SCIENCE MID-TERM EXAM

REVIEW AND MIDTERM EXAM
Take this week to review the material in the last seventeen lessons. Read through any projects that you may have done for the lessons. When you have refreshed your memory, take the midterm exam. Good luck!

Midterm Exam

1. Describe the scientific method.
The scientific method is a list of objectives of a successful experiment. They are:
Observation: A question about something that someone notices.
Hypotheses: A possible answer to the Observation.
Experiment: A test to test the Hypotheses.
Results: The results of the Experiment.
Conclusion: The answer to the Observation.

2. Why do scientists perform controlled experiments?
Well, if you wonder something, you usually want an answer, so scientist use controlled experiments to test their ideas. They might need to repeat or measure experiments, and need the variables to be controlled.

3. What is meant by an "indicator species?"
A sensitive species that is highly affected by a bad environment.

4. Why is it important for scientists to use the same measuring system?
Because if a scientist misunderstands or miscalculates the measurements, things can fall down go boom, people can die, or things can go horribly wrong. Also, it’s important for scientists to measure things together.

5. Write a paragraph describing what happened in your "homemade wetlands" model, and tell which function your wetland performed.
We did not perform this experiment, so I do not have results.

6. Describe the roles of producer, consumer, and scavenger in the food chain.
Producers are plants, which produce oxygen for all other living things.
Consumers are animals, which breathe in oxygen, and produce carbon dioxide, which in turn, is breathed in by plants.

7. Why is photosynthesis so important to our planet?
Plants create oxygen, and suck up CO2, and photosynthesis fuels them.
Without the sun, we would shrivel up, and turn into blocks of ice, and our planet would have an atmosphere of 100% CO2.


8. What are some ways that people upset the "balance of nature?"
By polluting, digging for fuel, poaching, and fishing.

9. Choose one of the organisms in "Fun Habitats" and write a paragraph summarizing what you learned (or already knew!) about them. Include any first-hand experiences you may have had.
I have had bad experiences with ants. On Jan. 1st, 2008, a mould problem started in my baby brother’s room. It attracted ants, which built a colony. The ants then invaded our whole house. I could not go one day without seeing 10 ants. The ants made their home on the stairs and upstairs bathroom. The stairs are creaky and rotten because of them, and the bathroom was “the ant room.” I learned that ants like to have water near their colony.

10. How have owls adapted to competition for food during daylight hours? They are nocturnal, and have wide eyes and super hearing to sense their prey.


11. How does the extinction of an animal species affect the food chain?
Someone said that every species is a thread. If any thread is broken, things will fall apart. If the spiders’ thread is cut, the mosquito thread will swell to a rope, and overpower other animals. Many animals would die because malaria would become more common. Ponds would get polluted with larvae. It would be horrible. That would affect the food chain as well.


12. Why do salamanders lay their eggs in vernal pools?
Because the're AMPHIBIANS! Their eggs are jelly, and need water! And they need to be protected from predators, because fish don’t live in VERNAL ponds, and birds don’t like their eggs jellied.

13. Explain why DDT became a problem for cats in Asia, and eventually for people as well.
Cats ate lots of rats that ate grains that were poisoned with DDT. The DDT had a higher effect on the cats than the rats, and the cats died. The rats overpopulated without the cats, and you know what rats do, they overpopulate when given the chance. Also, humans started eating the grains.

14. What are the main differences among biomes?
Each has different animals, plants, and environmental features.

15. Draw the water cycle.
(Link to Picture Below)

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV0T-JJopm7-XOHsVc5RMLgTTGScXyEFQak6VwNATds2y3z6SlCVPS3aXH61hTauFV4BCCnK7rD8K9lE2SZy37FN_J-c8J5E2SkxVQH8zRbNOG0HHf1qA6sS0v_am4LrNJyERbYRm6KkE/s1600-h/Du+Wader+Cycle.jpg

16. List the planets in our solar system, in order of distance from the sun. Give a brief description of each planet.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, (Asteroid Belt) Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Mercury is misunderstood as being the hottest planet, at 430 degrees C. In fact, the hottest planet is Venus, as 470 degrees C. It has a barren, rocky surface, and the atmosphere is too thin to carry sound waves.


Venus is probably the inner planet least like Earth in geographic terms. To get an idea of what it’s like, imagine Global Warming put into overdrive, then left alone for 1,000 years. It has lava, magma, tar-like chemical pits, and volcanoes.


Mars is the planet most like Earth, because it was almost exactly like earth, some billion years ago! Recent studies by NASA show that there IS STILL liquid water on its surface! Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge, natural ditches cover the surface where oceans used to be, and there are channels in place of rivers.


Jupiter… where do I start! It has 63 moons, almost completely made out of gas, and… yep, that’s just about it. Just joking! It’s made up of mostly Hydrogen and Helium gases. It has liquid Hydrogen and Helium swirling around its core, which is Hydrogen and Helium metal. 47 out of all of it’s 63 moons haven’t been named.


Saturn has the same gases as Jupiter, but is also very different. It has over 1,000 rings of floating junk, asteroids, and moons. There are small “Shepherd Moons”, such as Pandora and Prometheus. These keep pits of dust in the rings, and outsiders (mostly) out. It's moon, Titan, one of (or the) largest moon (s) in the solar system, may have microscopic life on its surface.


Uranus is a drab, dull planet with no action. It and Neptune have been “Ice Giants”. The winds on Neptune bring claw-sharp slivers of ice, and there is an ocean of pure water or ice on both planets. Besides that, Uranus has no wind or will. It is a nice blue-green (or purple!) color.


The last true planet, Neptune, seems to me to be the former parent planet of Pluto. It probably spit the moon out into the edge of the Solar System for one reason or another. Neptune has a “Great Dark Spot” like Jupiter, except this planet is smaller, and a rich blue. It also has the highest winds of any planet in the Solar System.


17. How did the telescope change astronomy?
The telescope enabled people to look at things over 16 million miles away in detail. That enabled people to get a better view of the planets, instead of seemingly immobile dots.

18. How does the tilt of the Earth cause the seasons?
Let’s say that North America was getting a heat wave, and because of the axis, it’s night in Egypt.

19. Describe how the "breathing" of plants and animals complement each other.
Humans release Carbon Dioxide (Not just with their breath), plants suck up Carbon dioxide, and release Oxygen, Humans and Animals breath Oxygen, and breathe out Carbon Dioxide.