OAKS Test Quick Stats

This site was made for Franklin High School students to review for the OAKS test...

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Students will have a maximum of 3 rounds of testing (essentially giving you 3 chances to pass the OAKS test (on the computer)

Overview of the OAKS test:

33% Life Science (Biology)

33% Physical Science (Chemistry& Physics)

33% Earth Science

Sample OAKS test (w/solutions)--- click on the link below: http://www.ode.state.or.us/wma/teachlearn/testing/samples/2009_10/sci_sampletest_enghs_0910.pdf

Quick Sample OAKS science questions (solutions are the ones with the *)

Physical Science Sample Questions

Matter

The periodic table classifies elements according to…

1. their physical and chemical similarities *

2. their names

3. their chemical symbols

4. how frequently they can be found in nature

Many chemical reactions go faster at a higher temperature because…

1. a catalyst is present

2. particles are moving more quickly*

3. there are more molecules present

4. most chemical reactions are exothermic

The first four compounds in a chemical series are:

CH4 Ý C2H6 Ý C3H8 Ý C4H10 Ý ______

What would be the next member of the series?

1. C5H10

2. C5H12 *

3. C6H12

4. C6H14

Force

When a book is at rest on a table, the force of gravity is balanced by…

1. the inertia of the book

2. the mass of the book

3. the force of the table on the book *

4. the weight of the book on the table

Energy

As the frequency of a wave is increased, it’s wavelength with be…

1. increase

2. decrease *

3. remain the same

4. first increase, then decrease in a repeated cycle

When an apple falls from the tree, the energy is converted from…

1. kinetic to electromagnetic
2. potential to kinetic *
3. chemical to potential
4. kinetic to gravitational

When energy is changed from one form to another in biological systems, there is often a loss of usable energy from the system. Typically this energy is lost in the form of…

1. light
2. heat
3. kinetic energy
4. potential energy

Life Science Sample Questions

Organisms

The movement of water molecules through a semi-permeable membrane, from an area of greater concentration of water to an area of lesser concentration is called…

1. diffusion
2. meiosis
3. metabolism
4. osmosis *

Heredity

If a plant with white flowers (hh) is crossed with a plant with pink flowers (Hh) the offspring will probably show which of the following flower colors?

1. 25% will be white, 75% will be pink
2. 50% will be white, 50% will be pink *
3. 75% will be white, 25% will be pink
4. 100% will be white, none will be pink

Diversity/ Interdependence

In a particularly good growing season, the plants in the system may grow much more than in ordinary years. The short term results is likely to be…

1. a decrease in animal populations at all levels
2. no change in animal populations
3. an increase in animal populations only at level two *
4. an increase in animal populations at all levels

The greatest total amount of food energy is found in the organisms at level

1. 1 *
2. 2
3. 4
4. 6

Which of these most closely relates to the concept of natural selection?

1. Population explosions
2. Asexual reproduction
3. Food webs
4. Survival of the fittest *

A number of insecticides do no kill insects as effectively as they once did. This is probably because of

1. the environment has changed
2. some insects were tolerant to the pesticide and survived to produce offspring *
3. the insecticides are from different manufacturers
4. the climate is becoming warmer

Earth and Space Science

The Dynamic Earth

What is the immediate outcome of increased consumption of a resource such as petroleum?

1. No effect. More petroleum will be created
2. The price of petroleum will decrease
3. Petroleum will become scarcer since it is non-renewable *
4. No effect. Other resources will take the place of petroleum

Some scientists have suggested that growing more trees will help to slow down the process of global warming. Why might this be true?

1. Trees remove excess carbon from the soil
2. Trees absorb excess carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere *
3. Trees removes excess water from the soil
4. Trees stabilize soil and prevent erosion

The ozone layer affects the Earth’s surface mainly by

1. eastern plain *
2. eastern foothills
3. craggy mountains
4. western foothills

In Earth in Space

A model of the solar system and a simple model of an atom share certain properties of forces. Which of the following might be some of these properties?

1. One of the components in much more massive than the others and exerts and attractive force on each of the other components *
2. One of the components is much more massive than the others and exerts a force on each of the other components that is perpendicular to the line connecting their centers
3. All the components are equally massive, are far more apart, and attract each other
4. All the components are equally massive, are close together, and repel each other

All objects in our solar system interact with each other through gravity. What could change if Mars were removed from our solar system?

1. All of the following could change
2. The orbits of the moons
3. The temperature of the planets
4. The orbits of the planets *

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** Keep checking back for more updates!

COMING SOON...

--- More review and break down of the 3 major topics (life science, physical science, earth/space

science)

Information from the ODE webpage, and other science resources.

Science topics covered on the OAKS test:

Physical Science (Matter)

Goal: Understand structure and properties of matter.

Eligible Content: Explain atoms and their base components (protons, neutrons, and electrons) as a basis for all matter.

Read and interpret the period table, recognizing the relationship of the chemical and physical properties of the elements to their positions on the periodic table.

Recognize that the historical development of atomic theory demonstrates how scientific knowledge changes over time, and how those changes have had an impact on society.

Goal: Understand chemical and physical changes.

Eligible Content: Describe how transformations among solids, liquids, and gases occur (change of state).

Identify factors that can influence change of sate, including temperature, pressure, and concentration.

Describe chemical reactions that affect the rate of chemical reactions.

Recognize examples that show when substances combine or break apart in a chemical reaction, the total mass remains the same (conservation of mass).

Physical Science (Force)

Goal: Understand fundamental forces, their forms, and their effects on motion.

Eligible Content: Understand and apply the relationships F=ma in situations in which one force acts on an object.

Recognize that equal and opposite forces occur when one object exerts a force on another.

Describe the forces acting on an object, based on the motion of the object.

Describe the relationship of mass and distance to gravitational force.

Physical Science (Energy)

Goal: Understand energy, its transformations, and interactions with matter.

Eligible Content: Recognize that waves of all kinds have energy that can be transferred when the waves interact with matter.

Apply the concepts of frequency, wavelength, amplitude, and energy to electromagnetic and mechanical waves.

Recognize that heat energy is a by- product of most energy transformations.

Describe ways in which energy can be transferred, including chemical reactions, nuclear reactions, and light waves.

Explain the differences between potential and kinetic energy.

Analyze the flow of energy through a system by applying the law of conservation of energy.

Life Science (Organisms)

Goal: Understand the characteristics, structure, and functions of organisms.

Eligible Content: Describe how biological systems can maintain equilibrium (homeostasis)

Identify unique structures in cells from plants, animals, and prokaryotes.

Identify cell organelles and state how their activities contribute to a particular type of cell carrying out its functions.

Explain the role of the cell membrane in cell transport.

Distinguish between active and passive transport, including diffusion and osmosis, explaining the mechanics of each.

Describe photosynthesis as a chemical process and part of the carbon cycle.

Explain how the development of tools and technology, including microscopes, has aided in the understanding of cells and microbes.

Life Science (Heredity)

Goal: Understand the transmission of traits in living things.

Eligible Content: Describe the structure of DNA and the way that DNA functions to control protein synthesis.

Recognize and understand the differences between meiosis and mitosis in cellular reproduction.

Recognize that the changes in DNA (mutations) and anomalies in chromosomes create changes in organisms.

Apply concepts of inheritance of traits, including Mendel’s laws, Punnett squares, and pedigrees, to determine the characteristics of offspring.

Recognize the existence of technology that can alter and/or determine inherited traits.

Life Science (Diversity/Interdependence)

Goal: Understand the relationships among living things and between living things and their environment.

Eligible Content: Predict outcomes of changes in resources and energy flow in an ecosystem.

Explain how the balance of resources will change with the introduction or loss of a new species within an ecosystem.

Recognize that, over time, natural selection may result in development of a new species or subspecies.

Recognize that natural selection and its evolutionary consequences provide an explanation for the fossil record as well as an explanation for the molecular similarities among varied species.

Explain how biological evolution can account for the diversity of species develop over time.

Explain the relationship between genetics, mutations, and biological evolution.

Explain how our understanding of evolution has changed over time.

Earth and Space Science (The Dynamic Earth)

Goal: Understand the properties and limited availability of the materials which make up the Earth.

Eligible Content: Predict consequences of increased consumption of renewable and non- renewable resources.

Goal: Understand changes occurring within the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth.

Eligible Content: Describe the effect of various gases in the atmosphere on the amount of energy retained by the Earth system.

Describe how solar radiation and the amount that reaches Earth is affected by stratospheric ozone.

Describe how differential heating of the Earth’s surface, atmosphere, and oceans produces wind and ocean currents.

Describe methods of determining ages of rocks and fossils. Use rocks sequences and fossil evidence to determine geologic history.

Describe and analyze theories of Earth’s origin and early history using scientific evidence.

Describe how earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, mountain building, and continental movements result from slow plate motions.

Describe how the evolution of life caused dramatic changes in the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere, which did not originally contain oxygen.

Identify how volcanic eruptions and impacts of huge rocks from space can cause widespread effects on climate.

Goal: Understand the Earth’s place in the solar system and the universe

Eligible Content: Recognize that the sun’s gravitational pull holds the Earth and other planets in their orbits, just as the planets’ gravitational pull keeps their moon in orbit around them.

Explain that the force of gravity between Earth and other objects in space depends only upon their masses and the distance between them.

Earth Science Review

Earth does not have infinite resources. When human consumption increases it places stress on the natural processes that renew resources and depletes those which cannot be replaced.

Solar energy (energy from the sun; the primary source of energy on the Earth) drives global atmospheric and oceanic circulation, which joins with surface features, latitude and other factors to determine weather (this happens in the troposphere layer of the atmosphere) and climate (the sum of all weather events occurring over many years). One of those factors is the effect of composition of the atmosphere and on the amount and type of solar energy that reaches the Earth surface. In particular, stratospheric ozone absorbs ultraviolet radiation (harmful radiation causes cancer), reducing the amount that reaches the surface. Also, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases absorb and re-emit infrared radiation (heat; note: not the same as ultraviolet radiation) resulting in an increase in surface temperature.

Wind and ocean currents are produce by the differential heating of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. Winds are caused by convention (rising of warm air and the sinking of cold air) with the pattern of air circulation caused by the unequal heating of the Earth’s surface (both land and water). During the day the land heats up much faster than the ocean (because there is less land than water to heat up) and it causes a sea breeze (where the wind/breeze comes from the sea); during the night the ocean is still heated from the day and the land cools and it causes a land breeze (where the wind/breeze comes from the land). Ocean currents are caused by tides, earth wind systems, and difference in density. Surface currents are influenced by the wind and it helps move heat energy across the earth. Deep water currents are caused by the differences in water’s density. Cold, salty water is denser (heavier) than warmer water with less salt. The movement of the water to go to it’s “comfortable” density is what cause the water currents.

Scientific evidence suggests that the Earth, along with the solar system formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago when a cloud of matter condensed into the planets and the sun. Originally a ball of molten matter, the Earth has cooled and differentiated into layers (core, mantle, crust, hydrosphere, atmosphere). The crust (the continents and ocean floors) consists of large plates that slowly move on the more fluid mantle. The motions of the plates cause earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain building, and sea floor spreading. Rocks and fossils, which may be dated by noting their positions (and location), studying the composition of the rock (what the rock is made of), or using radioactive dating (many rocks contain radioactive elements that decay at a constant rate – it is not affected by outside factors such as changes in temperature, pressure or chemical state), give us evidence about the changing characteristics of the Earth over time.

Principle of Uniform Processes: states that the processes that are observed acting on earth today also acted on it in the past. “The present is the key to the past”

Principle of Superposition: states that the bottom layer in a group of rock layers is usually the oldest and the top layer is the youngest.

When photosynthetic organisms (organisms that can changing carbon dioxide into oxygen) appeared on earth, they dramatically altered the atmosphere by lowering the amount of carbon dioxide and adding oxygen. Sudden, widespread changes in the atmosphere may be caused by large events such as volcanic eruptions or the impact of meteors or comets (which increase the levels of carbon dioxide). These changes may affect world-wide climate for years.

Gravitation is a universal force that affects objects in space. The strength of the gravitational force between Earth and other objects depends on the mass of both objects and the distance between them. Orbital motion results because the gravitational force continually pulls bodies toward the center of the system. Otherwise, planets and moons would move in straight lines (according to Newton’s 1^st law – An object in motion will continue in its current motion (and direction) until an outside force acts upon it).

Life Science Review

Life on earth is composed of cells. Highly complex and often quite specialized, cells of organisms belonging to each of the kingdoms of life (such as plants, animals, and prokaryotes) have distinctive features, organelles and functions. All cells, however, share certain common properties. Biological equilibrium (homeostasis) is maintained by cells. In particular this function is served by the cell membrane as it regulates the movement of materials into and out of the cell by passive (diffusion and osmosis) and active transport. Cells must process energy to function (respiration), with some cells having the capability to capture solar energy and store it in chemical form for later use (photosynthesis). The chemical processes of photosynthesis and respiration form the biological basis of the global carbon cycle.

Our understanding of the structure and function of cells has been dependant on the development of scientific tools. Light microscopes, electron microscopes, and other technologies that allow exploration at cellular scales have been critical in the development of our current concept of the living cell.

The structure and function of living cells is determined by DNA. Understanding the structure of DNA and its primary and critical function to control and direct cellular protein synthesis is central to an understanding of the nature of living cells. The processes of cellular reproduction, whether mitosis (production of diploid daughter cells) or meiosis (production of haploid sex cells), are strongly linked to the cells’ need to produce precise and accurate copies of the original DNA prior to cell division. In eukaryotic cells, DNA is organized into separate strands called chromosomes. Chromosomes abnormalities, or change in DNA base sequences that make up the chromosomes (mutations) can cause significant changes in organisms.

Our current understanding of DNA, genes, and chromosomes, along with Mendel’s laws of inheritance and tools such as Punnett squares and pedigrees allows us to trace inheritance of many traits through generations, and can sometimes allow us to predict the probabilities of traits in future generations as well. Moreover, modern genetic engineering technology can alter and/or determine inherited traits.

Ecosystems consist of multiple organisms interacting in a complex web of relationships strongly influenced by the characteristics and constraints of the surrounding environment. These relationships control both the ecosystem structure and flow of energy and matter through the system as well. Because of the importance of species interactions and interdependence in a balanced ecosystem, changes in the system, either through the introduction or elimination of species or through direct human activity, may powerfully alter the balance of living and nonliving resources.

Genetic variability of offspring within a species is due to mutation and/or the recombination of genes. These new variations within a species are naturally selected when they help the organism to better survive in their environment. Organisms with these beneficial new variations will have greater reproductive success thus affecting the nature of future generations. Over time this natural selection may lead to the development of new species.

Physical Science Review

Elements (a substance that cannot be broken down into other substances) are substances composed of only one type of atom. All matter is composed of a relatively small number of elements, alone (example O₂ : Oxygen gas) or in various combinations (example: H₂O: water). The atoms of all the elements are composed of protons (positive charged; located in the nucleus), neutrons (no charge; located in the nucleus; to find the number of neutrons it’s the atomic mass minus the atomic number), and electrons (negative charged; located around the nucleus). When the elements were first organized by atomic mass, chemical properties ( example: reactivity, radioactivity, and valence) and physical properties (such as density, boiling point, melting point, and conductivity), it was found that repeating patterns could be identified. The modern periodic table arranges elements by atomic number (which represents the number of protons/electrons in the atom) and groups elements with similar chemical properties into vertical columns called families or groups. Families that are included in the periodic table are: Alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, transition metals, halogen gases, and noble gases.

There are 3 states of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. Solids have a definite shape and volume; Liquids has no definite shape but has a volume; and a gas has no definite shape or volume. Factors that can change the change of these states of matter are temperature, pressure, and concentration.

The evolution of the periodic table reflects the tentative nature of scientific knowledge. Our understanding of the periodic law has been refined as new information was discovered (e.g., the existence of protons and electrons). Our increasing understanding of the nature of matter has led to the development of new materials (e.g., plastics) and processes that have profoundly impacted society in ways both good, such as the development of new drugs, and bad, such as pollution.

Chemical reactions occur all around us and within our bodies. The rates of these reactions range from very fast to very slow, and those rates are affected by many variables (temperature, surface area, catalysts), some of which we can control. While chemical reactions combine or break apart reactants (your initial chemicals before the reaction) , the total mass of the products (the chemicals after the reactions) remains the same as the total mass of the reactants – this is the conservation of mass. You must have the same amount of each element on each side of the reaction, they can be in different combinations but they all must be there.

Balancing a chemical equation… Subscripts are the small numbers in a chemical equation. It is found after the element symbol. It tells us the number of that element in one group. Subscripts remain the same when you balance an equation. Coefficients are the big numbers in a chemical equation. It is found un the front of the chemical compound. It tells us how many compounds or groups we have. Note: groups are not connected.

Most of the moving objects students encounter in their everyday life have multiple forces acting upon them. If more than one force acts on an object along a straight line, then the forces will reinforce or cancel one another depending upon their direction and magnitude (the amount of force). Forces can change the direction and speed of an object’s movement. Forces work together to affect the motion of objects.

Newton’s Laws of Motion—

Newton’s 1^st Law: Law of Inertia

An object that is at rest will remain at rest or an object that is moving will continue to move in a straight line with constant speed, if and only if the net force acting on that object is zero.

Newton’s 2^nd Law: F=ma

The total force is equal to the mass of the object times the acceleration. If a force is applied to an object, the force will cause the object to have either a deceleration (if the force on the object is going in the opposite direction of its current motion) or an acceleration (if the force on the object is going in the same direction of its current motion), which is a change in speed.

Newton’s 3^rd Law: Action and Reaction

When one object exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first object.

Gravitation is a universal force that all masses exert on other masses. The strength of the gravitational attraction is decreased when the distance between masses is increased.

Waves have common characteristics such as frequency ( the number of cycles per one second) , amplitude (the height of the wave) , wavelength ( the length of the wave; usually measured from crest to crest) and energy. Larger amplitude waves carry more energy. Because the speed of waves within a given medium (or environment) is constant, increasing the frequency of a wave causes a decrease in the wavelength. The equation to find the speed of a wave is : speed of the wave = frequency times wavelength.

A basic law of nature is that energy is constant in the universe; it can be transformed, but not created or destroyed. When energy is used to move an object, that object’s energy is increased equivalently. The increase may be in kinetic energy( the energy of motion), or in potential energy (stored energy) or some combination of the two. When a moving object slows down due to friction, its kinetic energy is being transformed into heat energy, the random kinetic energy of the atoms and molecules that make up the object and its surroundings. Energy transformations always involve some transfer of heat energy to the environment. During chemical reactions, energy may be transformed from chemical potential energy to heat, light, and other forms of energy, or vice versa. During nuclear reactions, energy is transformed into matter or matter is transformed into energy.