5th Grade Science CECA

1. What Scientific tool can we use to observe 5. Sam decides to fill a bottle half full of
and study atoms? water and weigh it. The total weight of the
a. Microscope bottle and the water is 100 grams. He then
b. Telescope decides to put the water bottle in the freezer
c. Scale and weigh it once the water is frozen. How
d. Ruler much will the water bottle weigh once it is
completely frozen?

2. Which box shows the best representation a. 120 grams

of gas particles? b. 1 pound
A. B. C. c. 80 grams
d. 100 grams

6. Which set of properties most correctly

describes a pencil?
a. Solid, wood, sharp
a. A b. Sharp, Liquid, heavy
b. B c. Wood, soft, fluffy
c. C d. Yellow, metal, hot
d. None of them
7. Which of the following best describes the
properties of a solid?
3. Which box shows the best representation a. The object will hold form when left
of Solid particles? alone
A. B. C. b. The object will take the form of the
container around it
c. The object holds no form
d. The object will spread and move
constantly
a. A
8. Which one of these is NOT a property of
b. B
matter?
c. C
a. Mass
d. None of them
b. Density
c. Gravity
d. Volume
4. If there were two 20 pound blocks of Ice
and one was left in the sun all afternoon
9. Which term means “a combination of two
turning it into water, would the water or the
or more substances that keep their
ice have higher mass?
identities”? (think salad)
a. The water
a. Matter
b. The ice
b. Mixture
c. They would have the same mass
c. Solution
d. They would have no mass
d. All of the above
10. Which term is used to identify a type of
mixture that has the same composition
throughout? (think salad in a blender)
a. Matter
b. Mixture
c. Solution
d. None of the above
11. Which of the following is an example of a
chemical change?
a. Breaking a pencil in half
b. Rust on a car
c. Melting snow bank
d. Shredding paper
12. Which of the following is ​NOT​ an
indication that a chemical change may be
happening?
a. Bubbles form
b. Puts off heat
c. Melts from a solid to a liquid
d. Changes color
13. Which of the following examples best
shows the direction of Earth’s gravitational
pull?
a. Throwing a baseball back and forth
b. Car driving on the road
c. A swing at the park
d. An apple falling from a tree
14. Which of these shows the flow of energy
in a food chain?
a. decomposers→ consumers→
plants→ producers
b. sun→ consumers→ producers→
decomposers
c. producers→ predators→
decomposers→ consumers
d. sun→ producers→ consumers→
decomposers
The picture below shows a food chain. The
arrows show how energy flows from one
living thing to the next.
15. Notice the bacteria at the end of the food
chain. Why are bacteria (mushrooms) shown
at the end of the food chain?
a. They are producers, and make food
from sunlight.
b. They are consumers, and feed off of
the dead hawk.
c. They are decomposers, and break
down the dead hawk.
d. They are consumers, and the
smallest organisms in this chain.
​ eople are part of food chains. Typically,
16.​ P
what is the role of people in a food chain?
a. Prey
b. Consumer
c. Decomposer
d. Producers
17. What do the large arrows on the diagram
show?
a. why the planet has seasons
b. why the planet has day and night
c. the planet's gaseous composition
d. the planet’s revolution around the
sun
18. What causes the changing seasons on
Earth to occur?
a. the rotation of the Earth
b. the size of the sun
c. the Earth’s tilting axis
d. how close the Earth is to the sun
19. Which of the following does a plant use
in the process of photosynthesis?
a. sunlight, oxygen, and sugar
b. beans, gravy, and raw poultry
c. water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight
d. carbon dioxide, sugar, and sunlight
20. Scientists use fossils to describe how all
of the environments on Earth have changed
over time. Which fossil discovery represents
a change in the environment where the fossil
was found?
a. fish in rocks on top of a mountain
b. seashells in the sand at the beach
c. horse bones in soil in the prairie
d. polar bear bones in Alaska
21. Your class took a field trip to examine a
series of rock layers and the fossils in the
rock. The rock layers and samples of the
rocks and fossils are shown below.
Which fossil is the oldest?
a. Trilobite
b. Clamshell
c. Dinosaur bone
d. Cow skull
22. Which of the following is NOT an
adaptation that allows the snowshoe hare to
survive in its environment?
a. fur that changes color according to
the season – reddish brown in spring
and summer and white in winter
b. larger hind feet and toes than other
rabbits that keep it from sinking in
the snow
c. extra-large ears and teeth that help in
hunting their prey
d. a diet that changes from summer
(ferns, grass and leaves) to winter
(bark from trees, twigs, buds from
flowers and plants)
The picture below shows a food web. Use it
to answer question 23.
23. If the number of small fish dropped
suddenly, which of the following is a likely
short term effect in the food web?
a. Fewer zooplankton
b. Fewer phytoplankton
c. Fewer fish larvae
d. Fewer sharks
Use the food web below to answer question 28. Which of the following is an example of
24. how the spheres of the Earth interact?
a. A bird flying through the air.
b. A farmer growing crops in the soil.
c. A fish swimming through the coral
reefs.
d. All of the above

29. Fresh water represents a very small

amount of water on the Earth. The amount of
fresh water represent only about.
a. 0.003%
b. 0.311%
24. Which organism competes with the lizard
c. 1.31%
for food?
d. 3%
a. Mouse
b. Leaf
c. Owl
30. Which is an example of conserving
d. Mushroom
water?
a. Taking long showers
25. Why does the sun appear brighter than
b. Not leaving faucets running
the stars?
c. Spraying crops with water
a. The temperature of the sun is greater
d. Practicing crop rotation
than the stars.
b. The sun is bigger than the stars.
c. The stars are farther away from the
31. Students want to plant a lemon tree at
Earth than the sun.
their school, but the cold winter
d. The light of the sun travels faster
temperatures would kill the tree. Which of
than the light of the stars.
the following is the best solution to this
problem?
26. Two stars are nearly the same
a. Planting several lemon trees together
temperature and size, but one is only one
in a row.
light year away from Earth and the other is
b. Building a greenhouse to shelter the
nine light years away from Earth. Which will
lemon tree.
appear brighter to us?
c. Giving the lemon tree extra fertilizer
a. One light year away
in the winter.
b. Nine light years away
d. Tying a stake to the lemon tree for
support during the winter.
27. It’s a rainy day, you missed the bus, and
you’re walking to school. Which spheres of
the Earth do you interact with along the way?
a. hydrosphere, atmosphere,
geosphere, and biosphere
b. atmosphere and hydrosphere
c. geosphere and biosphere
d. hydrosphere, atmosphere, and
biosphere
 Lisa's grandfather is very old and has
hands that shake a lot. He often drops his
fork, which embarrasses him. Lisa wants to
develop a fork that is easier for her
grandfather to hold. Read the following
statements about Lisa, and choose the best
answer based on your knowledge about the
engineering design process for questions
32-35.
32. As part of her background research, Lisa
should talk to her grandfather to try to
understand why he drops his fork.
a. True
b. False
33. Before brainstorming solutions, Lisa
should do an internet search for silverware
for people who have shaky hands to use.
a. True
b. False
34. Lisa should take the first solution she
comes up with and quickly build her
prototype from that one solution.
a. True
b. False
35. Once Lisa has what she thinks is a better
fork, she should:
a. Find a manufacturer to mass produce
it.
b. Have her grandfather test her new
fork design.
c. File a patent.
d. Call a press conference to tell
everyone about her invention.
36. A scientists who wants to study the
effects of fertilizer on plants sets up an
experiment. Plant A gets no fertilizer, Plant B
gets 5 mg. of fertilizer each day, and Plant C
gets 10 mg. of fertilizer each day. Which
plant is the control group?
a. All of them
b. Plant B
c. Plant A
d. Plant C
37. A student team designs a device to meet
a human need. Then the students build a
prototype. Which of the following best
describes the purpose of a prototype?
a. to see whether it meets design
criteria
b. to show how the design will look
c. to develop ideas for a solution
d. to test the quality of the conclusions
38. Ms. Stockton’s class makes a ramp. Her
students release a toy car and let it roll down
the ramp. They measure how long it takes
the toy car to travel 1 m past the end of the
ramp. Which of the following reasons
explains why the students need to have
several trials of releasing the car before they
analyze the results?
a. They may want to move the ramp
each time.
b. The carpet on the floor may have
slowed down the car.
c. They may want to try pushing the car
instead of releasing it.
d. Someone could have been distracted
and not have stopped the stopwatch
right away.
5th Grade Science CECA KEY
1. A
2. C
3. A
4. C
5. D
6. A
7. A
8. D
9. B
10. C
11. B
12. C
13. D
14. D
15. C
16. B
17. B
18. C
19. C
20. A
21. A
22. C
23. D
24. A
25. C
26. A
27. A
28. D
29. D
30. B
31. B
32. A
33. A
34. B
35. B
36. C
37. C
38. D