Topic 12 What the tiny pieces explain — what needs James (15)

Topic 12 · What the tiny pieces explain · Type 1 · tests MAT5-081

EasyMCQType 1 — how the smell of a named thing reaches a person across a room or street

Bacon fries in a pan in the kitchen, and a girl in the den smells it. How does the smell of the bacon reach her?

1. a) Tiny pieces leave it and spread through the air. ← key
2. b) Nothing leaves it; the smell is in the air already.
3. c) The air near it turns into the thing itself.
4. d) A nose pulls the smell out of it from far away.

Why it is this type: A smell reaches you because tiny pieces leave the thing and spread out through the air to your nose. Tiny pieces leave the frying bacon. So the pieces spread through the air to the den, and she smells the bacon.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 12 · What the tiny pieces explain · Type 2 · tests MAT5-081

MediumMCQType 2 — who smells it first; where the smell is strongest; where the pieces were before; why the smell takes a minute; why near and far differ; why it is faint across the street

A barn door opens, and a girl in a house across a field smells the barn about a minute later. Why does the smell take a minute to reach her?

1. a) The smell waits for the wind to start blowing.
2. b) The tiny pieces take time to spread out through the air to the house. ← key
3. c) The pieces cannot leave the barn until the door is wide open.
4. d) The smell has to grow bigger before she can smell it.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 12 · What the tiny pieces explain · Type 3 · tests MAT5-081

EasyMCQType 3 — what the pieces spread through; what is true of each piece that left the thing; how a dog knew its bowl was filled

A boy smells strawberries from across a kitchen. Which of these is true about each tiny piece that left the strawberries?

1. a) It is a tiny red berry you could see up close.
2. b) It is far too small to see. ← key
3. c) It is a drop of red juice.
4. d) It is as big as a seed.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 12 · What the tiny pieces explain · Type 4 · tests MAT5-082

EasyMCQType 4 — which drawing shows the air in a named closed container as it really is

A girl wants to draw the air inside a closed drawer as tiny pieces. Which drawing shows the air as it really is?

1. a) a few dots spread through the whole container, with nothing between them ← key
2. b) the whole container shaded gray, with no dots
3. c) the whole container shaded gray, with dots on top
4. d) all the dots heaped at the bottom of the container

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 12 · What the tiny pieces explain · Type 5 · tests MAT5-082

EasyMCQType 5 — what is wrong with a described drawing (gray under dots; dots in one corner; dots packed and touching; gray with no dots)

A drawing of the air in a blown-up plastic bag shades the whole bag gray and puts dots on top. What is wrong with the drawing?

1. a) Nothing should be shaded between the dots. ← key
2. b) There should be no dots at all.
3. c) The dots should all touch each other.
4. d) The dots should spread through the whole container.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 12 · What the tiny pieces explain · Type 6 · tests MAT5-082

HardtypedType 6 — what is between the dots; which sentence is right about shading; Marco's "raisins in dough" claim — the correct reason; what to change to turn a solid's drawing into a gas's; the typed word for what is between the pieces

In a good drawing of the air in a closed drawer, the tiny pieces are drawn as a few small dots. Type the one word that says what is between the pieces.

Accepted answers (typed): nothing, nothing at all, there is nothing, nothing is between them, empty space, space, nothin, nothing between them; "air" → "The dots are the air. Between the pieces there is nothing at all."; "gas", "water", "gray" each with their own line.

Why it is this type: Hard because: the word is produced, and the student's own habit, "air", is the trap.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 12 · What the tiny pieces explain · Type 7 · tests MAT5-083

EasyMCQType 7 — where a dissolved solid's tiny pieces are now

A spoonful of sugar is stirred into a mug of hot cocoa until none can be seen. Where are the sugar's tiny pieces now?

1. a) spread out among the liquid's pieces ← key
2. b) lying in a heap at the bottom
3. c) floating in a layer at the top
4. d) turned into the liquid

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 12 · What the tiny pieces explain · Type 8 · tests MAT5-083

MediumMCQType 8 — why the dissolved stuff seems to be gone; how two spoonfuls taste; which sentence is true of the water sprayed from a sprayer of dissolved plant food; which sentence is true of dissolved salt

A gardener stirs plant food powder into a plant sprayer full of water until none can be seen, and then sprays some of the water onto a leaf. Which sentence is true about the sprayed water?

1. a) Plant food pieces are spread all through the sprayed water. ← key
2. b) The plant food lies at the bottom of the sprayer.
3. c) The plant food is gone once it cannot be seen.
4. d) Only the first spray carries plant food.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 12 · What the tiny pieces explain · Type 9 · tests MAT5-083

HardMCQType 9 — which zoomed drawing is right; why a grain is easy to see; the salt-cube claim — the correct reason; the red mix in two cups; the half-dissolved cube; the TWO true sentences

A boy says each tiny piece of salt in a bowl of salty water is a tiny white cube, too small to see. He is wrong. What is the correct reason?

1. a) A white cube of salt is countless tiny pieces packed together. ← key
2. b) Salt pieces in water are not cubes but tiny white balls.
3. c) Salt pieces in water turn clear and lose their white color.
4. d) There are no salt pieces left in the water once salt dissolves.

Why it is this type: Hard because: the register's "each piece has the everyday properties" belief is judged by its correct reason against three reasons that keep part of the belief.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 12 · What the tiny pieces explain · Type 10 · tests MAT5-084

EasyMCQType 10 — what the smallest pieces of a named thing are called

A plastic toy is made of tiny pieces far too small to see. What are the smallest of those pieces called?

1. a) atoms ← key
2. b) cells
3. c) grains
4. d) specks

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 12 · What the tiny pieces explain · Type 11 · tests MAT5-084

EasyMCQType 11 — which of three kinds of matter are made of atoms (all three); a true statement about an apple; which sentence is true of a bike looked at through a magnifying glass (an atom is far too small to see)

A pencil, a cat and the air in a tire are all matter. Which of them are made of atoms?

1. a) only the pencil
2. b) only the pencil and the cat
3. c) all three of them ← key
4. d) only the cat

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar