Topic 25 How matter loops and energy flows through — what needs James (16)

Topic 25 · How matter loops and energy flows through · Type 1 · tests LIF5-012

EasyMCQType 1 — where a food's energy came from, in the end; what carried the energy to the vine

A bowl of tomato soup in New Mexico is made from tomatoes, and tomatoes grow on a tomato plant. Where did the soup's energy come from, in the end?

1. a) the Sun ← key
2. b) the store
3. c) the soil
4. d) the kitchen

Why it is this type: The first plant made its food with the energy the Sun's light carries. Tomatoes grow on a tomato plant. So the soup's energy came from the Sun.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 25 · How matter loops and energy flows through · Type 2 · tests LIF5-012

EasyMCQType 2 — which living thing comes one step back from a food

A girl in New Jersey eats a bowl of blueberries. Which living thing comes one step back from the blueberries?

1. a) the blueberry bush ← key
2. b) a bird
3. c) the farmer
4. d) a worm

Why it is this type: To trace a food's energy back, go back one step at a time. Blueberries grow on a blueberry bush. So one step back from the blueberries is the blueberry bush.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 25 · How matter loops and energy flows through · Type 3 · tests LIF5-012

MediumMCQType 3 — where a food's chemical energy transferred to when it was eaten; a two-eater trace back to the Sun; the missing step in a trace

A ladybug in Ohio eats aphids, tiny green bugs that had sucked juice from a rose bush. Where did the ladybug's energy come from, in the end?

1. a) from the Sun's light, through the rose bush and the aphids ← key
2. b) from the aphids only, and not from anything before them
3. c) from the soil under the rose bush, through the bush's roots
4. d) from the air around the rose bush, through the bush's leaves

Why it is this type: Go back one eater at a time: the ladybug ate the aphids, and the aphids ate the rose bush's juice. The rose bush made its food with the energy the Sun's light carries. So the ladybug's energy came from the Sun's light, through the rose bush and the aphids.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 25 · How matter loops and energy flows through · Type 4 · tests LIF5-012

MediumMCQType 4 — which belongs in the blank box

Here is the energy trace card for a crab on a Maryland shore that eats a small animal that ate seaweed, with its third box blank. Which belongs in the blank box?

1. a) a shark
2. b) a gull
3. c) a sea snail ← key
4. d) a whale. Blind text: "boxes left to right: the Sun; seaweed; a blank box; a crab. chips: LIGHT, FOOD, FOOD"

Why it is this type: Each food transferred its chemical energy to the eater that ate it. The animal that ate the seaweed and was eaten by the crab is a sea snail. So a sea snail belongs in the blank box.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 25 · How matter loops and energy flows through · Type 5 · tests LIF5-013

HardtypedType 5 — the thing every food's energy came from; the kind of energy all food has; the one word for living things that break dead things into bits; the word for the stuff a thing is made of; the kind of energy warm air gains; the thing a loop's fresh energy comes from

A rock, a puddle, the air in a tire and a bird are all made of stuff. Type the one word scientists use for the stuff a thing is made of.

Accepted answers (typed): matter, the matter, mater, matter., mattr. Wrong_fb: "energy" → Energy is not stuff: a thing has energy. The word for the stuff a thing is made of is matter. "stuff" → Stuff is the everyday word. Scientists call it matter.

Why it is this type: Matter is the stuff a thing is made of. A rock, a puddle, air and a bird are all made of stuff. So the word is matter. hb: the word is produced, not picked.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 25 · How matter loops and energy flows through · Type 6 · tests LIF5-013

EasyMCQType 6 — who breaks a dead thing into bits; what decomposers give off into the air; which part takes in water and bits, which takes in carbon dioxide; where an eaten thing's stuff is; what "matter" means; where a dead thing's stuff goes; where a new branch's stuff comes from; how stuff gets from the air back into a plant

A dead seal lies on a beach in Oregon. Which living things feed on it and break it into tiny bits?

1. a) producers
2. b) decomposers ← key
3. c) consumers
4. d) the waves

Why it is this type: A decomposer is a living thing that feeds on dead things, breaking them into tiny bits. The seal is dead. So decomposers feed on it and break it into tiny bits.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 25 · How matter loops and energy flows through · Type 7 · tests LIF5-013

MediumorderingType 7 — which belongs in the blank box; the loop's stages in order from the plant; what is true of an old pear and a new pear a year later

In an Arizona desert, a desert tortoise eats cactus pads. Put the steps of the stuff's loop in order, starting with the cactus and ending with the next cactus. — the cactus · the tortoise · the decomposers · the soil and the air · the next cactus (the key is stored in the stem's direction, plant first).

Why it is this type: The stuff goes from the cactus into the tortoise that eats it. When the tortoise dies, decomposers break it into tiny bits that go into the soil, and they give off carbon dioxide into the air. The next cactus takes in the carbon dioxide, the water and the bits.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 25 · How matter loops and energy flows through · Type 8 · tests LIF5-014

HardMCQType 8 — Zeke's claim that a walnut tree's new wood is soil packed together (register SD-2, induced); Ada's claim that a forest's energy goes round and round (register SD-2, induced)

Ada is wrong when she says the energy in a forest goes round and round, from the trees to the porcupines to the decomposers and back to the trees. What is the correct reason she is wrong?

1. a) The decomposers keep the energy inside themselves; nothing goes back to the trees.
2. b) The energy goes round the loop in summer; in winter it stays in the soil.
3. c) At every step some energy ends up as thermal energy in the air; only stuff goes back to the trees. ← key
4. d) The trees take their energy from the porcupines' droppings; the Sun only warms them. Source: register LIF5 SD-2 (induced): "Energy circles round a food web the way matter does"; Lesson 3 (Matter loops, energy flows through)'s verdict line.

Why it is this type: the register's documented belief judged by its correct reason.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 25 · How matter loops and energy flows through · Type 9 · tests LIF5-014

MediumMCQType 9 — which kind of energy warm air gains; where a loop's fresh energy comes from; what happens to the energy at every step; where some of an eaten thing's energy ends up; where the decomposers' energy ends up; which one thing goes from the soil and the air back into a plant; what rotted plants give next year's plants; at which steps energy ends up as thermal energy; what comes in fresh from outside; a two-step chain; what runs short under snow-covered ice

A bobcat in Arizona eats a quail, and the bobcat is warm. Where does some of the quail's energy end up after the bobcat eats it?

1. a) back in the seeds that the quail had eaten
2. b) as tiny bits in the soil under the bobcat
3. c) as thermal energy in the air around the bobcat ← key
4. d) in the Sun, far above the desert

Why it is this type: At every step some energy ends up as thermal energy in the warm living thing and the air. The warm bobcat heats the air around it. So some of the quail's energy ends up as thermal energy in the air.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar

Topic 25 · How matter loops and energy flows through · Type 10 · tests LIF5-014

HardMCQType 10 — which arrow carries energy into the loop; which orange arrow is drawn wrong (twice: a described poster and a drawn pond); the TWO true sentences; whose drawing is right

Here is a loop of lily pads, a water beetle, decomposers, and the water and the air, with the energy drawn in orange. One orange arrow is drawn wrong. Which arrow is drawn wrong?

1. a) the arrow from the Sun to the lily pads
2. b) the arrow from the lily pads to the water beetle
3. c) the arrow from the water beetle to the decomposers
4. d) the arrow from the water and the air to the lily pads. Blind text lists every box and every brown and orange arrow as "from X to Y (chip)" data, including the wrong one, and never says which is wrong

Why it is this type: The energy does not go round: only stuff goes from the water and the air back to the plants. An orange arrow from the water and the air to the lily pads says energy comes back. So that arrow is drawn wrong. hb: the drawn energy layer is read against the rule, and the one wrong arrow found among four.

Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar