Middle School Inquiry Knowledge Assessment
1. William bought a bag of hard candy at the grocery store. (The candy is made of sugar.) He took 3
pieces of hard candy out of the bag.
He weighed each piece of candy. Each piece weighed 12 grams.
He labeled three cups. Then he added cold water to Cup 1, warm water to Cup 2, and hot water to Cup 3.
William put one piece of candy into the water in each cup. After 10 minutes, he took the cand ies out of the water and
weighed each piece again. William's results are shown below.
Cup 1
Cup 2
Cup 3
Table 1
Temperature of water
Weight of candy after 10 minutes
0° C
10 grams
40° C
6 grams
80° C
4 grams
Which of these graphs shows how temperature affects the weight of candy that remains after
being in the water for 10 minutes?
○
○
A.
○
B.
C.
○
D.
2. Building Bridges
Students in Mrs. Rogers’ class built bridges, each consisting of a piece of notebook paper and two 12-oz.
Styrofoam cups. The purpose of the project was to determine how paper-bridge design affected a paper
bridge’s load capacity (the average weight that a bridge could support without collapsing). The class was
divided into four groups. Group 1 laid an unfolded sheet of paper across the two cups, so that the ends of
the paper were lined up with the outside edge of the cups, as shown in Figure A:
Figure A
Group 2 folded a sheet of paper into four lengthwise sections and laid the folded paper on
two 12-oz. cups, as shown in Figure B:
Figure B
Groups 3 and 4 designed bridges that were similar to Group 2’s bridge, except that Group 3
folded a sheet of paper into eight lengthwise sections, while Group 4 folded a sheet of paper
into sixteen lengthwise sections. Each group then determined how many quarters its
bridge would support before collapsing. The four groups each built two more bridges and
ran two more trials.
The results from each of the four groups are shown in Table 1 below:
Trial
1
2
3
Group 1
(unfolded)
4
6
5
Load Capacity (number of quarters)
Group 2
Group 3
(4 sections)
(8 sections)
8
20
7
23
7
22
Group 4
(16 sections)
40
38
37
Using the information above, answer the following questions:
2a. According to the scenario, what property of the bridges was varied by the students?
○
A.
The size of the cup
○
B.
The number of sections
○
C.
The length of the paper
○
D.
The type of paper used
2b. The results in Table 1 are most closely represented by which of the following graphs?
○
A.
○
B.
2c. If Group 3 had conducted a fourth trial using a sheet with 8 sections, how many
quarters would
the bridge most likely have supported?
○
A.
14
○
B.
17
○
C.
22
○
D.
28
2d. Based on the results in Table 1, the load capacity of a paper bridge with 12 sections
would have been closest to:
○
A.
22 quarters
○
B.
30 quarters
○
C.
38 quarters
○
D.
46 quarters
3. Look at the two pictures below. They show what happened when two solid blocks were each
put in a jar containing a liquid. Based just on what you can see in the pictures, what can you say
about the blocks and the jars?
○
A.
The liquid in the jars must be water.
○
B.
The block in Jar 1 weighs more than the block in Jar 2.
○
C.
The block in Jar 1 is floating lower in its liquid than is the block in Jar 2.
○
D.
The block in Jar 1 must be made of metal and the block in Jar 2 must be made of wood.
4. Below is a list of questions that, throughout history, people have wished to answer. For each of the
questions below, indicate whether or not it can be answered using scientific investigations.
Question
YES, this question
NO, this question
CAN be answered CANNOT be answered
using scientific
using scientific
investigations.
investigations.
A. Why do trees lose their leaves in winter?
○
○
B. What is the meaning of life?
○
○
C. Is it always wrong to steal?
○
○
D. How did the dinosaurs become extinct?
○
○
5. Pat has two kinds of plant food, “Quickgrow” and “Supergrow.” What would be the best way for Pat
to find out which plant food helps a particular type of houseplant grow the most?
○
A.
Put some Quickgrow on a plant in the living room, put some Supergrow on a plant of the same type in the
bedroom, and see which one grows the most.
○
B.
Find out how much each kind of plant food costs, because the more expensive kind is probably better for
growing plants.
○
C.
Put some Quickgrow on a few plants, put the same amount of Supergrow on a few other plants of the same
type, put all the plants in the same place, and s ee which group of plants grows the most.
○
D.
Look at the advertisements for Quickgrow, look at the advertisements for Supergrow, and see which one
says it helps plants grow the most.
6. You are developing an "All Purpose Home Emergency Preparedness Kit." One of the items you
intend to put into your kit is a thermometer. Because you are concerned that a liquid thermometer
will easily break, you have purchased a thermometer containing a heat-sensitive metal strip. As
the metal strip becomes hotter, it gets longer, and as the metal strip becomes cooler, it gets
shorter. The thermometer is calibrated so that a change in the metal strip's length is displayed as a
temperature change. While calibrating the thermometer, the manufacturer produced the
calibration curve shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1
6a. According to the figure, when the thermometer reads 55° C, the length of the metal strip will be
approximately:
○
A.
1.006 cm
○
B.
1.008 cm
○
C.
1.010 cm
○
D.
1.012 cm
6b. Based on the figure, if the metal strip expands to 1.011 cm, the temperature displayed by the
thermometer will be closest to:
○
A.
70°C
○
B.
75° C
○
C.
90° C
○
D.
105°C
7. A science class performed an experiment to see if exposure to ethanol (a type of alcohol)
affected the germination of seeds. Groups of 50 seeds were placed for 24 hours in one of four
beakers that contained different solutions (see table below). Afterwards, the students poured the
contents of each beaker into separate Petri dishes and then covered the dishes. The students then
counted the number of seeds that germinated in each dish over two days. Their results are shown
in the table.
Percent of seeds that germinated:
Treatment
Control
1% ethanol
10% ethanol
100% ethanol
Day 1
Day 2
44
4
4
0
84
24
6
0
7a. Which of the following graphs best represents the results of this experiment?
○ A.
○ C.
○B.
○D.
7b. Which of the following factors did the researchers NOT control in this experiment?
○
A.
The concentration of alcohol used.
○
B.
The number of seeds that germinated.
○
C.
The times when the germinated seeds were counted.
○
D.
The number of seeds that were placed in each of the four beakers.
Technical Information
Scales:
This assessment contains four scales dealing with student knowledge of formulating scientific
questions (questions 4a, b, c, d), designing and conducting investigations (2a, 5, 7b), data
collection (1 2b, 7a), explaining results (2c, 2d, 3, 6a, 6b). Questions were drawn from publicallyavailable inquiry questions from SCASS, NAEP, and TIMSS
Grading Key:
1. A
2a. B
2b. B
2c. C
2d. B
4a. Yes
4b. No
4c. No
4d. Yes
5. C
6a. B
6b. A
7a. C
7b. B
Psychometrics:
Cronbach Alpha = .65
Suggested Citation:
National Center for Research on Rural Education, Coaching Science Inquiry Team. (2012). Middle
School Inquiry Knowledge. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Retrieved from
http://r2ed.unl.edu/CSI/MS_Knowledge.pdf