Florida Biology Benchmark #1

A group of students conducted a science fair experiment to find out how the amount of fertilizer used will affect the growth of radish plants. The experiment was done using amounts of fertilizer that were less than and greater than the manufacturer’s recommendation. The table shows the average plant height in each test group after 10 days. Which inference is supported by the data?

• Giving radish plants too little or too much fertilizer will not affect plant growth.
• Giving radish plants too little or too much fertilizer will slow down plant growth.
• Giving radish plants more fertilizer will increase plant growth.
• Giving radish plants less fertilizer will increase plant growth.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS1-5

NGSS.MS-LS2-1

Megan is talking with her brother about a scientific theory that she is studying. “I don’t believe what the scientists say, because that’s just a theory,” her brother says. “If those scientists were certain, then it would be a law, not just a theory.” Which inference is supported by the data?

• Her brother has a misconception that theories become laws and is confusing the scientific use of theory with the everyday use.
• Her brother is confusing the meanings of scientific law and scientific theory.
• Her brother has a misconception about the types of questions that science can answer and which are addressed by other ways of knowing.
• Her brother is confusing the meanings of the terms theory and hypothesis.

How is the word theory used in science?

• Scientists use the word theory when they mean that they have a hunch or a guess.
• Scientists use the word theory when a single hypothesis is well supported by a wide body of evidence.
• Scientists use the word theory when it applies to a tested, highly reliable scientific explanation of events in the natural world.
• Scientists use the word theory when they are not certain about an idea.

The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described as resembling a horse, with a single, spiraling horn in the center of its forehead. What role, if any, could the unicorn have in the science of biology?

• The unicorn could be the subject of an investigation of horses.
• The unicorn could be used to test new ideas about animal evolution.
• The unicorn could provide data for the body structure of real animals.
• The unicorn is not a real animal and, therefore, has no role in biological investigations.

Phrenology was the study of the bumps on the human head, and the use of those bumps to determine a person’s character traits, such as wit or combativeness. It was developed by a German doctor who noted features on people’s skulls and then studied other people to find similar features. Although it was popular at the time, phrenology has been discredited and is now considered a pseudoscience. What is the most likely reason that phrenology would not have been scientifically valid?

• Not everyone has bumps on the head; therefore, the research sample would have been too small to be valid.
• The doctor did not publish a paper about his research.
• The results are not verifiable and repeatable, so they cannot predict future behavior.
• Head bumps can result from external means, and so they would not reflect character.

In 1989, two scientists claimed to have succeeded in causing a nuclear fusion reaction to take place at room temperature. Their report was met with tremendous excitement, because cold fusion, as it was called, could revolutionize power generation and make dangerous nuclear waste a thing of the past. After they published their paper, other scientists attempted to re-create their experiment, which involved running an electric current through seawater and a metal called palladium. However, they could not replicate the results. After the published paper was examined closely, the scientists were found to have made experimental errors. Which of the following statements best describes this scenario?

• The scientific community evaluates the strength of scientific claims, and the claims are dismissed if they are found to be invalid.
• The theory of cold fusion would have become a scientific law if another team of researchers had managed to reproduce the experimental results.
• Science could not answer the question of cold fusion because it involves the influence of the supernatural.
• New scientific discoveries are rarely, if ever, supported by evidence.

The disease polio once sickened thousands of children every year. The graph depicts the number of polio cases that occurred between 1952 and 1973, based on information from the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Centers for Disease Control. The data best support which of these statements?

• Introducing a vaccine for polio had no effect on the number of cases of polio diagnosed each year.
• The polio vaccine was effective in protecting thousands of people from this disease.
• The vaccine proved ineffective because cases of polio rose between 1957 and 1959.
• The sources of the data are not reliable and, therefore, the data should be ignored.

Tags

NGSS.HS-ETS1-3

For many years, scientists thought that the universe was static—that it had always existed and been the same, and it was neither expanding nor contracting. Then, in the late 1920s, Edwin Hubble recognized that the shift in light from distant objects toward the red end of the spectrum meant that those objects were moving away from Earth. The best explanation for these observations was that the universe was not static but was expanding. More recent observations, such as cosmic background radiation, are also better explained by an expanding universe rather than a static universe. What aspect of scientific methodology best explains the replacement of the static universe theory with the expanding universe theory?

• Science and its methods are always improving. Scientists needed newer, more sensitive instruments to detect the slow expansion of the universe.
• Hubble’s observations were extremely popular with the public, leading to overwhelming support for the new theory.
• The new theory explained Hubble’s observations, and it was tested and supported by additional observations. The theory was accepted because it was the most powerful explanation available for many observations.
• The natural progression of science is that all theories are eventually replaced by new theories until one is established as law.

Maya is researching information for a report about the effects of vaccinations. She has found a large number of references online, but she is unsure which ones she should trust. Choose the source Maya should be most skeptical of its credibility, accuracy, and possible bias.

• A website maintained by the federal government
• The crowd-sourced entry on vaccine effectiveness on a site sponsored by the general public
• A website maintained by an international organization that monitors disease outbreaks around the world
• An article written by a medical doctor on the website of a peer-reviewed medical journal

Scientists share findings with other scientists by publishing their hypotheses, experimental methods, results, and analyses in peer-reviewed scientific journals. What is the importance of this step in scientific investigations?

• It allows researchers to share ideas and certifies that the work meets standards of the scientific community.
• It allows researchers to share ideas and certifies that their work is correct.
• It is not recommended, as sharing ideas would give away the results to competitors.
• It is restricted to final proven experimental results by established scientists.