Initials

Post-test for Systems and Scales Unit – Version 1

This is a test that will help us to understand what you know now. Please answer these questions as carefully and completely as you can. If you are not sure of the answer, please write about any thoughts that you have. If you can help us to understand how you think about these questions, then we can do a better job of explaining science in ways that make sense to you.

Please put your initials (not your full name) in the boxes
First / Middle / Last

Date ______

Class ______Teacher ______

  1. Compare the size of a carbon atom, a muscle cell, and a speck of dust. Which one is the biggest? Which one is the smallest? Please explain your answer.

2. Do you think that wood is a mixture of different things? (Circle one)

YES NO

Please explain your ideas about what makes up wood.

3. How much larger is a cell than a carbon atom?

  1. Twice as large
  2. Ten times as large
  3. 100 times as large
  4. 10,000 times as large
  5. Over 10,000 times
  6. It depends on the atom

Please explain your answer

4. A basketball is filled with air. If I pump more air into the basketball, what if anything will happen to its weight?

  1. It will weigh more.
  2. It will weigh the same.
  3. It will weigh less.
  4. There is no way to predict. You just have to try it and see what happens.

Please explain your answers.

5. Do you think air is a mixture? If your answer is yes, what are the different substances in air?

6. Please draw an example of what a few molecules of air would look like.

7. A scientist made three groups A, B, and C, like the following:

A. Sugar, meat, bread

B. Water, limestone, sand

C. Coal, gasoline, wood

(a) What makes the groups go together?

(b) Why would water go with limestone and sand rather than sugar and meat?

(c) Does it seem to you that groups A and C have anything in common? If yes, what are in common? Please explain your answers.

8. When a match burns the energy released

  1. Comes mainly from the match.
  2. Comes mainly from the air.
  3. Is created by the fire.
  4. Comes from the energy that you used to strike the match.
  5. None of the above

Please explain your answer.

9. Do you think that a muscle cell is a mixture of different substances? (Circle one)

YES NO

Please explain your ideas about what makes up a muscle cell.

10. When the air becomes warmer, what happens to the carbon dioxide molecules in the air? Does the molecules become warmer? Please explain your answer.

11. A balloon is inflated with a mixture of natural gas (CH4) and air. A burning match is touched to theballoon, and the mixture explodes. The energy released by the explosion

  1. Was originally in the natural gas and air.
  2. Came from the match.
  3. Was not originally in the natural gas and air but was produced in the

reaction between thenatural gas and air.

  1. Was originally in only the natural gas.
  2. Was originally in only the air.

Please explain your answers.

12. What happens to the atoms in the natural gas and air molecules? Please draw picture or explain.

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