The number of items by sub-idea for each assessment is shown below. The number of items totals to more than are on the assessment because one item may address more than one sub-idea. Although it may appear that some ideas are missing in these tables (for example, sub-idea D in Flow of Matter & Energy), these are teacher ideas and were not included on the student assessments.
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. |
5 |
| 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. |
7 |
| C. Plants transform light energy into chemical energy in sugars made by the plants. |
6 |
| 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 dioxide and 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. |
2 |
| 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. |
7 |
Force and Motion
| Sub-Ideas: | Number of Items |
| A. A force is a push or pull interaction between two objects, and has both magnitude and direction. |
2 |
| 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). |
4 |
| 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. |
1 |
| 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. |
5 |
| 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 |
8 |
| 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. |
8 |
| C. The plates that make up Earth’s surface are constantly moving and changing. |
8 |
| F. Plate motion causes abutting plates to interact with one another along their boundaries resulting in observable geologic features and events. |
8 |
| 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. |
7 |