the amount of force used to lift the containers. The numbers in the bars show the mass of each container. The results for each student helper are shown in the table.

Based on this information, which student helper did not do any work on a container?

A Helper W

B Helper X

C Helper Y

D Helper Z

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The main parts of a working clothes dryer are shown in the diagram.

This appliance dries clothes primarily by converting —

A electrical energy to heat and mechanical energy

B mechanical energy to heat and electrical energy

C electrical energy to heat and light

D mechanical energy to heat and vaporization

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A student wants to use a spinning basketball to model the day-and-night cycle on Earth.

What should the student do in order to best model the cause of the day-and-night cycle?

F Spin the ball in different directions

G Tilt the ball while it is spinning

H Paint one half of the ball black and the other half white

J Shine a bright light on one side of the ball

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A scientist added bacteria and a nutrient medium that could support the growth of the bacteria to a sterilized petri dish. No other materials were added. The graph models growth of the bacteria over time.

Which of these most likely explains why the bacterial population stopped growing? A The bacteria competed for nutrients and died after all the nutrients were consumed.

B The bacteria did not reproduce in the system, and eventually each individual died at the end of its life cycle.

C The bacteria mutated from photosynthetic to carnivorous organisms and consumed one another until all the individuals were dead.

D The bacteria became diseased and were unable to survive in the closed system.

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Which two body systems are primarily responsible for locomotion?

F Skeletal system and muscular system

G Nervous system and circulatory system

H Respiratory system and digestive system J Integumentary system and excretory system