Virginia Standards of Learning Science Grade 5

1.A dune at First Landing lost sand after a storm. Was the change to that dune constructive or destructive?

2.Over several windy days at False Cape, sand settled on a dune and the dune grew taller. Which process built that dune up?

3.Water froze in a crack in a Blue Ridge cliff and the crack widened. The broken pieces were still at the cliff. Which process widened the crack?

4.After a hard rain, the James River near Richmond ran brown. Soil from the banks was mixed into the flow. What was the river doing to that soil?

5.On a slow inside bend of the Rappahannock, the water quieted and a bar of sand grew along the bank. Why did the bar grow there?

6.The Blue Ridge has rounded crests rather than tall, jagged peaks. Which explanation best fits those shapes?

7.A layered sandstone on the Coastal Plain holds a clam shell. What does that rock record?

8.Granite from a quarry near Richmond formed when molten rock cooled and hardened underground. What type of rock is that granite?

9.Shale that was buried, heated, and squeezed became the slate once used on some Virginia roofs. Which type of rock is slate?

10.At Luray, large openings run through limestone. A surface river did not carry that rock away. What made the openings?

11.Soil beside a Shenandoah trail is dark and crumbly. It contains tiny rock grains and bits of decayed leaves. Where did that soil come from?

12.A patch of dune with no plants lost a sheet of sand on a windy afternoon. A grassy patch nearby kept its sand. Why did the bare patch lose sand?

13.Beach grass grows on a dune near Virginia Beach. Its roots spread through the sand. What is one result of those roots?

14.A creek slows as it enters a quiet cove on the Potomac and drops mud at its mouth. A low fan of new land grows there. What kind of change is that fan?

15.High water strikes a bluff along the Potomac, and blocks of the bluff fall into the river. Over the years the bluff face moves back. Which description fits the bluff?

16.A road cut shows flat sedimentary layers that have not been overturned. A thin sand layer lies on top of a thick clay layer. Which layer formed first?

17.Pebbles in a mountain creek are jagged near a rocky slope and smoother farther downstream. What smoothed them?

18.At Richmond the James River drops through rapids, then spreads across much flatter land toward the bay. What change in the land causes those rapids?

19.Travelers crossing the Coastal Plain see low, gentle land and thick sand and clay, not high rocky peaks. Which description matches that region?

20.Earth's plates move, including the plate under Virginia. What is the main energy source for that slow motion?

21.In 2011, people in Mineral felt the ground shake. Virginia is not on the edge of a plate. What caused that earthquake?

22.The Chesapeake Bay receives river water and also opens toward the ocean. Why is the bay called an estuary?

23.The Chesapeake Bay lies in a long valley that once held a river, and sea level is higher now than when that valley was dry land. What happened to the valley?

24.Rivers in far southwest Virginia, including the Clinch, flow toward the Tennessee and Ohio rivers. A student says every Virginia river ends in the Chesapeake Bay. What is the best correction?

25.The Roanoke River runs southeast out of Virginia into North Carolina and on to Albemarle Sound. How is that path different from the James River?

26.Rain falls on a schoolyard in Richmond, enters a drain, and reaches the James River. Which larger body of water is downstream in that same watershed?

27.A parking lot and a nearby forest receive the same rainstorm. The lot sheds water quickly, while the forest floor soaks up much of the rain. What is a likely result for a creek below the lot?

28.Trees and shrubs line a creek bank in the Piedmont. After a storm, the planted bank loses less soil than a bare bank upstream. Why?

29.A pond in Orange County is liquid on a mild afternoon. That night the air turns very cold, and ice covers the surface. What change occurred in that surface water?

30.A sealed ice pack melts inside a lunch bag. Nothing leaks out. How does the mass of the melted pack compare with its mass when it was frozen?

31.On a humid July day in Norfolk, drops appear on the outside of a glass of cold water. The glass has no leak. Where did the drops come from?

32.A birdbath in a sunny Richmond yard is full at breakfast and nearly empty by late afternoon. No animals drank there, and the basin does not leak. What happened to the water?

33.A student sees the birdbath empty and says the water must have boiled. The basin was warm from sunlight, not boiling hot. What is the best correction?

34.Water vapor rises from the Chesapeake Bay, cools high in the air, and a cloud forms. What change produced the cloud's tiny drops?

35.Rain falls on the western side of the Blue Ridge, flows across the ground, and enters a creek that joins the Shenandoah River. What is that downhill flow over the land called?

36.A drop of water leaves the Chesapeake Bay, becomes part of a cloud, and later falls on Charlottesville. Which order of processes matches that trip?

37.On a March hike at Massanutten, a student sees snow on the trail, liquid water in a creek, and feels moisture in the air. Which statement fits that day?

38.A chunk of ice sits in a cooler and keeps its shape. How do the water particles behave in that solid?

39.The smell of vinegar opened in a kitchen in Roanoke soon reaches the far side of the room. That smell is a gas mixing into the air. What does the spreading show?

40.Cider warms in a pot in Winchester and is still mostly liquid. What happens to the cider particles as the temperature rises?

41.Salt is stirred into warm water until the grains can no longer be seen. The liquid is clear and tastes salty. What is the salt water?

42.Salt is stirred into a pot of water in a Norfolk kitchen. The grains disappear, the pot is not heated, and nothing spills. How does the mass in the pot compare with the salt and water before they were combined?

43.Beach sand is stirred into a cup of water and then left alone. An hour later the sand is on the bottom and the water above it is clearer. What happened?

44.A hiker's bag holds peanuts, raisins, and pretzel pieces. Each food still looks and tastes like itself. What is in the bag?

45.Iron tacks fall into dry sand in a park sandbox. A magnet lifts the tacks out and leaves the sand. Why does that separation work?

46.Rain washes sand toward a storm drain in Norfolk. A screen over the drain catches the sand, and water passes through. Why are the sand and water separated?

47.Sugar stirred into hot tea in Lynchburg disappears from view, and the tea tastes sweet. What happened to the sugar?

48.During a walk in Charlottesville, a student tears a maple leaf into small bits. The bits are still leaf material. What kind of change is the tearing?

49.At a campsite in the Allegheny mountains of western Virginia, a log burns. Ash is left, and smoke rises. What kind of change is the burning?

50.The ash from that campfire has less mass than the log did. A student says the missing mass was destroyed. What is the best response?

51.An iron rail near a tidal creek shows orange, flaky rust after months in damp air. The rust was not on the new rail. What happened to the iron?

52.A piece of copper wire is bent into a hook. It is still copper. Which change is that?

53.A stick of chalk is crushed to dust, and the dust is still the same material as the stick. What changed?

54.An ice block in a shaded yard in Staunton melts into a puddle as the day warms. What energy change goes with that melting?

55.A pan of water left outside in Highland County freezes on a clear, cold night. What energy change happened as the ice formed?

56.A granite pebble, a cup of bay water, and the air in a classroom are different materials. What do they have in common?

57.Oxygen gas is one kind of atom. Water contains hydrogen and oxygen atoms bonded together. Which comparison is correct?

58.A well in the Shenandoah Valley yields liquid water. A cloud over the same county is made of tiny water droplets. What is true of that water?

59.A dry oak branch floats in a creek, and a granite pebble sinks beside it. Why do they behave differently?

60.A metal spoon and a wooden spoon sit in the same pot of hot soup. Soon the metal handle is too hot to hold, while the wooden handle is still comfortable. Why?

61.A lamp cord has copper wire inside and a plastic cover outside. The cover can be touched while the lamp is on. Which description of the two materials is correct?

62.A basketball in a Hampton gym is full of air. The air is not pooled only at the bottom of the ball. What does that show?

63.Apple juice moves from a bottle into a glass in a Staunton cafeteria. It takes the shape of the glass, and the amount of juice stays the same. Which state is the juice?

64.A brick set in a wall in Petersburg keeps the same shape it had on the delivery truck. It does not flow to fill the wall. Which state of matter is the brick?

65.Air on a school playground is mostly nitrogen and oxygen, with smaller amounts of other gases. What is that air?

66.Two clear liquids sit on a table. One is pure water. The other is salt water. A student says the salt water must be pure because it is clear. What is the best correction?

67.Water from a deep well can be nearly pure water. A sample dipped from the Chesapeake Bay tastes salty. How is the bay water different?

68.A closed car in a July lot in Fairfax has a wet towel inside. Later the towel is drier and the inside of the windows is fogged. The doors stayed shut. What happened to the water?

69.An open bowl of water sits on a windowsill in Alexandria. By morning the bowl and water together have less mass. The room was warm and dry. What accounts for the missing mass?

70.A bald cypress in the Great Dismal Swamp makes its own food in sunlight. Which exchange matches that food-making?

71.That cypress stores the food it made in the light. What is the food, and where did the energy stored in it come from?

72.Underwater grasses grow in shallow parts of the Chesapeake Bay, and young crabs stay among them. Which result of the grasses helps those crabs?

73.Oysters on a reef draw bay water in as they feed. People notice clearer water near a healthy reef. What are the oysters doing?

74.Oyster shells pile into a reef in the Rappahannock, and small fish live in the spaces. What does the reef provide for those fish?

75.A blue crab eats underwater plants, small clams, and dead animals on the bay floor. Which feeding role fits that diet?

76.An osprey dives into the James River and catches a fish. It does not eat plants. What is the osprey's feeding role?

77.A white-tailed deer in a Powhatan woodland eats leaves, twigs, and acorns. It is not hunting other animals. What is the deer?

78.A black bear in the Virginia mountains eats berries, insects, and fish during the summer. Which role matches that diet?

79.Hikers in Shenandoah National Park find a soft, crumbling log with white fungal threads running through it. The log was a living oak years ago. What are the threads doing?

80.A turkey vulture feeds on a raccoon that has already died beside a road near Staunton. The vulture does not make its own food. What is the vulture?

81.In forest soil on the Blue Ridge, tiny organisms break down dead roots. Materials from those roots then become available to living plants. What is the outcome?

82.A northern cardinal in a Richmond yard eats sunflower seeds and also eats insects. Which label fits that diet?

83.In a bay food chain, algae make food, a small fish eats the algae, and an osprey eats the small fish. Where did the energy in the osprey's meal begin?

84.That bay chain has a huge mass of algae, fewer small fish, and only a few ospreys. Why are there so few ospreys compared with the algae?

85.In a salt marsh on the Eastern Shore, cordgrass grows in the sun. Snails and fish use food that traces back to that grass. Which organisms bring light energy into this food web?

86.A deer running across a field uses food stored in its body and breathes in oxygen. Which outputs match that release of energy?

87.At night a flowering dogwood is not making food from light, but it still needs energy to stay alive. Which exchange supplies that energy?

88.A red fox in a Fairfax woodland breathes out carbon dioxide. An oak nearby stands in full sun. How can that carbon dioxide become part of the oak?

89.Oak leaves fall in October in a Nelson County woods. By the next summer most of those leaves are gone, and the soil beneath them is dark. What happened to the leaves?

90.A cypress swamp in the Great Dismal Swamp contains trees, bears, dark water, mud, and sunlight. Which list names only nonliving parts?

91.A red-backed salamander lives in damp leaf litter on a Blue Ridge slope, where it finds moisture, insects, and cover. What is that litter for the salamander?

92.All the blue crabs in one creek form one group. The crabs, fish, grasses, and herons in that creek form another group. Which pairing of terms is correct?

93.A salt marsh includes cordgrass, crabs, herons, tidal water, mud, and sunlight acting together. Which term covers all of those parts?

94.Brook trout live in a cold, clear mountain stream. Trees that shaded a wide stretch of bank are gone, and more sun hits the water. Why can that harm the trout?

95.Where trees still arch over that mountain stream, the midday water stays cooler than in the open stretch. What effect do the trees have?

96.A nonnative vine covers a young tree in a Petersburg park, and almost no sunlight reaches the tree's leaves. What is the likely result for the tree?

97.Two oak seedlings sprout in one sunny gap in a Fairfax woods. The gap has a limited amount of light and soil water. What is the relationship between the seedlings?

98.Red-tailed hawks hunt meadow voles in a field near Winchester. One summer the vole population falls very low. What is the direct result for the hawks?

99.Those meadow voles eat grass. After the vole population stays low for a season, the grass is taller and thicker. Which explanation fits?

100.During a heavy rain, a marsh beside the Rappahannock spreads the high water and slows it. A town downstream sees a lower flood peak than it would without the marsh. What did the marsh do?

101.Muddy water from a farm ditch enters a tidal marsh before it can reach the bay. Much of the mud settles among the plant stems. What is the result?

102.Chincoteague ponies feed on marsh grasses. A storm lays a sheet of sand over part of that marsh and covers the grasses. What is the likely result for the ponies' food there?

103.After a storm, one stretch of beach at Back Bay has less sand, and a low ridge of sand has formed farther along the shore. Which pair of processes fits the two places?

104.A student looks for clam fossils in granite from a Piedmont quarry and finds none. The granite formed from molten rock. Why are clam fossils not expected in it?

105.Coal in southwest Virginia formed from ancient plant material over a very long time. People use it much faster than new coal forms. What kind of resource is this coal?

106.Panels on a school in Virginia Beach use sunlight, while some power plants use coal. How is sunlight different from coal as an energy resource?

107.A Piedmont woodlot is cut and then left so seedlings can grow a new stand of oaks. A coal bed in southwest Virginia does not grow back after the coal is removed. Which comparison is correct?

108.Aluminum cans collected in Norfolk are made into new cans. The metal is used again instead of taking as much new ore from the ground. What is the result?