Online Assessment Instructions 1) Type in your first and last name in the
“Name” box in the top-left corner. 2) Next type in your teacher’s name in
the “ID” box. 3) Then type in your school’s full name in the
“Email” box. 4) Select the best answer for each question. 5) When you
are finished click the “Grade and Submit” button. 6) The grade will be emailed
to your teacher.
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1.
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NOTE: If your teacher’s last
name is Elliott, then you are doing the wrong assessment. ---This assessment is only for
students of other teachers. ---If your teacher is Mr. Elliott, then please go back to the
website and click on the first assessment link instead. Thanks!
A student wants to
test how the amount of sugar in one brand of cereal affects the behavior of young children that eat
that brand of cereal for breakfast. What would be a good control experiment to go with this
investigation?
a. | Repeat the experiment, but give the children cereal with no sugar in
it. | b. | Increase the amount of sugar by 50%, and do the experiment again | c. | Do the experiment
over, but this time also add in bacon and eggs. | d. | Decrease the amount of sugar by 15%, and do the
experiment over again. |
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2.
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Two girls wanted to test how effectively four different brands of hair spray
work in holding hair in place while exercising. They obtained four brands of hair spray that each
came in 12oz aerosol cans. Each day after washing their hair, they sprayed their hair with one brand
of hair spray for exactly 30 seconds. Next they dried their hair with a blow dryer. Then they each
went to the gym and exercised on a treadmill for exactly 30 minutes at a moderate pace. At the first
moment they noticed the spray failing to hold their hair in place, they wrote down the time. Hair Spray Brands | Hold Time (Trial 01) | Hold Time (Trial 02) | Hold Time (Trial 03) | PAUL MITCHELL | 25 min/20 sec | 23 min/ 15
sec | 22 min/18 sec | TRESEMME | All 30
min | All 30 min | All 30 min | PANTENE | 29 min/35 sec | 29 min/29 sec | 28 min/58 sec | CLAIROL | 18 min/59 sec | 20 min/01 sec | 19 min/31
sec | | | | | What would be a good control experiment that
they could do?
a. | Do the experiment once more, but don’t use any hair spray at all durng this
trial. | b. | Repeat the experiment five more times in exactly the same manner.
| c. | Use 6 brands of hair spray instead of only 4 brands | d. | Increase the amount
of hair spray. |
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3.
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Blake wanted to determine if the mass and weight of a model rocket affected how
high the rocket would travel up in the air. To do this he constructed three identical rockets, and
then he added small weights (mass-2g each) to each rocket to increase the mass and weight. He
then launched the rockets one at a time and recorded how high they traveled. Blake also did a control
experiment to verify his results. Which of the following is a valid control experiment for this
investigation?
a. | Duplicate the experiment, but increase the number of weights added to each
rocket | b. | Instead of measuring the travel height, measure the duration of flight
time. | c. | Repeat the experiment with a rocket that has no extra weight added to
it. | d. | Do the experiment over on a windy day. |
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4.
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An engineer is designing an electrical powered robot to help construction
workers. She wants to know how much electricity will be needed for the robot to carry both light and
heavy loads a distance of 100 meters. The results of this experiment are shown in the chart below.
Trials | Weight of Load | Amount of Electricity Used | Trial 01 | Carried 25 pounds | 20,000 volts | Trial 02 | Carried 50 pounds | 40, 000 volts | Trial 03 | Carried 100 pounds | 85,000 volts | | | | What would be a good control experiment for this
scenario?
a. | Instead of a robot, have a strong person carry the weight | b. | See how much
electricity the robot uses when it not carrying any weight at all | c. | Conduct three more
trials and increase the weight by 5 pounds each time | d. | Put bigger batteries into the
robot |
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5.
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A fisherman wants to find out which kind of bait works best for catching catfish
in Percy Priest lake near Nashville, Tennessee. He uses three different kinds of live bait (worms,
crickets, and caterpillars). He fishes for 3 hours with each bait. He catches one catfish with the
worms. He catches 5 catfish with the crickets. He catches 3 catfish with the caterpillars.
What would be a good control experiment for this scenario?
a. | Use three more different types of live bait | b. | Buy more expensive
live bait | c. | Try to catch some catfish using no live bait. | d. | Reducing the amount
of fishing time to one hour instead of three. |
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6.
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Question: Can humans read minds? First get three volunteers to act
as “receivers.” Next get ten index cards, and write one letter or symbol on each
card. Without showing the cards to the “receivers,” concentrate on the image on one card,
and try to send that image mentally to the receivers. Ask them to write down any images that appeared
in their minds. Repeat this ten times with a different card each time, and record the number of
accurate and inaccurate attempts to receive the images.
Question: Can human beings read minds? | | | | | | | What would be a valid control trial for this
experiment?
a. | Use seven students in the experimental group instead of only
three. | b. | Also use ten cards that are blank with no images on them. | c. | Instead of using
index cards, write the images on regular writing paper. | d. | Blindfold the
“receivers” to ensure that they do not see the images on the
cards |
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7.
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Shawn is planning a scientific experiment. He wants to learn whether the time of
day has an affect on how far the rose petals in his mother’s flower garden will open. He plans
to measure the diameter of each flower every hour during a sunny day in the spring. The manipulated
variable in Shawn’s experiment is the time of day which is connected to the amount of sunlight,
and the responding variable is how wide the roses open. What would be a good control
experiment Shawn could do to confirm his results?
a. | Repeat the experiment with the roses located in a dark room with no
sunlight | b. | Instead of measuring the diameter, he could measure the height of the rose
stems. | c. | Use more roses in ten additional experimental trials. | d. | Rather than
measuring every hour, he could instead measure every other hour. |
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8.
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Iced Tea or Hot Tea: Does the temperature of water affect how quickly the
sugar dissolves in it? Iced Tea | Sucrose (Table Sugar) | Hot Tea | | | | | | |
Alex conducted an experiment to test this. He used
three identical cups and filled each one with exactly 40 mL of water. Next he heated up the three the
cups and poured 3 grams of sugar into each cup. Then he timed how long it took the sugar to dissolve
in each cup (see table below). 1st cup: (24 degrees Celsius) | 2nd cup:
(27 degrees Celsius) | 3rd cup: (31 degrees
Celsius) | Dissolved in 93 seconds | Dissolved in 45 seconds | Dissolved in 25 seconds | | | | Which of the following choices would be a valid control trial for
this experiment?
a. | Repeat the experiment with three cups of unheated (room temperature)
tea. | b. | Redo all three trials in a different room in the same building. | c. | Do one more trial
with 3 grams of sugar poured on frozen tea. | d. | Duplicate these three trials using salt instead
of sugar. |
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9.
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Dr. Livingston investigated the effect of carbon dioxide on plant height.
Over a 6-week period she grew plants in several closed and sealed containers. All the plants received
the same amounts of water and light, but the air in each container had a different amount of carbon
dioxide. Which choice is
the best example of a control experiment that Dr. Livingston might have done?
a. | Repeat the experiment over, but do not place any plants in the sealed
containers. | b. | She could increase the duration of the experiment to 12-weeks. | c. | Dr. Livingston could
add more carbon dioxide to each container. | d. | Duplicate the experiment, but do not add any
carbon dioxide to the containers. |
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10.
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Two students want to test how the amount of salt on McDonald’s french
fries affects the blood pressure of 8th grade boys and girls that eat them. They conduct three
trials with 5 boys and 5 girls. On the following day with the same 10 students, they repeat the
experiment over, but this time they make sure that the french fries do not have any salt on them at
all. What is the control experiment in this situation?
a. | Doing a completely different experiment about cheeseburgers | b. | Doing the experiment
with 10 students (5 boys and 5 girls) | c. | Doing the experiment without any salt on the
french fries. | d. | Doing the experiment with extra salt on the french
fries |
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