New York State Testing Program Science Grade 8

1.A steel bridge over the Genesee River in Rochester grows a reddish-brown coating after months in wet air. The coating is a new substance. What kind of change is this?

2.A subway train in Manhattan starts forward. A standing rider who is not holding a pole seems to fall backward relative to the train. Why?

3.In winter, cold air crosses the warmer open water of Lake Erie, and heavy snow falls on Buffalo, downwind of the lake. Why does that snow form?

4.A cheek cell and a leaf cell from a street tree in Brooklyn both have a thin boundary that lets some materials through and blocks others. What is that boundary's function?

5.A walker on an icy sidewalk in Albany slips, but the same shoes grip a dry concrete sidewalk. What is different about the ice?

6.A sugar maple in the Catskills makes food in its leaves while the Sun is out. Which statement gives the inputs and outputs of photosynthesis?

7.A metal spoon sits in a hot bowl of soup in a diner in Syracuse. Soon the handle feels warm, even though the hand is not in the soup. How did thermal energy reach the handle?

8.A road cut in the Hudson Valley shows flat sedimentary layers that have not been folded or turned over. A fossil sits in a lower layer, and a different fossil sits in a higher layer. Which fossil is in the older rock?

9.A piece of basalt from the Palisades has a mass of 24 grams and a volume of 8 cubic centimeters. What is its density?

10.Hikers shout across a valley in the Adirondacks and hear the call. That same shout would not cross the empty space between the Sun and Earth. Why does the shout depend on air?

11.In an Adirondack meadow, grass is eaten by cottontail rabbits, and the rabbits are eaten by a red-tailed hawk. Which statement describes the energy in this food chain?

12.A textbook lies still on a desk in a classroom in Buffalo. Gravity pulls the book downward. What else is true while the book stays at rest?

13.Salt stirred into warm soup in a Brooklyn kitchen disappears from sight, but the soup tastes salty. What is the salty soup?

14.Water at the brink of Niagara Falls is high above the river below. As that water plunges, which energy change is underway?

15.A cell from a white oak in Central Park and a cell from a student's skin both keep the instructions for cell activities in one structure. What is that structure's function?

16.A cart has a mass of 8 kilograms. A net force of 16 newtons pushes it. What is its acceleration?

17.The Finger Lakes are long, deep lakes that run mostly north and south across central New York. How did their basins form?

18.A trumpet player in a Rochester band plays one note softly and then the same note much louder. The pitch does not change. What changed in the sound wave?

19.Algae in the Hudson River make food from carbon dioxide, water, and light. In the river's food web, what role do these algae play?

20.On a cold January morning in Buffalo, liquid droplets cover the inside of a window. The room air had held invisible water vapor. What change formed the droplets?

21.A rower on the Hudson pushes an oar blade backward against the water, and the boat moves forward. Which statement matches Newton's third law?

22.People watching waves on Lake Ontario measure from one crest to the very next crest. What wave property is that distance?

23.A muscle cell in a runner uses glucose and oxygen and releases carbon dioxide, water, and usable energy. Which cell structure is the main site of that release?

24.Water evaporates from Lake Champlain, forms clouds, and later falls as rain that runs into streams. Which set of processes is this?

25.Logs burn in a fireplace in a Catskill cabin. Ash remains in the grate, and gases leave through the chimney. Why is this burning a chemical change?

26.A rider on the Erie Canal trail travels 24 kilometers in 2 hours at a steady pace. What is the rider's speed?

27.New York has long, warm days in July and long, cold nights in January. What is the main reason for these seasons?

28.Leaf cells of a Hudson Valley apple tree make glucose, but the tree's root cells do not. Which structure in the leaf cells is the site of photosynthesis?

29.A bench in Washington Square Park warms in bright sunlight. The bench is not touching the Sun. How does energy from the Sun reach the bench?

30.Fungi on a fallen hemlock log in the Adirondacks break the wood down, and nutrients return to the soil. What role do these fungi play?

31.Air fills a sealed basketball in a gym in the Bronx. Which description matches the particles of that air?

32.A hockey puck glides in a straight line across very smooth ice in Rochester. The net force on the puck is zero. What happens to its velocity?

33.A straw in a glass of water at a diner in Utica looks bent at the waterline. The straw itself is straight. Why does it look bent?

34.A student in Yonkers is exposed to pathogens, and one body system acts to defend the body. Which system does that job?

35.Manhattan schist, the bedrock under much of New York City, formed when older rock was changed by great heat and pressure but did not melt. What type of rock is it?

36.Two skaters of equal mass glide at Bryant Park. One moves slowly, and the other moves much faster. Which comparison of their kinetic energy is correct?

37.A closed shipping case holds a damp iron chain and some air. The chain develops a reddish-brown coating, a new substance, and the case stays shut. What happens to the total mass inside?

38.A violinist in a school orchestra in Ithaca plays a higher note than the note just before it. The loudness stays about the same. What changed in the sound wave?

39.Near New York Harbor, Hudson River water mixes with ocean water, and tides raise and lower the river. What is this part of the Hudson?

40.A cell from a street tree in Brooklyn has a rigid layer outside its cell membrane. A typical animal cell does not have this layer. What is the layer's function?

41.Decorative lights on a storefront in Queens are wired so each bulb has its own complete path. One bulb burns out, and the others stay lit. Why?

42.A mountain stream in the Catskills loosens sand from its banks and carries that sand downstream. What is the carrying of the sand called?

43.A student stands on a sidewalk in Syracuse. Which statement compares the student's mass and weight correctly?

44.A camper shouts toward a cliff in the Hudson Highlands and hears the shout return a moment later. What happened to the sound?

45.A plant cell in a tomato grown on Long Island has a large sac that holds water and other stored materials and helps the cell stay firm. What is that sac's function?

46.In a model of a meadow near Oneonta, the grass holds 10,000 energy units. About 10 percent of the energy at one level passes to the next. About how much is available to rabbits that eat the grass?

47.Sugar stirred into hot tea in Saratoga Springs can no longer be seen as grains, and every sip tastes equally sweet. What kind of mixture is the sweetened tea?

48.A heater sits on the floor of a room in Plattsburgh. Warm air rises, cooler air sinks, and the air starts to circulate. What is this transfer of thermal energy called?

49.On a clear night over Syracuse, the Moon appears fully lit. What makes this phase a full moon?

50.In a pond in Prospect Park, a bacterium divides into two cells. What is that process called?

51.The cliffs of the Palisades along the Hudson formed when molten rock cooled and hardened underground. What type of rock makes those cliffs?

52.An apple drops from a tree in an orchard near Ithaca. Air resistance is small at the start of the fall. What is the main force causing the downward acceleration?

53.A dark rock in Central Park warms in the Sun. Some of the energy it absorbs is infrared. How does infrared compare with visible red light?

54.A great blue heron lives in the marshes of Jamaica Bay and hunts small fish in shallow water. The marsh is its habitat. What is its niche?

55.In a library in Troy, a sheet of paper is torn into small bits. The bits are still paper. What kind of change is this?

56.A string of lights in a shop window in Binghamton is wired in one single path. One bulb burns out, and the rest go dark. Why do the others go dark?

57.Buffalo has daylight and then darkness on the same date. Which motion of Earth causes that pattern of day and night?

58.Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to cells in a student's body and carries wastes away from those cells. Which system does this transport?

59.Zebra mussels, which are not native to the Hudson River, attach to hard surfaces and filter large amounts of plankton. How can they affect native mussels?

60.A pot of water on a stove in Albany is boiling, and bubbles of vapor rise in the liquid. Which statement describes the water?

61.A child and a sled on a Catskill hill have a total mass of 40 kilograms. They accelerate at 3 meters per second squared. What net force acts on them?

62.A neutral atom has 8 protons, 8 neutrons, and 8 electrons. Which statement identifies this atom?

63.Wind turbines on the Tug Hill plateau spin when the wind blows, and generators send electrical energy out on power lines. What energy change is this?

64.In Jamaica Bay, herons eat fish, fish eat smaller animals, and those animals eat algae. Gulls also eat several of the same animals. Why is a food web a better model here than one food chain?

65.Water seeps into a crack in a sidewalk in Watertown, freezes, and widens the crack. The pieces are still the same concrete. What process is this?

66.A sound wave from a parade drum travels through the air in New York City toward the crowd. How do the air particles move compared with the wave's direction?

67.Cells in a deer in the Catskills release usable energy from food. Which statement gives the inputs and outputs of cellular respiration?

68.One snowstorm reaches Syracuse on a Tuesday in January. Over many years, Syracuse winters are usually cold and snowy. Which statement uses the words correctly?

69.On a hot afternoon in the Bronx, a runner sweats, the sweat evaporates, and the skin cools. Body temperature stays near its usual level. What is this stability called?

70.A stop sign on a street in Poughkeepsie looks red in white sunlight. The sign is opaque. Why does it look red?

71.A forest in the Adirondacks can support only a limited number of white-tailed deer over many years because food and shelter are limited. What is that long-term limit called?

72.Water in the St. Lawrence River contains hydrogen and oxygen chemically combined in a fixed ratio. What is that water?

73.A skier of a given mass stands at the top of a steep run at Whiteface Mountain and later stands at the bottom. Where is the skier's gravitational potential energy greater?

74.Food from a market in Flushing is broken into smaller molecules that the body's cells can use. Which system does that breakdown?

75.A shell fossil lies in layered rock along a creek in the Finger Lakes region. Sediments buried the shell before the rock formed. In which rock type is a fossil like this most often found?

76.A sound wave at a concert in Saratoga Springs has a frequency of 170 hertz and a wavelength of 2 meters. What is the wave speed?

77.Honeybees visit apple blossoms in a Hudson Valley orchard. The bees obtain nectar, and the blossoms are pollinated so fruit can form. What relationship is this?

78.A house in Syracuse has double-pane windows with air trapped between the panes. On a cold day the room loses less thermal energy than it would through one thin pane. Why?

79.The heart, blood, and blood vessels work together to move materials through the body. A heart-muscle cell is one small part of that organization. What level is the whole transport team?

80.A weather map shows high air pressure centered over Rochester. Which sky conditions often go with high pressure?

81.A soccer ball rests on a field in Queens until a player kicks it and it starts moving. What is true of the kick?

82.A tick attaches to a white-tailed deer in the Hudson Valley and takes the deer's blood. The tick benefits, and the deer is harmed. What relationship is this?

83.Carbon-12 and carbon-14 both occur in wood from New York forests. Each atom has 6 protons, and carbon-14 has more neutrons. What are these two atoms?

84.A pine on Long Island takes in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. The tree, and animals that eat plants, later release carbon dioxide during cellular respiration. Which cycle includes these exchanges?

85.A wave travels south across the surface of Lake George while the water mainly bobs up and down. How is this wave classified?

86.In a person's lungs, oxygen enters the blood and carbon dioxide leaves the blood. Which system performs this gas exchange?

87.An abandoned hay field in the Hudson Valley grows tall weeds, then shrubs, then young trees. Soil was already there when the field was left alone. What process is this?

88.Ice on a sidewalk at a school in Newburgh melts in the afternoon sun and becomes a puddle. What is happening to the water?

89.At a power station beside Niagara Falls, moving water turns turbines that spin generators. What is the main energy change that supplies the electrical output?

90.A student in Harlem touches a hot mug and pulls the hand back. Signals travel among the hand, the spinal cord, and the brain. Which system carries those signals?

91.A stream flowing into a Finger Lake slows down, and a bar of sand builds where the stream meets the quieter water. What process drops that sand?

92.Sunlight reaches a roof in Brooklyn after crossing the space between the Sun and Earth. Most of that space has no air. Why can the light still arrive?

93.During a hard winter in the Adirondacks, deep snow covers the twigs deer eat, and the herd's growth slows. What is the scarce food in this case?

94.Copper wire carries electric current through an apartment building in Harlem. Why is copper a useful choice for that wire?

95.Moss grows on the bark of a sugar maple in the Catskills. In a simple model, the moss gains a place to live, and the tree is neither helped nor harmed. What relationship is that?

96.A toy wagon in Prospect Park accelerates at 4 meters per second squared while a net force of 12 newtons acts on it. What is the wagon's mass?

97.A salt marsh on Staten Island contains cordgrass, herons, salty water, and many hours of sunlight. Which pair lists only abiotic factors?

98.A cup of seawater and the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island can have the same temperature. Which comparison of their thermal energy is correct?

99.During a lunar eclipse seen from New York, the Moon darkens for a time. How are the Sun, Earth, and Moon arranged?

100.A leaf cell from a park tree in Buffalo is compared with a muscle cell from a chipmunk. Which structures does the leaf cell have that the muscle cell lacks?

101.Two bird species in Central Park both feed on the same limited supply of insects. What interaction is this?

102.A report from a factory near the Erie Canal says an acid was neutralized by a base. What substances does that reaction produce?

103.A tour boat on the Hudson travels 30 kilometers in 2 hours at a steady speed. What is its speed?

104.Much of the drinking water on Long Island comes from groundwater held in underground layers of sand and rock. What is a layer that stores this water and can supply it called?

105.Apple trees in an orchard near Lake Ontario make seeds. Each seed receives genetic material from two parents, so the seedling is not a copy of only one tree. What kind of reproduction is this?

106.Earth's surface gives off infrared energy. Some gases in the air, including carbon dioxide, absorb part of that energy and send part of it back toward the surface. What is this warming called?

107.In a forest preserve in the Shawangunk Mountains, carbon atoms move among the air, the trees, and the animals. Sunlight energy passes through the food web, and much of it leaves as heat. Which comparison is correct?

108.A granite boulder in the Adirondacks contains quartz, feldspar, and mica. The boulder does not have one chemical formula for the whole piece. What is the granite?