Science
Focus your review
Science items reflect three-dimensional learning: disciplinary core ideas (physical, life, Earth and space, engineering), science and engineering practices (asking questions, planning investigations, analyzing data, arguing from evidence), and crosscutting concepts (patterns, cause and effect, systems, energy and matter, scale). Understand inquiry and the 5E model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate), variables (independent, dependent, controlled), measurement, and safety. Core content includes states of matter and conservation of mass, energy transfer, food webs and photosynthesis, the rock cycle and plate tectonics, the water cycle, and Earth–Sun–Moon relationships. Assess with phenomena-based tasks and probes that surface misconceptions, because a common wrong answer often reveals an intuitive theory that must be confronted directly.
Traps
Items confuse a hypothesis (a testable explanation) with a prediction (an expected outcome). The word 'proves' is a red flag - investigations support or fail to support a claim. Others mix up mass and weight, claim plants get their food from soil, or say seasons result from Earth's distance from the Sun. Controlled-variable questions frequently hide a second variable that was changed.
Worked example
Why is Minnesota hot in July and cold in January? Not distance from the Sun: Earth's axial tilt of about 23.5 degrees changes the angle and duration of sunlight. Rule of thumb: for seasons, think tilt and insolation, not orbital distance.