MTTC Integrated Science (Elementary) (093) common mistakes
MTTC Integrated Science (Elementary) (093) · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
When asked to identify a hypothesis, selects a prediction such as 'the plant will grow taller' or a broad statement such as 'plants need water,' and cannot say what evidence would count against it; also calls a well-supported scientific explanation 'just a theory.'
Elementary science lessons often define hypothesis as a guess, and everyday speech uses 'theory' to mean speculation, so the candidate matches surface wording instead of the function of the statement.
What to do instead
Rewrite hypotheses as falsifiable if-then-because statements that name the manipulated and measured variables, and state one observation that would refute the hypothesis. Define scientific theory as a well-substantiated explanation supported by multiple lines of evidence, not a guess.
In an experiment scenario, names the factor the teacher deliberately changes as the dependent variable, or says the design is controlled without listing any variables that must be held constant.
The terms independent and dependent are used loosely in classrooms, and scenario text often describes the manipulated factor in passive voice, so the candidate relies on word order rather than experimental roles.
What to do instead
Use a fixed routine: independent variable = what is deliberately changed; dependent variable = what is measured or observed; controlled variables = at least two factors kept the same. Check that only one independent variable changes and that the comparison group differs only in that variable.
Reads a data table or graph by taking the highest point on a curve as 'the result' instead of reading the y-value at the requested x-value; or treats a single trial as a trend and concludes that one variable causes another merely because they rise together.
Graph literacy is often assumed rather than taught, and everyday media language uses 'proves' and 'causes' for any association, so the candidate answers from the visual shape without checking axes, units, sample size, or variability.
What to do instead
Before answering, name both axes and their units, locate the requested x-value and read across to the y-value, and describe the overall pattern plus any outliers. Distinguish correlation from causation and ask whether multiple trials or a controlled design support a causal claim.
Reverses the inputs and outputs of photosynthesis and cellular respiration, or places photosynthesis in mitochondria and respiration in chloroplasts; says only animals respire.
The two processes are taught as mirror-image equations involving carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, and glucose, and both occur in plants, so candidates memorize the gases but not the locations or direction.
What to do instead
Memorize one-line equations with locations: photosynthesis in chloroplasts uses carbon dioxide, water, and light to produce glucose and oxygen; cellular respiration in mitochondria uses glucose and oxygen to release carbon dioxide, water, and usable energy. Plants perform both processes.
Treats energy as passing up a food chain in equal amounts, or places decomposers only at the top of an energy pyramid and says they receive the most energy.
Food-chain diagrams often use equal-sized boxes and arrows that show only 'who eats whom,' so the candidate reads the diagram literally and misses the quantitative loss of energy as heat at each transfer.
What to do instead
State that energy flows through ecosystems and is not recycled; only about 10 percent typically transfers to the next trophic level, with most lost as heat. Matter cycles, and decomposers recycle matter from all trophic levels, not energy.
Explains Moon phases as Earth's shadow falling on the Moon, or explains seasons as caused by Earth being closer to the Sun in summer and farther away in winter.
Lunar eclipses and Moon phases both involve dark portions of the Moon, and the elliptical orbit makes the distance explanation superficially plausible; these are persistent everyday prior conceptions.
What to do instead
For phases, track the fraction of the Moon's sunlit half visible from Earth as the Moon orbits; Earth's shadow causes lunar eclipses only. For seasons, explain that axial tilt changes sunlight angle and day length, not distance from the Sun.
Uses weathering, erosion, and deposition interchangeably, or labels a rock as sedimentary because it contains layers without checking how it formed; assigns metamorphic rock to cooling magma.
The terms overlap in everyday usage and rock-cycle diagrams are visually complex, so candidates memorize rock names without a formation rule and cannot apply the processes to a new description.
What to do instead
Apply definitions: weathering breaks rock in place; erosion transports sediment; deposition lays sediment down. Igneous rock forms by cooling magma or lava; sedimentary rock forms by compaction and cementation of sediments; metamorphic rock forms from heat and pressure without melting.
Says a book has 'more mass' on Earth than on the Moon, or uses weight and mass interchangeably; defines density as 'how heavy something is' without relating mass to volume.
Everyday language uses 'weight' for mass, and unit labels such as grams and newtons are often glossed over, so the candidate answers from felt heaviness rather than the physical definitions.
What to do instead
Distinguish mass as the amount of matter in grams or kilograms, unchanged by location, from weight as the gravitational force on that mass in newtons, which changes with gravity. Define density as mass divided by volume and use the formula to compare objects of different size.
Classifies a change as chemical only because bubbles, color change, or heat are visible, or classifies a change as physical only because it can be reversed; does not check whether a new substance formed.
Candidates memorize a list of examples such as rusting and melting but not the criterion, and demonstrations emphasize dramatic observations rather than the identity of the products.
What to do instead
Ask whether the products are new substances with different properties. Phase changes and dissolving are physical because the substance is unchanged; burning, rusting, and baking are chemical because new substances form. Use reversibility only as a clue, not as the definition.
States that a sled moving at constant speed must have a forward force greater than friction, or that an object stops because its forward force 'runs out' rather than because friction acts on it.
Everyday experience suggests that motion requires a continuous push, an Aristotelian intuition that survives because friction is invisible in ordinary situations and net force is confused with any single force.
What to do instead
Use Newton's first law: zero net force means constant velocity, including zero velocity; unbalanced forces cause acceleration. Name all forces on the object, compare their vector sum, and explain stopping as friction or another opposing force acting, not as the absence of motion-causing force.