Los Angeles Unified School District
Office of Curriculum, Instruction, and School Support
INTERIM ASSESSMENT
Grade 6 Science
Instructional Component 2
2014-2015
Student Test Booklet
Grade 6 Science- Assessment 2
Student Pages
LAUSD/2014-2015
Item 1: Water Cycle and Erosion
The Water Cycle
The Water Cycle is a closed-system on Earth and in its atmosphere. This means that all the water
that has ever existed is still in the same system. The sun is the energy source for the water cycle.
Heat from the sun causes surface water to evaporate as water vapor into the atmosphere,
condense into clouds, and then return to Earth in the form of precipitation. This water is then
stored as groundwater in underground aquifers, used by plants, or flows over the land as runoff
and joins with other water bodies where it would eventually evaporate and the cycle continues.
(Source: Adapted from
http://txstreamteam.meadowscenter.txstate.edu/educators/curriculum/contentParagraph/0/content_files/file/Stream%
20Table_FinalDraft.pdf )
Figure 1
Task 1: Explain what the author means by “all the water that has ever existed is still in the same
system”. Use evidence from the text as well as what you learned in class. (Make sure to
accurately use scientific terms including the following: water cycle, precipitation, evaporation,
condensation, water vapor)
1
Grade 6 Science- Assessment 2
Student Pages
LAUSD/2014-2015
Item 1: Water Cycle and Erosion
How do streams and rivers form?
Streams are part of the water cycle and an example of surface water. Precipitation in the form of
rain, sleet, snow, or hail comes down from the sky and runs over the surface of the earth (driven
by gravity). It then flows to the lowest point on the surface of the land around which are: rivers,
streams, creeks, and sinkholes that lead to aquifers, and eventually, the ocean.
Surface water moves across the land transporting sediment in a process called erosion which
leads to the formation of rivers and streams. Erosion is the process by which weathered materials
are carried away—in this case, by moving water- and deposited (dropped off) in another location.
Erosion can change landforms like lowering mountains or cutting valleys. These geological
processes that shape the landform by running water depend on many variables: For example, the
steepness of the runoff, the amount of water, and the type of soil.
A stream table is a physical model that represents a stream or a river and its effect on the
topography of Earth’s surface. Scientists use models because they are powerful tools to help
understand real life phenomena like erosion and be able to make predictions by manipulating
some variables. Below is a diagram of a stream table.
Bucket
Figure 2
Task 2: What do these parts of the model (Figure 2) represent? Use information from the text to
help you complete the table.
Stream Table Model
Real World
Falling water from the faucet
Sediment
Bucket of water
2
Grade 6 Science- Assessment 2
Student Pages
LAUSD/2014-2015
Item 1: Water Cycle and Erosion
Task 3: You need to help Alisha and Joel develop an investigation to test one of the variables (a,
b, or c) using the stream table (Figure 2), a ruler, and a timer. Your test will investigate the effect
your variable has on the depth and width of the river path (or stream channel). To do this
I - Choose one of these variables:
a) The steepness of the riverbed (steepness can be changed by adding or
removing wood under the tray)
b) The type of sediment (from coarse to fine sediment)
c) Amount of water poured from faucet
II- Develop a hypothesis about how changing your variable would affect erosion of Earth
materials. Include two logical reasons for your hypothesis
III- What data would you collect? Make sure to identify the variables you will control
(not change)
IV- Write a step by step lab on how you can collect the data (from step 3) to test your
hypothesis
3
Grade 6 Science- Assessment 2
Student Pages
LAUSD/2014-2015
Item 2: Convection Connection
Figure 1
Task 1: Above is a picture of a convection box. The box is closed from all sides including the
front side which is made of clear glass and is only open through vent A and vent B. A candle is
lit and placed under vent A.
1a.
Based on what you know about heat transfer, draw Figure 1 on your answer sheet
and then draw arrows on it showing the movement of air in the box.
1b.
Describe in complete sentences how air is circulating through the convection box.
Make sure you include these words in your description: heat, heat source, air, cool, convection.
Task 2: Read passage below to complete task 2
Sea and Land Breezes
A sea breeze describes a wind that blows from the ocean inland towards land. This breeze occurs most
often in the spring and summer months because of the greater temperature differences between the ocean
and nearby land, particularly in the afternoon when the land is at maximum heating from the sun.
During the day, the sun heats up both the ocean surface and the land. Water is a good absorber of the
energy from the sun. The land absorbs much of the sun’s energy as well. However, water heats up much
more slowly than land and so the air above the land will be warmer compared to the air over the ocean.
The warm air over the land will rise throughout the day, causing low pressure at the surface. Over the
water, high surface pressure will form because of the colder air. To compensate, the air will sink over the
ocean. The wind will blow from the higher pressure over the water to lower pressure over the land
causing the sea breeze. The sea breeze strength will vary depending on the temperature difference
between the land and the ocean.
At night, the roles reverse. The air over the ocean is now warmer than the air over the land. The land loses
heat quickly after the sun goes down and the air above it cools too. This can be compared to a blacktop
road. During the day, the blacktop road heats up and becomes very hot to walk on. At night, however, the
blacktop has given up the added heat and is cool to the touch. The ocean, however, is able to hold onto
this heat after the sun sets and not lose it as easily. This causes the low surface pressure to shift to over the
ocean during the night and the high surface pressure to move over the land. This causes a small
temperature gradient between the ocean surface and the nearby land at night and the wind will blow from
the land to the ocean creating the land breeze.
(Source: http://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/edu/k12/.breezes)
4
Grade 6 Science- Assessment 2
Student Pages
LAUSD/2014-2015
Item 2: Convection Connection
Figure 2.a
On a hot summer day at noon Jorge is sitting on a beach similar to the one shown in Figure 2.
2a. Draw the diagram above on your answer sheet.
 Add arrows to show the wind flow at the beach.
 Write a paragraph that explains the direction of the wind flow that Jorge experiences on
the beach. Cite evidence from the text to support your answer. Use scientific vocabulary
such as air flow, heat, cool, convection, radiation.
5
Grade 6 Science- Assessment 2
Student Pages
LAUSD/2014-2015
On the same day at noon, Catherine is on a small island similar to the one shown in Figure 2-b.
2b. Draw the diagram above on your answer sheet.
 Add arrows to figure above to show the wind flow at the beach.
 Write a paragraph that explains the direction of the wind flow that Catherine experiences
on the beach. Cite evidence from the text to support your answer. Use scientific
vocabulary such as air flow, heat, cool, convection, radiation.
2c. For which scenario (Jorge’s or Catherine’s) do you think the convention box (Figure 1) is a
good model? Explain why.
2d. Draw a convection box you might construct to model the scenario you did not select in 2.c.
6
Grade 6 Science- Assessment 2
Student Pages
LAUSD/2014-2015
Item 3 Weather
Read the article to complete the 2 tasks on the bottom of the page.
Urban Sprawl Changes Far-flung Weather
Summer in the city can be brutally hot. Heat radiates from the sidewalk and trash sweats fumes. During
the worst weeks of the season, even ancient Romans would flee the inner-city swelter seeking the
coolness of the surrounding countryside. Today, meteorologists are discovering that cities change their
local ecology in terms of vegetation and ground cover by replacing trees with concrete and asphalt. Cities
also create their own weather patterns, which can affect weather far away.
The Urban Heat Island
Meteorologists have long been aware that cities retain more heat than rural areas. As a city grows, people
clear away trees and plants to make way for commercial development, roads and houses. In a normal
environment, forest growth usually reduces the amount of heat and smog generated by populated areas.
Whereas an acre of forest or cropland receives as much sunlight as an acre of buildings, the green spaces
prove cooler because plants and water-retaining soils absorb heat during the day. Plants continually "burn
off steam," losing the heat through evaporation. This process cools the surrounding air. Trees also provide
shade for the ground beneath, and reflect heat-soaked sunlight back into the sky.
In city environments the hard, dark-colored surfaces of pavement, roofs, concrete and asphalt soak up
solar energy during the day and can reach temperatures 10 to 20 degrees Celsius hotter than plants around
them. Asphalt can reach a blistering 30 to 40 degrees Celsius hotter than the air around it. Thermal data
shows that temperatures in parking lots can reach 50 degrees Celsius during the day, while tree islands in
the same parking lot reach only 32 degrees Celsius. The parking lot retains heat much longer than the tree
islands or wooded areas do because the asphalt has no way of evaporating it off, as plants do. Man-made
materials retain the heat, slowly cooking the air above them, and then release heat long into the night.
This process of intense heat absorption and slow release keeps the city hotter for longer periods of time.
(Source: “Urban Sprawl Changes Far-flung Weather.” Today's Science. Infobase Learning, Sept. 2000. Web. 22 Jan.
2014. <http://tsof.infobaselearning.com/recordurl.aspx?wid=15110&ID=19347)
Task 1: Does the term “Urban Heat Island” apply to your campus? Explain your answer.
Task 2: Write an argument to your principal to increase the green space needed to cool your
campus. Support your argument using what you learned about heat transfer, uneven heating, and
3 pieces of evidence from the article. Make sure to include scientific vocabulary including
convection, radiation, evaporation, temperature, heat, pressure.
7