North Carolina End-of-Grade Tests Science Grade 5

1.At a picnic on Wrightsville Beach, chunks of ice from a cooler are set in a bucket of liquid water poured from a jug. The ice stays at the top. Why does the ice float?

2.Snow left on a bench outside a library in Asheville warms in the afternoon and turns into a puddle. The puddle is still water. What kind of change is the melting?

3.Near Fletcher, a trout raceway has liquid water, a cooler beside it holds ice, and the sunny air holds invisible water vapor. How are these three related?

4.A sealed tin of ice on a kitchen scale in Edenton reads 275 grams. The tin stays closed until the ice has melted. What should the scale read then?

5.In a kitchen in Oriental, salt is stirred into a pot of water until no grains can be seen. Has the salt become a new substance?

6.At the State Fair in Raleigh, a shown mixture of baking soda and vinegar keeps making bubbles of gas that were not in either starting material. What does the gas show?

7.At a pottery shop in Seagrove, three lumps of clay are weighed at 125 grams, 80 grams, and 45 grams. What is their total weight?

8.In a furniture workshop in Hickory, a magnet is held near steel screws, brass screws, and wooden pegs. Which objects does the magnet attract?

9.On a boat at Harkers Island, a steel tool and a wooden handle sit in hot sunlight. The steel becomes too hot to hold, while the wood stays more comfortable. Why?

10.A pine chip and a quartz pebble are set in the fresh water of Lake Norman. The pine floats and the pebble sinks. Which comparison of density explains that?

11.A puddle on a hot sidewalk in Lumberton grows smaller through a sunny afternoon, and no one mops it up. What happened to the water?

12.On a humid porch in Burgaw, droplets cover the outside of a glass of cold tea. The tea level inside has not dropped. Where did the outside water come from?

13.A pan of water left on a porch in Sparta is solid ice the next morning. What changed, and what stayed the same?

14.A kettle boils in a cabin high on Mount Mitchell, and another kettle boils at a beach in Wilmington. How do the boiling temperatures compare?

15.A soccer ball in a gym in Kannapolis has a mass of 420 grams. After more air is pumped in and the ball is sealed, the mass is 423 grams. What does the change show?

16.Walking toward the marsh at Sunset Beach, a student smells the mud before reaching it. What does that smell show about matter?

17.A steel chain left on a damp dock at Hobucken turns reddish brown after several wet weeks. What is the red-brown coat?

18.A park map of the Blue Ridge is torn into scraps during a windy stop in Little Switzerland. What kind of change is the tearing?

19.Muddy water from the Eno River is poured through a cloth. Sand stays on the cloth, and clearer water passes through. What kind of mixture was the sandy water?

20.In a Boone classroom, a pine block and a granite block each take up 10 cubic centimeters. The pine has a mass of 5 grams, and the granite has a mass of 27 grams. Which block is denser?

21.A steel rail on a bridge over the Cape Fear River in Wilmington has small gaps at the ends. The gaps are narrower on a hot August afternoon than on a cold January morning. Why are the gaps there?

22.From the mining area near Spruce Pine, a quartz crystal scratches a glass jar, and a flake of mica does not. Which property is different?

23.A snack bag at a park in Clinton holds boiled peanuts and raisins. A child picks the raisins out one by one. What kind of material is the snack before it is sorted?

24.At midday on Jockey's Ridge, bare feet feel hot sand even though no flame is touching it. How did energy from the Sun warm the sand?

25.A clay pot in Seagrove has a mass of 640 grams. It breaks into pieces of 280 grams, 240 grams, and 120 grams, and every piece is kept. How does the total compare?

26.At a marina in Washington, on the Pamlico River, two pale metal cleats look alike. A magnet sticks to one and not the other. What property separates them?

27.On a January afternoon in Boone, the sidewalk is icy. A cousin says winter happens because Earth is far from the Sun, but a sky chart shows Earth near its closest point to the Sun. Why is Boone still in winter?

28.From a dock on the Neuse River in New Bern, the evening Moon looks like a thin bright curve. A friend says Earth's shadow covers the rest. What is that bright curve?

29.On an afternoon hike at Pilot Mountain, the Sun is bright overhead. That night the class sees many faint points of light, and a ranger says the Sun belongs to that same family of objects. What is the Sun?

30.Sunrise at Cape Hatteras lights the Atlantic horizon, and about 24 hours later the Sun rises there again. What motion makes day and night?

31.A classroom calendar in Jacksonville counts about 365 days from one birthday to the next birthday. Which motion of Earth matches that span?

32.A class in Manteo sketches the Moon every few nights. The bright part grows from a thin curve to a full circle and back in about 29 days. Why does the shape we see change?

33.Over Albemarle Sound, a full Moon looks like a bright disk. What is the class seeing?

34.On a clear evening in Edenton the Moon is near the setting Sun and is very hard to see. Why is a new Moon so dim from Earth?

35.Once in a while a full Moon over the Outer Banks darkens for a time and then brightens again. What is happening during that lunar eclipse?

36.If the Moon's shadow crosses part of coastal North Carolina, people there see the daytime Sun blocked for a short time. What is lined up in that solar eclipse?

37.In June, days in Greensboro are long and the Sun takes a high path. In December, days are shorter and the Sun stays lower. What about Earth explains that difference?

38.A student in Elizabeth City records a June sunrise at 6:10 a.m. and sunset at 8:25 p.m., then a December sunrise at 7:15 a.m. and sunset at 5:05 p.m. How long is each daylight period?

39.On a sunny afternoon at Oak Island, the land is hotter than the nearby ocean, and a breeze blows from the water onto the beach. Why does that sea breeze blow toward the land?

40.Over the Sandhills, April rain falls from clouds, and a cold January day brings snow. Fog also sits on the ground one morning. Which are precipitation?

41.Water evaporates from the Atlantic near Wilmington, clouds form, rain falls over the Cape Fear basin, and the Cape Fear River carries that water back to the ocean. What is this repeating path, and what drives the evaporation?

42.Air rising along the Blue Ridge cools, and a white cloud appears where the sky was clear. What are the tiny pieces that make the cloud?

43.A class log at 2 p.m. in January lists Wilmington, near the Atlantic, at 57°F and Boone, high in the mountains, at 33°F. Which explanation fits the two places?

44.At a marina in Beaufort, the barometer is high and the sky is clear. The next day the barometer has fallen and thick clouds have arrived. Which forecast fits the change?

45.At Fort Macon, a flag streams straight out toward the west. Which way is the wind blowing?

46.A garden thermometer in Greenville reads 48°F at 7 a.m. and 73°F at 3 p.m. How much did the temperature rise?

47.A rain gauge in Elizabethtown collects 0.8 inches on Monday, 1.5 inches on Tuesday, and 0.7 inches on Wednesday. What is the three-day total?

48.After a night of rain in Wilson, a student wants to know how much water fell in the garden. Which tool measures that?

49.Winter waves at Nags Head pull sand off one part of the beach and drop it farther along the shore. What are those two changes?

50.On the floor of Croatan National Forest, dead leaves slowly crumble and mix with bits of weathered sand. What is forming?

51.A rock from near Aurora shows the clear shape of a seashell, even though the town is not on today's ocean shore. What is that shell shape?

52.At a camp on Lake James, the stars of Orion rise in the east and cross the sky during the night. What causes that apparent motion?

53.In Uwharrie National Forest, a white-tailed deer eats leaves from a sweetgum sapling. Where did the energy in that meal begin?

54.Smooth cordgrass grows in the salt marsh at Hammocks Beach and makes its own food using sunlight. Which role does the cordgrass fill?

55.A blue crab in Core Sound eats small animals and bits of plants. It does not make its own food. What is the crab in the food web?

56.A fallen oak log in Pisgah National Forest near Brevard is soft with fungi. The fungi are not green. What role are they playing?

57.Along the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, algae make food, small animals eat the algae, a fish eats those animals, and an osprey eats the fish. Why does the osprey still depend on the algae?

58.A loblolly pine in Croatan National Forest has green needles in full sun. What do the needles use sunlight to do?

59.In a classroom in Cullowhee, a prepared slide of onion skin shows many small boxlike units packed together. What does that view show?

60.At Oconaluftee, a diagram compares a tulip-poplar leaf cell with a black bear muscle cell. Which structures belong to the leaf cell but not the muscle cell?

61.After a student in Cary eats an apple, the body breaks it into nutrients it can use. Which body system does that job?

62.Hiking up Crowders Mountain, a student breathes faster. Which system brings oxygen in and moves carbon dioxide out?

63.After a run on a track in High Point, a student's heart is beating hard and the face looks flushed. What is the circulatory system doing?

64.A model skeleton in a Raleigh classroom shows a rib cage around the space for the heart and lungs. What job of the skeletal system is that?

65.A hiker climbing a steep trail at Grandfather Mountain feels the leg muscles working. How do those muscles help the hiker move?

66.In a kitchen in Apex, a cook touches a warm pan and pulls the hand back at once. Which system carries that signal?

67.Pond water at Merchants Millpond shows a green alga made of one cell, while a white-tailed deer in the nearby woods is made of many cells. What is the difference?

68.At New Bern, water from the Neuse River mixes with salty water connected to Pamlico Sound. What is this kind of place called?

69.At Morrow Mountain, tall oaks and hickories shade a leafy floor, and squirrels and deer use the trees. How is this forest different from an open grassland?

70.At Weymouth Woods near Southern Pines, longleaf pines stand over a grassy layer, and low fires sometimes move through. How can fire help this ecosystem?

71.A loggerhead spends most of its life in the salty Atlantic near Cape Lookout and comes ashore mainly to nest. Which habitat matches most of its life?

72.Jones Lake is a fresh, tea-colored bay lake with plants along the edge and sunfish in the water. How is it different from the Atlantic Ocean?

73.In nutrient-poor bog soil at Carolina Beach State Park, a Venus flytrap snaps shut on an insect. The plant is also green. What does the trap help the plant do?

74.At Hanging Rock, a gray treefrog sits on lichen-covered bark and is hard to spot. How does that coloring help the frog?

75.A northern cardinal at a feeder in Wake Forest has a pointed crest and a small scar on its leg from a thorn. Which trait can its chicks inherit?

76.Bees move among apple blossoms in an orchard in Henderson County, and yellow grains rub off onto the bees. How can that help the trees make fruit?

77.In a yard in Garner, a red maple drops spinning winged seeds that the wind carries away from the trunk. What is that spinning an example of?

78.At Lake Waccamaw, a green frog begins as an egg in the water, hatches as a tadpole, and later hops on land as an adult. What is that sequence?

79.Oysters in a tidal creek at Cedar Island filter bits from the water, and other animals eat the oysters. If most of the oysters die, what can happen?

80.At Currituck Beach Lighthouse in Corolla, a class measures the tower's shadow just after sunrise and again near noon. The sunrise shadow stretches much farther. When is a shadow like the tower's longer?

81.Just after sunrise at Nags Head, the Sun is over the Atlantic to the east. A dune fence casts a shadow. Which way does the shadow point?

82.Late on a clear afternoon in Manteo, the Sun is low in the west. A signpost casts a long shadow. Which way does that shadow fall?

83.Near midday at Cape Lookout, the Sun is high and the lighthouse shadow is much shorter than it was at sunrise. Why is the midday shadow the short one?

84.At noon on a clear day in Lexington, the Sun is in the southern sky. A water tower casts a shadow on the ground. Which way does the shadow point?

85.At a campsite in Doughton Park, a board is held in front of a lantern. The center of the board's shadow stays dark. What does that show about light?

86.A closed wooden shutter on a house in Southport blocks the afternoon Sun, and the room behind it is dim. What kind of material is the shutter?

87.At the aquarium on Roanoke Island, visitors see fish through a clear window. Most of the light from the tank reaches their eyes. What is the window?

88.In a backyard in Tarboro, a jar of fireflies is covered with waxed paper. A glow comes through, but the insects do not look sharp. What is the waxed paper?

89.Moonlight glitters on Lake Mattamuskeet even though the Moon does not burn like the Sun. Where does the light that left the Moon begin?

90.On a still day, the pond at Yates Mill shows an image of the trees along the bank. What is the smooth water doing to the light?

91.A blue birdhouse in a sunny yard in Hillsborough looks blue in white sunlight. Why does it look blue?

92.In a parking lot in Fayetteville on a sunny afternoon, a black asphalt patch feels hotter than a nearby white concrete patch. Why?

93.A crystal hangs in a window in Tryon. When a sunbeam hits it, patches of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet appear on the wall. What did the crystal do?

94.After a storm moves east of Blowing Rock, the Sun shines from the west and a rainbow appears in the east. What are the raindrops doing to the sunlight?

95.A visitor can read an outdoor marker at Bentonville in daylight but cannot read it in a completely dark night with no lamp. How does seeing the marker work?

96.Deep inside Linville Caverns, the guide turns the lamps off and no daylight reaches the room. Why can visitors not see the rock?

97.An oar dipped into the White Oak River at Swansboro looks bent at the waterline, but the oar is straight when lifted out. Why does it look bent in the water?

98.A stick pushed into the sand at Fort Fisher casts a shadow that moves across the beach from morning to afternoon. Why does the shadow move?

99.At Kill Devil Hills, a thick cloud drifts in front of the Sun and the dune turns dim. When the cloud passes, the sand is bright again. What did the cloud do?

100.At a picnic shelter beside Lake Lure, a student holds a heavy river stone in one hand and a lighter river stone in the other. Both stones are compact. The student opens both hands at the same moment, a short distance above a sandy patch. Which landing matches what happens?

101.In a park in Burlington, a student drops a flat sheet of paper and then the same sheet crumpled into a ball. The two drops use the same paper. The flat sheet falls more slowly. Why?

102.In a park in Cary, a child gives a wagon the same pull on a gravel path and on a smooth concrete path. The wagon rolls farther on the concrete. Why?

103.A pinecone breaks off a branch at William B. Umstead State Park and falls to the ground. Which force pulls it downward?

104.A skiff on the Alligator River travels 18 meters in a straight line in 6 seconds at a steady speed. What is its speed?

105.A kayaker on the Neuse River near New Bern paddles 5 kilometers east and then 4 more kilometers east. What is the total trip?

106.A soccer ball rests on the grass in Winston-Salem until a player kicks it and it rolls. What did the kick do?

107.A book lies still on a desk in a classroom in Goldsboro. Gravity pulls the book down. Why does the book not fall through the desk?

108.On a dock at Wanchese, a cooler full of ice and fish has more mass than an empty cooler. A worker gives each cooler the same push across the same dock. Which cooler speeds up less?