School Improvement in Maryland

Public Release Item: Public Release items have appeared on HSA forms and then are released for public viewing and use. Releasing items is one step to ensuring that schools, districts, and other stakeholders understand how the core learning goals are assessed on the HSA.

Goal 1 Skills And Processes

Expectation 1.4 The student will demonstrate that data analysis is a vital aspect of the process of scientific inquiry and communication.

Indicator 1.4.3 The student will use experimental data from various investigators to validate results.

Selected Response Item - Released in 2006

Use the technical passage "The Good, The Bad, The Zebra Mussel" to answer the following:

A scientist was testing the hypothesis that zebra mussels cause a decrease in the population of bluegill, a type of fish. The mussels feed on copepods, a type of plankton that is also eaten by bluegill and other fish. In an experiment, he counted the number of bluegill and the number of copepods in an aquarium containing one kiloliter of water. He then added zebra mussels. After two weeks, and again after four weeks, he counted the copepods, bluegill, and zebra mussels. Which set of experimental data supports his hypothesis that the number of bluegill decline because zebra mussels eat copepods?





/share/clg/xml/public_release/science/2006_143_bio13.xml

Correct Answer:
C