6th Grade Science Semester Exam Review
The semester exam will consist of 40 questions (griddable or multiple choice) that reflect information covered in the first semester according to the list of topics below. In addition to knowing specific content, many of the questions require students to apply scientific investigation and reasoning skills to arrive at the answer. Students should be able to:
Solar System
- describe the physical properties, locations, and movements of the Sun, planets, Galilean moons, meteors/meteoroids, asteroids, and comets
Define: Sun. Planets, Galilean Moons, Meteors, Meteoroids, Asteroids, Gravity, and Comets
Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars (Inner Planets) /Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune (Outer Planets)
- Planets: a celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit around a star.
- Galilean Moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto (Jupiter’s Moons)
- Meteors: a piece of rock from space that enters Earth’s atmosphere and burns
- Meteorite: a piece of rock that lands on Earth
- Meteoroids: a small body moving in the solar system that would become a meteor if it entered the earth's atmosphere.
- Asteroids: objects of rocks, metal, and ice that are smaller than planets and revolve around the Sun
- Gravity: force of attraction between any two objects
- Comets: made of ice which orbits the Sun
- describe the history and future of space exploration, including the types of equipment and transportation needed for space travel;
- to describe:
- What was the International Space Station? a large spacecraft. It orbits around Earth. It is a home where astronauts live. The space station is also a science lab.
- What is the Space Shuttle Endeavor? is a retired orbiter from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the fifth and final operational shuttle built.
- What is the Hubble Space Telescope? is a large telescope in space
- What was the Apollo 11 Rocket? the first Lunar landing mission
- What is the only place visited by man? Moon
Earth
- identify the structural layers of Earth, including the inner core, outer core, mantle, crust, asthenosphere, and lithosphere using a model
Define the following:
- Crust: Outermost, rocky layer of Earth
- Lithosphere: outermost layer of Earth’s surface, which is rocky and solid; includes crust and the rigid part of the upper mantle
- Asthenosphere: layer in the upper part of Earth’s mantle that is made of material that can be reshaped and deformed, and on which the continents move
- Mantle: a layer of Earth’s surface, lying just below the crust and above the inner core
- Outer core: Layer inside Earth, between the mantle and inner core, which has some properties of a liquid
- Inner core: Innermost part of Earth, made of solid iron and nickel
- Identify the major tectonic plates, including Eurasian, African, Indo-Australian, Pacific, North American, and South American
- Differentiate between:
- Divergent- plates that moveaway from each other
- Creates
- Rift valleys
- Mid-ocean ridges
- Convergent- plates that movetowards each other
- Creates
- mountains
- Subduction-process in which one lithospheric plate slides under another
- Creates
- Volcanoes
- transform boundaries- plates that slide past each other
- Creates
- earthquakes
- Explain how plate tectonics causes major geological events such as:
- ocean basins: depression under sea level
- Earthquakes:Caused from transform boundaries sliding past each other
- volcanic eruptions: Caused from plates sliding under each other
- mid-ocean ridge: Caused from pates moving away from each other
- mountain building: Caused when plates collide into each other
Rocks and Minerals
Review Formation of Sedimentary Rocks and Fossil Fuels (TEK 5.7A)
- Sedimentary rock form from when sediment is being pressed and cemented together naturally over time
- Igneous Rock form from cooled magma
- Metamorphic rock form fromheat and pressure
- Rock Cycle (TEK 6.10B)
- by the processes of their formation, classify rocks as:
- igneous
- sedimentary
- metamorphic
- Define the physical properties of minerals:
- Hardness:relative ability of a solid, such as a mineral, to resist scratching
- streak– the color of a mineral in powder form
- Luster-how the surface of a mineral appears when it reflects light
- metallic
- opalescent
- dull
- color: light of various wavelengths