The number of items by sub-idea for each assessment is shown below. The number of items totals to more than the number on the assessment because one item may address more than one sub-idea.
Flow of Matter & Energy
| Sub-Ideas: | Number of Items |
| A. Food serves as both fuel (energy source) and building materials for an organism. Sugars are an example of food for both plants and animals, but water, carbon dioxide, and oxygen are not.. |
6 |
| B. Using light energy, plants make their own food – in the form of sugars – from carbon dioxide (in the air) and water. Nothing else is required for this process. Oxygen is released as a result. |
6 |
| C. Plants transform light energy into chemical energy in sugars made by the plants |
3 |
| D. Humans and other animals acquire food by consuming plants or other animals that have consumed plants. Animals break down this food into simpler substances (including sugars). |
0 |
| E. Organisms (including both plants and animals) grow by breaking down food (including sugars made by plants and sugars ingested by animals) into simpler substances which they reassemble into other substances that become part of new or replacement body structures.. |
6 |
| F. Organisms (including both plants and animals) break down energy-rich food (such as sugars), using oxygen, into simpler substances with less energy (such as carbon dioxideand water), releasing energy in the process. This process does not require light. Some of this energy from food is used for growth and other body functions, and some is released as heat.. |
6 |
| G. If not used immediately as fuel or building material, food can be stored for later use by plants and animals. In animals, but not in plants, food can also be eliminated from the body as waste . |
3 |
| H. Respiration is the continual process by which an organism uses oxygen and sugars to release energy: 6O2 + C6H12O6 –> 6H2O + 6CO2 + energy |
2 |
| I. Photosynthesis is the process by which a plant uses the energy from light to make sugars from carbon dioxide and water: Light energy + 6H2O + 6CO2 –> 6O2 + C6H12O6 |
4 |
| J. Some energy is lost to the system as heat between each trophic level, so only a portion of the energy is passed from one trophic level to the next. This continuous loss of energy to the system as heat means that an outside source of energy (usually the Sun) is required to maintain the flow of energy in ecosystems. |
3 |
| K. Decomposers transform dead organisms into simpler substances that can be used by plants and other organisms. This release of nutrients back into the environment is necessary to complete the cycle of matter. |
2 |
Force & Motion
| Sub-Ideas: | Number of Items |
| A. A force is a push or pull interaction between two objects, and has both magnitude and direction. |
7 |
| B. All of the forces acting on an object combine through vector addition into a net force; they either balance each other out (net force is zero), or act like an unbalanced force (net force is not zero). |
7 |
| C. A force diagram uses arrows to represent the forces acting on an object at a particular moment. The length of the arrow represents the relative magnitude of the force. The direction of the arrow represents the direction of the force acting on the object. |
10 |
| D. If an object is moving faster and faster, then there is a net force acting on the object in the same direction as the motion. |
6 |
| E. If an object is moving slower and slower, then there is a net force acting on the object in the direction opposite to the object’s motion. |
4 |
| G. If there is an unbalanced force acting on an object, the greater the strength of the unbalanced force, the greater the change in the object’s velocity. |
2 |
| H. If there is an unbalanced force acting on an object, the more massive an object is, the smaller the change in the object’s velocity. |
1 |
| I. If an object has constant speed in a straight line (or zero speed), then there is no net force acting on the object. This can occur either when the forces on the object are balanced or there are no forces exerted on the object |
5 |
| J. The force of friction acts to oppose the relative motion of two objects in contact. Friction acts on both objects along the surfaces in contact with each other. The magnitude of friction depends upon the properties of the surfaces and how hard the objects are pushed together. |
6 |
Plate Tectonics
| Sub-Ideas: | Number of Items |
| A. The solid outer portion of Earth consists of separate plates of almost entirely solid rock. |
6 |
| B. Earth’s plates (the lithosphere or lithospheric plate) are cold (relative to deeper portions of Earth), strong and brittle and average about 100 kilometers in thickness. Beneath the lithosphere is an almost entirely solid (~99%) layer of Earth (the asthenosphere) which is hot, weak and plastic and extends from the base of the lithosphere to a depth of about 350 kilometers. |
2 |
| C. The plates that make up Earth’s surface are constantly moving and changing. |
7 |
| D. Plate motions are driven by a combination of Earth’s heat and gravitational forces. The consensus among geologists is that ”slab pull,“ the sinking of oceanic plates at subduction zones (because that rock is old and relatively cold [dense]) is the primary driving force behind plate tectonics. Ridge push (the pushing forces exerted by elevated and relatively hot rock at mid-ocean ridges) is minor as is the traction along the bottoms of plates due to convection in the mantle. |
1 |
| E. Since the supercontinent Pangaea split up about 200 million years ago, the shapes of continents have been somewhat modified, mostly by erosion, sea level changes, and mountain-building; this is why the present-day ”fit“ of the continents is less than perfect. |
2 |
| F. Plate motion causes abutting plates to interact with one another along their boundaries resulting in observable geologic features and events. |
5 |
| G. The occurrence of features and/or events at locations distant from plate boundaries are for reasons other than plate interactions (some volcanoes occur distant from plate boundaries as a result of hot spots). |
1 |
| H. The rock that makes up plates is slowly being formed at some plate boundaries. Rock that makes up the plates is returned to Earth’s interior at other plate boundaries. This means that Earth is not changing in size. |
5 |
| I. The part of a plate with ocean floor along its boundary is always subducted beneath a plate with a continent along its boundary. Continental material is not subducted because of its low density. If continents on two separate plates are in contact and being pushed together, the continental rocks are forced upward forming mountain ranges rather than being completely subducted into Earth’s interior. If two plates without continents are in contact and being pushed together, the colder/denser plate subducts beneath the other. |
3 |
| J. Old ocean floor rocks return by subduction into Earth’s interior. Hence, ocean floor rocks are relatively young. Most continental rocks stay at Earth’s surface because of their low density (although sediment eroded from the continents is carried to the oceans and can be subducted along with oceanic lithosphere). Hence, the age of some continental rock is quite old. |
1 |