Willie and his family are outside viewing the night sky. The night is dark and thousands of stars are visible. Willie's little sister asks him, "What is a star?" What is the best answer Willie could give his sister?

Kristin likes to look at the stars at night. She wonders why she can't see the stars in the daytime. Which of the following best explains why the stars are not visible during the day?

Felipe and Stephanie are spending the evening observing stars together. They can see thousands of stars in the dark night sky. Stars outside of the solar system are most similar to which of the following?

Earth belongs to a system of gas, dust, stars, and orbiting objects known as which of the following?

What do all planets have in common?

Comets and asteroids both crash into planets or their moons sometimes. In what other way are comets and asteroids similar?

Which of the following describes one way that Mars and Earth are different?

Of the outer planets, which one is closest to the Sun?

Ann and Cheryl are trying to write a general description of a planet that could apply to any planet in our Solar System. So far, their list looks like this: • orbits the Sun • is nearly round What else can they add to their list?

Many of the planets in the Solar System can be seen from Earth in the night sky. What is true of these planets?

A teacher has a model of the Solar System in his classroom. The janitor knocks it over and has to put it back together. She makes one mistake. Look at the model below. What mistake needs to be corrected?

The graphic shows a model of Earth, the Moon, and the Sun made from foam balls. What is one way to make this model more accurate?

Millions of pieces of rocky material of various sizes orbit the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. What are these objects known as?

In addition to Earth, which planets are represented by the illustration?

Which box on the illustration represents evaporation?

Which box on the illustration represents condensation?

Which of the following best describes what is happening in Box L?

Which of the following best describes what is happening in Box M?

Ryan is learning about the water cycle in science class. He wants to conduct an experiment to find out how different types of soil affect evaporation. He fills one bottle half-full of sand and another identical bottle half-full of potting soil. When he puts water in the bottles, water will evaporate out of the soil and condense near the tops of the bottles. How can Ryan best observe how soil type affects evaporation?

The water cycle is the process that moves water around on our planet. What is the most important source of water on Earth?

The ocean is an important body of water on Earth. Lakes are another type of body of water on Earth. Which of the following best explains how precipitation connects these two?

Where does ocean water get most of the energy it needs to evaporate?

Jerrel and Monica were researching the water cycle. They concluded oceans are the most important source of water for the water cycle. Which statement best supports why the ocean is such an integral part of the water cycle?

The Sun’s heat causes which of the following movements of water in the water cycle?

What kind of weather generally results in an area of high pressure?

Mrs. Hall's car was damaged during the school day. The hood, trunk, and top of the car looked like someone had hit it repeatedly with a small rubber mallet. What most likely caused the damage?

The table shows some weather data collected over a five-day period. What pattern over the five days can be observed in the collected data?

Watching the way clouds move in the sky would most likely provide helpful information on which characteristic of the weather?

Based on these observations, what time of day experienced the highest temperatures?

Which of these forms of precipitation are balls of ice associated with summer storms?

What tool is used to measure the amount of rainfall during a week?

According to this data, two of the rainiest months in Raleigh-Durham are in what season?

What provides the best evidence that precipitation comes from clouds?

In Florida, it rains more in the summer than it does the rest of the year. What is one reason it rains so much in the summertime in Florida?

Weather data for three cities in three different environments is provided in the table: City | Environment | Average July High Temp (°C) | Average July Relative Humidity at Noon Mojave, AZ | Desert | 43 | 30% Everglades, FL | Swamp | 35 | 90% Mount Washington, NH | Mountain | 12 | 99%

The weather in an area is affected mostly by interactions between what elements?

Which of the following processes contributes most to the movement of water from land to the atmosphere?

Ashley is working with a map of the world. She must color in red the places on Earth that have the most evaporation. Ashley knows that heat energy is what causes water to evaporate. What part of the map should she color red?

Different environments, such as swamps, deserts, and mountains, have weather related differences, such as temperature and humidity. Weather data for three locations is provided. Location | Environment | Average January High Temperature (in Celsius) | Average January Precipitation (% of days) Atchafalaya Basin | Swamp | 6.3 | 42% Great Basin | Desert | 6 | 10% Mount Rainier | Mountain | -6.6 | 2% Which of the following can be concluded regarding the data provided in the table?

Where are the rainforests in Africa?

Which of the following is data that would be included in a description of a region’s climate?

A region of land near the ocean can reasonably be expected to experience which of the following effects on its climate due to the influence of the nearby ocean?

Which of the following are needed during a hurricane?

Alejandro’s father is asking him to help stock the basement for potential weather disasters. Which of the following is NOT a reason why Alejandro and his father should have a family-preparedness plan for natural disasters?

Preparations for severe weather conditions and other natural disasters can be made in advance. Which of the following is an important part of a family-preparedness plan before a disaster?

The Saffir-Simpson scale is used to rate the intensity of hurricanes. Trees with deeper roots will only be knocked down by winds of 120 miles per hour or higher. If a hurricane is able to knock down one of these trees, we can conclude that the pressure associated with the hurricane would be which of the following?

Lauren and Justin live in an area of Florida recently damaged by a storm surge, a large wave brought in by a hurricane. They have set out to research ways in which this can be avoided in the future. The provided map shows the buildings that were damaged and those left undamaged as a result of the storm. Based on the information from the map, one solution to protect buildings from the damage of a hurricane would be to do what?