School Improvement in Maryland

Using the State Curriculum: Science, Grade 5

Skills and Processes | Earth/Space | Life | Chemistry | Physics | Environmental

Public Release Items: Public release items have appeared on MSA 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 content standards are assessed on the MSA.

Standard 1.0 Skills and Processes

Topic B. Applying Evidence and Reasoning

Indicator 1. Seek better reasons for believing something than "Everybody knows that..." or "I just know" and discount such reasons when given by others.

Objective a. Develop explanations using knowledge possessed and evidence from observations, reliable print resources, and investigations.

Selected Response Item

Seawater contains a number of different salts. The water can be separated by a process called distillation. A simple distillation setup is shown below.

Question Image

The water in the flask evaporates. Water vapor (gas) rises, leaving the salt in the flask. The water vapor is cooled in the condensing tube and drips into the beaker.

Why does salt remain in the flask?

  1. Salt is attracted to heat.
  2. Salt does not evaporate.
  3. Salt is too heavy to become a vapor (gas).
  4. Salt becomes water after it is heated.
/toolkit/vsc/assessment_items/msa_science_5_037.xml

Correct Answer:
B

Selected Response Item

Use the passage 'The Greenhouse Effect' to answer the following.

How would Earth most likely change if the amount of greenhouse gases continued to increase?

  1. Glacier size would increase.
  2. Air pollution would decrease.
  3. Ocean levels would decrease.
  4. Global temperatures would increase.
/toolkit/vsc/assessment_items/msa_science_5_044.xml

Correct Answer:
D

Selected Response Item

Use the passage 'Making Fresh Water from Salt Water' to answer the following question.

Which statement best explains this observation?

  1. The heat from the sun increased the flavor of the salt.
  2. The light from the sun turned some of the water into salt.
  3. The mass of salt increased to replace the lost water mass.
  4. The same amount of salt was present in a smaller volume of water.
/toolkit/vsc/assessment_items/msa_science_5_098.xml

Correct Answer:
D

Selected Response Item

Use the passage 'Hazy Summer Days and Air Pollution' to answer the following question.

Alison Davis states that air quality has been improving because of the Clean Air Act.

What evidence would help support her statement?

  1. a decrease in breathing disorders
  2. a decrease in the height of trees in forests
  3. an increase in the number of cars on the road
  4. an increase in the number of days with air that appears brown
/toolkit/vsc/assessment_items/msa_science_5_059.xml

Correct Answer:
A

Brief Constructed Response (BCR) Item

Use the passage 'Hazy Summer Days and Air Pollution' to answer the following question.

The amount of harmful ozone in a city decreased during a year.

Explain why this decrease may have occurred. In your explanation, be sure to include

  • how ozone pollution is produced
  • specific reasons that may have caused a decrease in the ozone level
/toolkit/vsc/assessment_items/msa_science_5_061.xml

View Scoring Information

Selected Response Item

Use the information below to answer the following.

Students placed 250 milliliters of water in three identical containers. Container 1 had a tightly sealed lid and was placed on a classroom counter. Container 2 had no lid and was placed on a classroom table. Container 3 had no lid and was placed on a table outside in the shade. The students measured the amount of water in each container at the end of each day for four days. Their results are shown in the data table below.

VOLUME OF WATER IN THREE CONTAINERS

Container Starting Volume (mL) End of Day 1 (mL) End of Day 2 (mL) End of Day 3 (mL) End of Day 4 (mL)
1 250 250 250 250 248
2 250 242 219 203 188
3 250 219 172 125 63

What question is this investigation designed to answer?

  1. How do water levels affect evaporation?
  2. Which container best holds evaporating water?
  3. Does evaporation of water affect the atmosphere?
  4. In which environment does water evaporate the fastest?
/toolkit/vsc/assessment_items/msa_science_5_063.xml

Correct Answer:
D

Selected Response Item

Use the passage 'A New Glue … from Inside Cow Bellies?' to answer the following question.

Another microbiologist studied bacteria in the stomach of an ocean mammal. This scientist observed that bacteria in the ocean mammal did not attach to food particles.

Which of these statements best explains the findings?

  1. Ocean water kills stomach bacteria.
  2. Bacteria only stick to plant materials.
  3. The scientist was studying a different type of bacteria.
  4. Bacteria in laboratories behave differently than bacteria in cow bellies.
/toolkit/vsc/assessment_items/msa_science_5_144.xml

Correct Answer:
C

Selected Response Item

Use the passage 'A New Glue … from Inside Cow Bellies?' to answer the following question.

Based on Dr. Weimer's data, bacteria might be a good source for wood glue because the bacteria

  1. are easy to grow
  2. stick tightly to each other
  3. stick tightly to plant materials
  4. can easily be taken from cow stomachs
/toolkit/vsc/assessment_items/msa_science_5_145.xml

Correct Answer:
C

Selected Response Item

Use the information below to answer the following question.

Students examined plants and animals that live in and near the Chesapeake Bay. The students identified some features of these organisms, as seen in the table below.

Organism Habitat Animal or Plant Role
Bald eagle Land/water Animal Consumer
Bay grass Water Plant Producer
Deer Land Animal ?
Cypress tree Land/water Plant Producer
Mute swan Water Animal ?
Oyster Water Animal ?
Pine tree Land Plant Producer
Sandbar shark Water Animal Consumer
Striped bass Water Animal Consumer

The bald eagle hunts and eats other organisms.

Which of these organisms does the bald eagle most likely hunt?

  1. bay grass
  2. deer
  3. oyster
  4. striped bass
/toolkit/vsc/assessment_items/msa_science_5_132.xml

Correct Answer:
D

Selected Response Item

Use the passage 'Space Shuttle Re-entry' to answer the following question.

What is the primary source of friction on the space shuttle during re-entry?

  1. the gravity of Earth
  2. the pull of the moon
  3. particles of pollution in the air
  4. air molecules in the atmosphere
/toolkit/vsc/assessment_items/msa_science_5_128.xml

Correct Answer:
D