Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System Science Grade 5

1.At Walden Pond in January, a sheet of ice rests on the liquid water below it. Why does the ice stay on top?

2.Snow on the stone steps of a library in Greenfield warms in the sun and becomes a puddle. The puddle is still water. What is melting?

3.From the steps of the Boston Public Library, a student releases a heavier rock and a lighter rock from the same height at the same moment. Air resistance is ignored. Which result matches that drop?

4.A student in Springfield learns that Earth is closest to the Sun in January and claims that is why Massachusetts has summer then. Which response is accurate?

5.On a March evening in Provincetown, the Moon looks like a thin crescent. A friend says Earth's shadow is covering the rest. What is the crescent?

6.On a night hike near the summit of Mount Greylock, a guide points to the many stars and says the daytime Sun belongs to that same group. What is the Sun?

7.At noon on Boston Common, a flagpole's shadow is short. Late in the afternoon the Sun is much lower in the sky. How does the shadow compare?

8.Early on a clear morning at Crane Beach in Ipswich, the Sun is in the east. Which way does a standing person's shadow point?

9.On one winter afternoon in Stockbridge, ice covers part of the Housatonic River, liquid water flows in an open channel, and invisible water vapor is in the air. How are these related?

10.A sealed jar of ice on a kitchen scale in Amherst reads 320 grams. The jar stays closed until every bit of ice has melted. What should the scale read then?

11.In a kitchen in Gloucester, a cook stirs salt into warm broth until no grains can be seen. Has the salt stopped being salt?

12.A basketball in a gym in Brockton looks empty of anything a person can see, yet it feels firm when it is full of air. What fills the ball?

13.Two liquids are mixed in a sealed clear bag. Bubbles form, and the bag expands. A test identifies a gas absent before mixing. Which observation best supports a chemical change?

14.A steel chain on a bike left outdoors in Salem grows a reddish-brown coat it did not have when it was new. What is that coat?

15.In a classroom in Lowell, a student pours 40 grams of dry sand and 65 grams of salt into one closed bag. Nothing spills. What is the mass of the mixture in the bag?

16.A 90-gram portion of oyster crackers from a snack bag in New Bedford is broken into crumbs on a plate. No crumbs fall off the plate or get eaten. What is the mass of the crumbs?

17.A kettle on a stove in Quincy heats liquid water until vapor rises. That vapor can condense back into liquid water. What change is boiling?

18.On a humid July afternoon in Hyannis, a cold glass of lemonade sits on a table. Clear water droplets form on the outside of the glass. Where did that water come from?

19.An open dish of rainwater on a porch in Concord has a mass of 200 grams. A day later, some water has evaporated, and nothing else was added or removed. The dish then has a mass of 160 grams. What happened to the missing water?

20.A closed plastic box in a classroom in Newton holds a wet sponge, air, and a dry lid. Later, droplets appear on the lid. The box is never opened. What happens to the total mass of the box?

21.A student in Andover puts 150 grams of water and 10 grams of sugar into a sealed bottle. The sugar dissolves until it cannot be seen. What is the mass of the matter inside the bottle?

22.In a materials tray in Cambridge, one sample is pulled toward a magnet, conducts electricity, and bends without crumbling. Which material matches those properties?

23.During a cleanup on Revere Beach, students test found objects with a magnet. Which object will the magnet attract?

24.On a table in Haverhill, the ends marked N on two bar magnets are pointed at each other. What do those ends do?

25.On a desk in Beverly, the N end of one magnet is brought near the S end of another magnet. What happens?

26.A pot of chowder is hot on a stove in New Bedford. One spoon in the pot has a wooden handle, and another spoon is all metal. Why is the wooden handle safer to hold?

27.A lamp cord used in a house in Malden has copper wire inside and a plastic cover. Why is that pairing useful?

28.At a pool in Framingham, a foam kickboard and a small stone have the same mass. The kickboard takes up much more space. Which comparison is correct?

29.A sealed bag starts with 20 grams of baking soda and 80 grams of vinegar. They react, and the bag swells with gas, but it stays closed. What is the total mass inside the bag after the reaction?

30.Muddy salt water from a schoolyard puddle in Waltham sat still until sand rested on the bottom. When the clear salty water above it later dried, salt crystals were left. What does that result show?

31.A basketball tossed upward on a court in Springfield slows, stops rising for an instant, and comes back down. What pulls it downward?

32.A sled moves quickly on a smooth icy patch in Pittsfield, then crosses rough bare ground and slows. What mainly causes the slowing?

33.During an outdoor lesson in Charlemont, two dry sticks are warm where they have been rubbed together. What made that spot warm?

34.A textbook lies still on a desk in Lawrence. Gravity pulls the book down. Why does the book stay still?

35.A soccer ball rests on the grass in Franklin Park. A player kicks it, and it starts moving. What does the kick show?

36.A stream model uses equal trays of bare soil and planted soil. The same amount of water flows over both. Which result supports the claim that plants reduce erosion?

37.Beside the Charles River Esplanade, a student drops a flat sheet of paper and a crumpled sheet of the same paper at the same time. The crumpled sheet lands first. Why?

38.Two bicycle-and-rider systems have the same total mass. One system moves faster. Which comparison of their energy of motion is correct?

39.At a carnival in Agawam, two bumper cars hit. After the hit, one car slows and the other speeds up. What transferred between the cars?

40.A drummer in a parade in Salem strikes a drum. People standing several meters away hear the beat. How does energy from the drum reach their ears?

41.A dark bench in the sun on Boston Common is hot by afternoon. A matching bench in deep shade stays cooler. What transferred energy to the sunny bench?

42.On a table in Fitchburg, a battery, a wire, and a small bulb are connected. The bulb lights only when the wire makes a complete loop through the bulb and both ends of the battery. Why?

43.In a room in Plymouth, the lamps are off and the shades are closed, so a red chair cannot be seen. When a lamp is turned on, the chair becomes visible. Why?

44.At Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester, two waves pass a buoy. One wave is much taller than the other, and both have the same distance from crest to crest. What does the taller wave have more of?

45.The Moon produces no light of its own, yet it can look bright over Boston Harbor at night. Why can people see it?

46.A maple tree on Cambridge Common blocks sunlight and casts a dark shadow. A clear plastic sheet nearby casts only a faint shadow. Why is the tree's shadow darker?

47.A white-tailed deer in the Blue Hills eats leaves and uses that food for running and staying warm. Where did the energy in those leaves begin?

48.A bean plant in Leominster grows in 400 grams of dry soil. It is watered and kept in sunlight and open air. Weeks later the dried soil still has a mass of about 400 grams, while the plant's dry mass has increased by 25 grams. Where did most of the new plant material come from?

49.In the Great Marsh on the North Shore, cordgrass grows in the sun. Mummichogs eat small animals and bits of dead plants among the grass, and a heron eats the mummichogs. Which organism is the producer?

50.At Stellwagen Bank, tiny drifting algae use sunlight, small animals eat the algae, small fish eat those animals, and a humpback whale eats the fish. The whale does not make food from sunlight. What is the whale?

51.In a forest at October Mountain, an oak uses sunlight and stores food in acorns. A gray squirrel eats the acorns, and a red-tailed hawk eats the squirrel. Which order shows that food energy moving?

52.A mushroom is growing on a fallen oak log in Myles Standish State Forest in Carver. The log slowly softens and crumbles. What role is the mushroom playing?

53.Fallen leaves on a forest floor near Leominster break down over months as fungi feed on them. What happens to the materials that were in the leaves?

54.In a yard in Arlington, maple leaves capture sunlight, a caterpillar eats the leaves, and a chickadee eats the caterpillar. Which statement about the energy is accurate?

55.If decomposers disappeared from a forest in the Berkshires, what would be the likely result over time?

56.Each spring, river herring swim in large schools up the Herring River in Wellfleet. How can swimming in a school help a herring survive?

57.A model tower tips in front of a fan. A team widens its base. How should the team test whether that change helps?

58.Wood frogs lay eggs in a vernal pool in Concord. The eggs hatch into tadpoles, and those tadpoles later become adult frogs that can lay eggs. What does this set of stages show?

59.On a milkweed plant in a meadow in Northampton, a monarch egg hatches into a caterpillar. The caterpillar later becomes a chrysalis, and a butterfly comes out. Which sequence shows the change from the egg to the flying adult?

60.A monarch, a wood frog, and an oak tree have different stages. Which event belongs in all three life cycles?

61.A baby in Medford has brown eyes, and both of the baby's parents have brown eyes. Which description fits eye color?

62.A border collie in a yard in Needham lies down when a trainer pats the ground. Puppies are not born doing that on cue. What kind of behavior is the dog's response?

63.Two cuttings from the same spider plant are grown in Milton. One stays in a sunny window and grows green and full. The other stays in a dark closet and becomes pale and spindly. What does the difference show?

64.Two kittens in the same litter in Somerville have the same parents. One has a white chest patch, and the other does not. What does that difference show?

65.Piping plover chicks on a sandy beach in Chatham are pale and speckled, much like the sand. Gulls hunt on that beach. Why might paler chicks be more likely to survive than darker chicks in the same family?

66.A great blue heron hunts in shallow water along the Taunton River. It has a long, pointed bill. How does that structure help the heron?

67.Alewives swimming up a coastal river in Massachusetts stay underwater and use their gills. What do the gills do?

68.In a bakery in the North End of Boston, the smell of fresh bread reaches a person across the room. No crumbs traveled that far. What is the best explanation?

69.Pitch pines on the dry sandy dunes at Sandy Neck in Barnstable have narrow needle-shaped leaves instead of wide flat leaves. How does that leaf shape help the trees there?

70.A class designs a lunch box. It must keep food cold, cost no more than $6, and fit inside a desk. Which is a constraint?

71.A herring gull on a roof in Rockport sees a dropped cracker. Its brain uses that information, and the gull flies down and eats the cracker. What does this show?

72.Brook trout in western Massachusetts do well in cold, clear streams of the Deerfield River watershed. Which place is a better match for brook trout?

73.A wet meadow in Lincoln is paved for a parking lot. The meadow plants lose soil, water, and space. What is a likely result?

74.At 3 p.m. in Pittsfield it is bright daylight. At that same moment, a town at a similar latitude on the opposite side of Earth is in darkness. Why?

75.Two model dams are tested three times with the same water flow. A leaks 18, 20, and 19 milliliters; B leaks 7, 6, and 8. Which conclusion fits the evidence?

76.Earth completes one full trip around the Sun in about 365 days. What does that trip match on the calendar?

77.People in Salem see the Sun appear at the eastern horizon in the morning and move toward the western horizon by evening. What causes that daily pattern?

78.The Sun looks far brighter than the stars seen at night over Nantucket, even though many of those stars give off huge amounts of light. Why does the Sun look so bright?

79.Orion is easy to see in the evening sky over Deerfield in January. It is not in the evening sky there in July. What is the best explanation?

80.During a campout in Savoy, students notice that Polaris stays nearly in the same spot in the northern sky all night, while other stars appear to circle it. Why does Polaris seem almost fixed?

81.A lunar eclipse happens when the Moon passes through Earth's shadow. Moon phases happen every month, but a lunar eclipse does not. Why is the eclipse rare?

82.A thin crescent was in the sky over Gloucester last week. A classmate calls that crescent a lunar eclipse. Why is that name wrong?

83.During a solar eclipse, the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth and can block the Sun's light along a narrow path. What blocks the Sun's light?

84.A chart for Boston shows about 15 hours of daylight on June 21 and about 9 hours of daylight on December 21. What explains the difference?

85.On a clear day in Worcester, around noon, the Sun is in the southern sky. Which way does a flagpole's shadow point?

86.A class in Lexington measures a pole's shadow on a clear day: 8 a.m. 210 centimeters, 10 a.m. 120 centimeters, noon 55 centimeters, 2 p.m. 110 centimeters, and 4 p.m. 190 centimeters. What pattern do the measurements show?

87.A class model uses 100 equal cups to stand for Earth's water: 97 cups of ocean salt water, 2 cups of ice, and 1 cup of other fresh water. Where is most of the water in this model?

88.A student in Boston says most of Earth's fresh water is in rivers and lakes because those are easy to see. Which correction is accurate?

89.A well in a yard in Otis brings up water from under the ground. The water is fresh, not salty. Which store of Earth's water is the well using?

90.A class tests whether wing shape affects how far a paper glider travels. What should be kept the same?

91.The Quabbin Reservoir stores drinking water for Greater Boston behind dams in a river valley in central Massachusetts. What kind of water does it hold?

92.Water evaporates from Boston Harbor, later falls as rain on the Blue Hills, and then runs into the Neponset River. What does this path show?

93.During a coastal storm in Scituate, strong wind drives seawater against a sandy bluff, sand slides down, and beach grass is pulled out. Which Earth systems are interacting?

94.A stone wall in Concord has cracks that fill with water. Each winter the water freezes, and over many years the cracks widen. Flakes of rock break off and stay beside the wall. What process is this?

95.After a heavy rain, the Merrimack River looks muddy as it flows through Lawrence. The water is carrying soil from upstream. What is moving that soil?

96.On a dune at Race Point in Provincetown, beach grass covers one slope, and another slope is bare sand. Wind blows across both. Which slope is more likely to lose sand?

97.Much of Cape Cod is sand and gravel left as a huge sheet of ice melted. No ice sheet covers Cape Cod today. What does that sand and gravel support?

98.Near Turners Falls, dinosaur footprints are in a lower layer of sedimentary rock, and another sedimentary layer sits above them. The stack has not been overturned. Which statement is supported?

99.A rock on display in a museum in Amherst is packed with fossil clamshells. The label does not say the rock was collected in Amherst. What is a reasonable conclusion about the rock?

100.A class records weather for five days, then claims the town is sunny all year. What should the class do?

101.In one week of April, Worcester has a snowy Monday and a mild sunny Thursday. Over many years, Worcester winters have been cold and snowy. Which statement uses the words correctly?

102.In a typical winter, towns on Cape Cod are milder and get less snow than higher towns in the Berkshires. Which reason fits that pattern?

103.Students need a footbridge model to hold 20 washers. Design A holds 23 but uses twice the allowed material. Design B holds 21 and stays within the limit. Which meets both requirements?

104.A filter removes visible sand from water. A student says the clear water must be safe to drink. Which response is supported?

105.The Deerfield River flows out of the higher hills of western Massachusetts and joins the Connecticut River. Why does that water move toward the Connecticut?

106.A ferry between Hyannis and Nantucket burns fuel made from petroleum. That fuel formed from ancient living things over a very long time and is not replaced quickly. Burning it releases gases into the air. Which statement is accurate?

107.Turbines near the Hoosac Range in northwestern Massachusetts use moving air. An older mill nearby once burned coal. Which resource is renewable?

108.A team tests three materials for a cool-box lining. Which measurement most directly checks its goal of slowing warming?