Teacher Certification: Science

How do models help scientists understand the natural world?

Models help visualize and evaluate strengths and limitations

If a species suddenly develops a new trait, such as blue eyes in humans, what is the most likely cause of this change?

Mutation

Crickets haven't always been a loud chirping species. Over time, the males that chirped the loudest attracted more females and had more offspring, causing the following generations to have louder chirps than the previous. This change through time is an example of

Natural selection

The Kiwi bird is a flightless bird that lays large eggs, tends to mate for life with their partner, and lives off of grubs, worms, and insects. Kiwis have nostrils and a long beak. Kiwis are indigenous to New Zealand. Kiwis are nocturnal animals.

Niche

How do the uses of the resources of oil, gas, and coal compare to the uses of wood, metal, and land?

Oil, gas, and coal are used for fuel where wood, metal, and land are used to create products

How does water contribute to the world's economy?

Companies bottle water for sale and recreation activities generate money based on activities around the state of water

How does revealing the history of science help students develop as a young scientist?

Many cultures have contributed to the development in science, and seeing oneself as similar to the people who have built the foundation we now stand on connects students to science.

The above image shows a lever. How do levers impact the work necessary to complete a job?

Levers, and all machines, reduce the amount of force necessary to complete the work

According to the velocity time graphs, which line(s) shows a vehicle that is speeding up?

B and D

How do abiotic and biotic factors represent form and function that complement each other?

Biotic factors such as organisms use the abiotic factors (water, shelter) to survive

What is the probable phenotypic and genotypic outcome of a monohybrid cross between black angus cattle where both parents are the dominant color black and heterozygous (Bb)?

75% black, 25% red, and 25% homozygous dominant, 50% heterozygous, 25% homozygous recessive

Which example demonstrates how multicellular organisms respond to external stimuli to maintain homeostasis?

Worms move above ground when the soil is too wet

Which of the following is the equivalent of 500 milliliters?

0.5 liters

For a science research project, students measured the growth of bean plants over time and under two different environmental conditions. Bean plants in set A were provided white light and bean plants in set B were given green light. Both sets of plants were provided the same amount of soil, water, fertilizer, temperature, and space. Plants were measured weekly for 12 weeks. At the end of the 12 weeks, students were tasked with displaying the data collected in the data tables in their journals. What is the best way to display the change over time data?

A line graph showing the amount of growth each week.

The image above depicts the position of the Sun, Earth, and Moon during an eclipse. What type of eclipse is shown and what evidence from the image supports the answer. (Sun shining on Earth, moon on the other side of the Earth)

A lunar eclipse because no light is reflected off of the moon

According to the chart below, what is the relationship between the length of a year and the distance from the sun?

As the distance from the sun increases the length of the year increases

Electricity is generated by transforming different fuel sources to mechanical energy that powers a turbine. Which option below has all renewable energy sources?

Biomass, hydroelectric, and wind

When planning the lessons for the unit on the interdependence of organisms, teachers begin with identifying biotic and abiotic factors, move to different niches in the environment, and end with how a change in one aspect of the ecosystem impacts other parts. How does this progression and flow help students learn?

Building from simple to complex allows students to build on their prior knowledge, expanding as the lessons progress

Which chemical reaction that is the exact opposite of photosynthesis, works to recycle nutrients through living organisms, and burns sugar in the presence of oxygen in the mitochondria in order to provide energy for life in cells?

Cell respiration

The teacher sets out several samples of physical and chemical changes in the class for students to rotate and analyze. One station has molded bread. Is the example physical or chemical and how do you know?

Chemical because a color change occurred, a new product formed, and a smell formed

The surface of the earth is constantly changing. Earthquakes, volcanoes, and the movement of the tectonic plates change the lithosphere. Mountains are formed when plates converge and valleys are formed when the plates diverge. Which of the natural phenomena listed below is primarily responsible for the changing of the earth's surface?

Convection currents in the mantle

Hurricanes are built by the transfer of energy. By which method is energy transferred to wind and air and how does this accomplish the building of such an extreme weather event?

Convection currents. As water is warmed, it evaporates, and then when it cools it condenses and precipitates, creating the rain and wind needed to produce a hurricane. The transfer of energy to the air creates wind. The more the transfer the higher the wind speed

Which human activities have increased the rate of the carbon cycle and contributed greatly to global warming?

Deforestation and burning fossil fuels

Which of the following human activities have caused an increase in greenhouse gases, which ultimately causes a rise in Earth's average temperature?

Deforestation causing a decrease in the absorption of carbon dioxide

The above image shows a bonsai tree. Bonsai trees are miniature trees. Bonsai trees are grown this way by being placed in a shallow dish and constantly groomed. Which phrase below best describes the type of trait a bonsai has for its size:

Learned

How can Earth's changing seasons also be constancy of the system?

Earth's four seasons occur every year in a repeated pattern

A science class is trying to determine why their plants have not yet reached their predicted height. Students are going back to their weekly logs and checking for hours of sunlight, amount of water, and fertilizer. What exactly are the students checking for and why does it matter? Students are checking for:

Environmental conditions because the phenotype is influenced by the genotype and the environmental conditions

The science class has been researching about the possibility of embryonic modification, designer babies, and cloning. Students participated in a philosophical chairs activity and used their articles to have a debate through a Socratic seminar. Although the topic was genetics, what were the students really learning about in their science class?

Ethics in science

What should teachers do when formatively assessing students for understanding on a standard and the results reveal that some students have mastered the standard while others are still struggling with comprehension?

Flexibly group students

How do food webs and the process of photosynthesis demonstrate that matter and energy are transferred and conserved?

Food webs and photosynthesis are processes that transfer energy through matter, where the amount of matter and energy is the same before and after the processes, even if the location of the matter and energy is different

How do rubrics and spending time reviewing expectations foster success in the classroom?

Having a no secrets class means that grades are not a secret. Reviewing expectations and sharing assignment requirements communicates evaluation criteria

What type of metamorphism is represented in the growth of a praying mantis?

Incomplete metamorphism

Which statement explains the relationship between plants and their contribution to the water cycle?

Plants hold water in the environment by storing water in vacuoles, evaporating water through transpiration, and absorbing water from the soil

Water droplets, prisms, and lenses in the eye all bend light. When light is bent from prisms or water drops in the sky, the individual colors spread out and form a rainbow. When the lens bends light in the eye, it focuses the light on the retina. Which term correctly describes the above phenomena?

Refraction

In the laboratory investigation where students are tasked with measuring the rate of change of a ball rolling down a ramp, students must collect data from a stop watch as the ball rolls down the ramp. The teacher sets the minimum of trials to measure at five. How does the use of repeated trials reduce the amount of error in the experiment?

Repeated trials allow students to collect more data and ensure that the data collected is accurate and precise. If the numbers are not similar, students know that there is an error in the procedure.

During the environmental unit in science class students learned that metal can be recycled. However, sorting the metal at the trash dump is a huge task that requires machinery. Not all metal is magnetic, so how is the metal separated from the regular trash?

Running electricity through metal creates magnetic field. Metals like aluminum become magnetic while electricity flows through them. Large magnets can them pick up all metals and separate them from the trash.

What role does science play in government policies?

Science researches the cause and mechanisms of how things work and presents the data to policy makers to make an informed decision

Movies often create misconceptions in science because they have details for entertainment that are not true. For example, when a space ship explodes, there is sound. Why isn't there sound in space?

Sound is caused by a disturbance that transfers the energy through matter until it reaches an ear drum that transfers the disturbance to a sound in the brain. Space does not have matter such as air or water to transmit the disturbance.

What process is shown in the image above? (Forrest starting bare and getting full)

Succession

Applying the principals of balanced forced, determine which team will win the tug of war and by how much force.

Team A by 5 N

How have technology and medicine changed the population growth and how has this impacted the issues faced in society?

Technology and medicine have decreased death rates, which has caused increased water and fuel usage

How does the gene for high running speed in cheetahs help the species survive?

The faster a cheetah runs, the more likely it is to eat, be healthy, and have more offspring. The more organisms that have the genes that allow speed, the better the survival of the species.

The image above shows the energy transformations in a food web. Why are there fewer organisms on the top tertiary level of an energy pyramid than on the lower levels such as the producers or the primary consumers level?

The number of organisms that can be supported on any level is determined by the amount of energy within that level. 90% of the energy is lost to the environment and only 10% is transferred to the next level. The top levels have 0.01% of the total original energy that enters the ecosystem at the producer's level.

Earth's solar system consists of a medium sized star, 8 planets, an asteroid belt, many moons, and dwarf planets. All of the objects in the solar system move in a consistent pattern and in their orbit. How does each of the objects remain in their orbit?

The objects remain in their orbit due to gravitational pull.

Students are studying the variation within a species. Each pair of students is handed a bag of lima beans and a ruler and tasked with recording the length and width of each bean. 10 - 15 years ago, teachers generally used peanuts to study this concept. Why did the teacher switch to lima beans?

The teacher must accommodate all students and ensure their safety, which means considering peanut allergies

In science class the students had been learning about weather and hurricanes. Working in groups, they analyzed the image below and had to answer questions beginning on Blooms level 1 and progressing to Bloom's level 5. (See questions below the image). Why is this strategy of progression important in the development of students?

This strategy scaffolds and supports the learning process as students move from concrete to abstract thinking

Students were given 2 trials at a time and required to draw conclusions. The first conclusion from the data differed from the final conclusion once all of the data was revealed. What was the purpose of this activity?

To demonstrate that repeated trials increase the reliability of data

How is the energy organisms get from food generally used?

To grow, reproduce, heal, and move

The atmosphere has five layers. Which layer is closest to the surface of the earth, contains all weather, and all living things?

Troposphere

What is the benefit of using journals, written reports, and projects over formal multiple choice assessments in terms of monitoring student understanding?

Using products offers a window into student thinking and opportunities to coach with feedback

All organisms classified into the phylum Chordata share which of the same characteristics

Vertebrates

Why do islands and coastal cities have warmer and more constant weather than inland locations?

Water absorbs energy at a slower rate and releases the energy at an equally slow rate.

A teacher asks the class why water cannot be located on the periodic table of elements. What answer is the teacher looking for?

Water is a molecule made of two types of atoms and the periodic table only has types of atoms

A teacher is telling a story about how in 1993 a freak snow and ice storm coated the east coast in ice that shut down the economy for 3 days. Was the teacher talking about weather or climate, and how do you know?

Weather because the storm was not the normal pattern