A student conducts an investigation using caramel candy, paper plates, and a stopwatch. The student places a piece of the caramel candy on each of three plates. The student puts the plates in different locations around the school. The student will record the time it takes for each piece of caramel candy to change state and other observations in the table below. 

Which question is the student most likely trying to answer with this investigation?

The shells of sea turtles are flatter than the shells of land turtles.

Sea turtles are also different from land turtles because sea turtles cannot pull their head or limbs into their shell to protect themselves from predators. Instead, the head, shell shape, and flippers of sea turtles help them escape from predators mainly by allowing them to —

Two students are playing on a swing set. Student 1 is leaning back and extending her legs as she moves upward. Student 2 is sitting on the swing with his feet on the ground.

Which statement describes how position and work are related in this picture?

Students constructed this model of a hill by covering sugar cubes with clay. The students placed the model in a large pan and poured hot water over it every day for a week. 

What does the model best represent?

In parts of the East Texas Piney Woods ecosystem, there are forests with many tall pine trees. These thick forests have few other types of tall trees besides pine trees. The other plants growing in the ecosystem are usually small shrubs, grasses, and other short trees. A student wants to know what type of birds live in the Piney Woods region. The student reads the table shown below about four different birds.

Based on the table, which bird is most likely to live in Texas’s Piney Woods region?

Many types of grazing animals live in Africa. The pictures show two of these animals that have about the same mass and height at the shoulder.

Based on observations of the pictures of these animals, which statement describes an advantage that only one of these animals has in obtaining food?"

A student was asked to compare the masses of four blocks that were all the same size but made of different materials. The student used a balance to compare the masses of two blocks at a time. The student repeated this process three more times with different pairs of blocks and recorded observations.

Which list shows the blocks in order from least to greatest mass?

The pictures show a sidewalk at three different times on the same day. The changes were caused by the weather.

Which table best describes the changes that most likely occurred between 6:00 A.M. and noon?

A farmer is reading a nature guide to learn how to make changes to a pond so that it will attract and support wildlife. The guide gives the suggestions listed below.

Which suggestion involves interactions between two groups of living organisms?

Asteroids are large bodies of rock that are too small to be planets. An asteroid belt has many asteroids. The diagram shows the asteroid belt located between Mars and the first outer planet.

Which outer planet is closest to this asteroid belt?

A teacher takes the top and a side off a box. She cuts a hole in another side and puts a candle outside the box, as shown below.

When the teacher lights the candle in a dark room, some of the candlelight shines through the hole. Which diagram best shows how the light appears on the opposite wall of the box?

A teacher asks six students to design and build solar ovens that could be used to boil water. After the ovens are complete, the students record the maximum temperatures that can be reached inside their ovens in 1 hour. 

Which list identifies all the ovens that must be redesigned in order to reach temperatures that will boil water in 1 hour?

This photograph shows a beach on a partly sunny day.

Which of the following is an interaction between the sun and the ocean that results in clouds forming near the beach?

Students drop the same heavy ball onto identical blocks of soft clay from different heights. For each height they measure the depth of the dent the ball makes in the clay.

Why is the depth of the dent different in each trial?

Data for four animal populations in a wooded area were collected before and after a shopping mall was constructed near the area. The graph shows changes in the populations.

Which animal’s food sources most likely increased after the mall opened?