California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress Science Grade 8

1.A steel ball and a foam ball of the same size are dropped from the same height. Air resistance is ignored. Which statement describes the landing?

2.A wagon is still on flat ground. One student pushes east with 12 newtons, and another pushes west with 5 newtons. What does the wagon do?

3.A soccer ball rests on the grass, and no one kicks it. The forces on it are balanced. What happens next?

4.A skater glides forward and then slows on rough pavement. Which force mainly causes the slowing?

5.A cyclist travels 120 meters along a straight path in 30 seconds at a steady rate. What is the cyclist's speed?

6.A bus moving in a straight line speeds up from 4 meters per second to 10 meters per second in 3 seconds. What is its acceleration?

7.A car on a straight highway stays at 25 meters per second. The engine's forward force balances friction and air resistance. What is the net force on the car?

8.Bumper car A hits bumper car B. During the hit, how do the forces on the two cars compare?

9.The same push is applied to an empty cart and to the same cart loaded with books. Which cart accelerates more?

10.Two drones each move at 8 meters per second. One flies north and the other flies south. What is different about their motion?

11.On a distance-time graph, a straight line goes from 0 meters at 0 seconds to 20 meters at 5 seconds. What speed does the line show?

12.A geologist walks 3 kilometers east and then 4 kilometers north. What is the straight-line displacement from the starting point?

13.A car stops suddenly, and a passenger lurches forward against the seatbelt. Why does the passenger's body keep moving forward?

14.A textbook lies still on a desk. Gravity pulls down, and the desk pushes up with the same strength. Why does the book remain still?

15.Which unit is used to measure a force?

16.The same ball is released from rest on two ramps. Ramp A is steeper than ramp B, and air resistance is small. Which ball gains speed faster?

17.Planet L and planet M have the same radius. Planet M has more mass. Where is the surface gravity stronger?

18.A satellite is moved from a low orbit to an orbit much farther from Earth. How does Earth's gravitational pull on the satellite change?

19.An astronaut has a mass of 60 kilograms on Earth and then stands on the Moon. Which statement is true?

20.The Moon keeps moving around Earth instead of flying off in a straight line. What pulls the Moon into that curved path?

21.A dropped rock falls toward the ground in California and also toward the ground in Australia. Why is down toward the ground in both places?

22.A student says weight and mass are two names for the same measurement. Which correction is right?

23.Astronauts in the space station seem weightless. Has Earth's gravity stopped acting on them?

24.Ocean tides rise and fall in a repeating pattern. Which body is the main cause of those tides?

25.A bowling ball rolls across a lane. Which energy does the ball have because it is moving?

26.A book is lifted from the floor to a high shelf and left there. Which energy increased because of the new height?

27.A roller coaster car leaves the top of a hill and speeds up on the way down. Friction is present. Which description fits?

28.Rubbing your hands together makes them warmer. Which energy transfer explains the warmth?

29.A metal spoon sits in hot soup, and the handle warms. How does energy reach the handle?

30.A heater warms nearby air. That air rises, and cooler air sinks to take its place. What is this transfer called?

31.Energy from the Sun crosses space and warms a sidewalk. What carries that energy from the Sun to Earth?

32.Hot cocoa stays warm longer in a foam cup than in a thin metal cup. Why?

33.The chemical energy in a peanut-butter sandwich can be traced back to sunlight. How did that energy get into the food?

34.A lamp is switched on, and electrical energy enters the bulb. Which energy forms leave the bulb?

35.Two carts have the same mass. Cart A moves at 2 meters per second, and cart B moves at 5 meters per second. Which cart has more kinetic energy?

36.Two identical water bottles are at rest. One sits on a 1-meter stool, and the other sits on a 3-meter balcony. Which has more gravitational potential energy?

37.A flashlight beam can cross the nearly empty space between the Sun and Earth, but a shout cannot. Which statement explains that difference?

38.A drummer strikes a drum harder, and the sound becomes louder. What changed in the sound wave?

39.A whistle makes a higher pitch than a low drum in the same room. What is higher in the whistle's sound wave?

40.A student measures a water wave from one crest to the next crest. Which quantity is that distance?

41.A sound wave travels through air toward a listener. How do the air particles move compared with the direction of the wave?

42.A hiker shouts toward a cliff and hears the shout again a moment later. What happened to the sound?

43.A straight straw in a glass of water looks bent at the waterline. Why?

44.In the same sunlight, a black shirt feels hotter than a white shirt made of the same cloth. Why?

45.A buoy rises and falls as waves pass, but it stays near the same spot. What does the wave carry toward the shore?

46.A wave has a wavelength of 3 meters and a frequency of 5 hertz. What is the wave speed?

47.A camper burns a stick of wood and later folds a sheet of paper into a crane. Which statement is correct?

48.A student tears a note into small bits. Have the bits become a new substance?

49.A nail left in damp air develops a reddish-brown coating that is not iron. What kind of change formed the coating?

50.Butter melts in a warm pan. The liquid is still butter. What kind of change is the melting?

51.Sugar stirred into water disappears from sight, and the water tastes sweet. What happened to the sugar?

52.A slice of bread turns dark brown in a toaster and smells different from the pale slice. Why is this browning a chemical change?

53.Water boils in a kettle, vapor leaves the spout, and drops form on a cold lid. What is that vapor?

54.A student crushes an aluminum can. The can is smaller, and tests show the material is still aluminum. What changed?

55.A cut apple sits out, and the cut face turns brown. The brown material is not the same as the fresh apple flesh. What kind of change is the browning?

56.Which event is a physical change?

57.Some mice in a population are born with thicker fur. After several cold years, thick fur is more common among the adults. Which statement matches natural selection?

58.Beetles in one garden have different numbers of spots on their shells. Why does that difference matter for natural selection?

59.A dog is born with a spotted coat and later learns to catch a ball. Which of these can the dog's puppies inherit?

60.A maple tree releases thousands of seeds, and only a few grow into adult trees. Why is that important in natural selection?

61.A cyclist falls and gets a scar on one knee, then later has a child. What should be true about the child's knees?

62.In a lesson on natural selection, a student says the fittest beetle is the one that can lift the most weight. What does fitness mean here?

63.A cliff has not been overturned. Fossils in a lower rock layer differ from fossils in a higher layer. What does that difference support?

64.A cactus in a dry desert has spines instead of broad leaves. How do those spines function in that environment?

65.Brown snails and pale snails live on a brown mudflat. Birds eat the snails they see more easily. Years later, brown snails are more common. What happened?

66.An athlete lifts weights for years, builds larger arm muscles, and then has a child. Which claim fits inheritance?

67.During a soccer game, a player's heart beats faster. What is the heart's main job in that response?

68.After a sprint, a runner breathes hard. What gas exchange is happening in the lungs?

69.A student eats lunch. What does the digestive system do with that meal?

70.A student touches a hot tray and pulls the hand away. Which body system carries the signals for that response?

71.Which job belongs to the skeleton?

72.How do skeletal muscles bend and straighten the arm?

73.How do the respiratory system and the circulatory system work together during a run?

74.A chart of the body is supposed to go from simplest to most complex. Which order is correct?

75.Plates move a few centimeters a year. One plate boundary shifts 3 centimeters a year. About how far does that boundary shift in 20 years?

76.At a mid-ocean ridge, two plates move apart and new ocean floor forms between them. What kind of plate boundary is this?

77.Two continental plates collide, and the crust crumples upward into a mountain range. What kind of boundary is this?

78.Along part of the California coast, two plates slide past each other and earthquakes are common. What kind of boundary is this?

79.The coasts of South America and Africa fit together, and similar fossils of land animals are found on both. What does that evidence support?

80.Ocean-floor rock is youngest at a mid-ocean ridge and older farther from the ridge. What does that age pattern show?

81.What motion inside Earth helps move the plates across the surface?

82.Many volcanoes and earthquakes occur in a belt around the Pacific Ocean. Why is that belt so active?

83.A forecast says tomorrow in Sacramento will be rainy and 12 degrees Celsius. What is that forecast describing?

84.A report gives a city's average July temperature and rainfall over 30 years. What does the report describe?

85.A usually mild town has one snowy day. A student says the town now has a polar climate. What is the best response?

86.Carbon dioxide and water vapor in the air keep Earth's surface warmer than it would be without them. What do these gases do?

87.A puddle disappears on a warm afternoon. Clouds later form, and rain falls. Which sequence is this?

88.A warm ocean current flows from the tropics along a coast. How can that current affect the coast?

89.Over a year, places near the equator are usually warmer than places near the poles. Why?

90.A weather station checks a barometer before writing a forecast. What does the barometer measure?

91.A student says California's summer happens because Earth is closest to the Sun in summer. Earth is closest to the Sun in January. What causes the seasons?

92.A friend sees a crescent moon and says Earth's shadow is covering the rest of the Moon. What actually produces the monthly phases?

93.Early in January, Earth is at its closest distance to the Sun for the year. What is true in California then?

94.The full Moon dims for a short time as it passes into Earth's shadow. What event is this?

95.Which planet is third from the Sun?

96.Which description of the Sun is correct?

97.What marks one year on Earth?

98.What marks one day on Earth?

99.A book says Earth would move in a straight line if the Sun's gravity disappeared. Why does Earth follow a curved orbit instead?

100.The Moon looks bright in the night sky. Where does the light we see come from?

101.Where do most objects in the asteroid belt orbit the Sun?

102.How do the four planets closest to the Sun compare with the four outer planets?

103.An ice cube floats at the surface of a glass of liquid water. Why does the ice stay up?

104.A granite pebble sinks when it is dropped into a pond. The pond water has a density of about 1 gram per cubic centimeter. What is true of the pebble?

105.A mineral sample has a mass of 48 grams and a volume of 16 cubic centimeters. What is its density?

106.A fresh egg sinks in fresh water and floats in very salty water. Why can the egg float in the salty water?

107.A square garden has sides of 4 meters. Each side is doubled to 8 meters. How does the area change?

108.On a map of a plate boundary, 1 centimeter stands for 5 kilometers. The boundary drawn on the map is 4 centimeters long. How long is the real boundary?