Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Surviving the ACT Science Reasoning Section Facts • 40 questions in 35 minutes – less than a minute per question – includes the time you have to “read” 7 passages • • • • • 3 Data Representation Passages 3 Research Summary Passages 1 Conflicting Viewpoint Passage Scoring is on 1-36 scale 24 is the Benchmark Score more details to come % MCHS Students Reaching 24 Year % 2008 10% 2009 12% 2010 16% 2011 20% 2012 13% 2013 20% 2014 GOAL 25% What is NOT on the Test? • Science Content Recall What is on the Test? • Graphs, charts, tables and diagrams • Science experiments • Differing viewpoints Exercise • Draw a line from the topics in the middle to the appropriate column on the left or right. Required for the ACT Not Required for the ACT •know every element on the periodic table •understand the scientific method •memorize the steps of photosynthesis •recognize a pattern on a graph Skim the Passage • 20-30 seconds glancing through the information • Determine format – 3 formats – Data Representation – Research Summary – Conflicting Viewpoints – you will be given tools soon to distinguish between each format Focus on Trends and Patterns • Graphical Data (graphs and tables) • Most questions focus on trends and patterns instead of specific data/numbers Exercise • Identify the trend or pattern in the following: Focus on Controls and Variables Control: factor that is kept unchanged, or constant, during an experiment Variable: factor that is changed, or manipulated, during an experiment *In scientific experiments, it is important to keep all factors constant (controlled) but one. Exercise Homer notices that his shower is covered in a strange green slime. His friend Barney tells him that coconut juice will get rid of the green slime. Homer decides to check this this out by spraying half of the shower with coconut juice. He sprays the other half of the shower with water. After 3 days of "treatment" there is no change in the appearance of the green slime on either side of the shower. What is the control? What is the variable? Focus on Differences • Focus on differences rather than similarities when reading CONFLICTING viewpoints passages. This word conflicting is a clue that the hypotheses the passage describe will differ in various ways. • The passages won’t explicitly indicate the differences. They will NOT say… “the main difference between theory X and theory Y is that…” It will be up to you to compare and contrast. Exercise Compare and contrast the following viewpoints: Scientist 1 One of the main causes of global warming is wind farms. Large windfarms can increase local night time temperatures by fanning warmer air onto the ground, new research has revealed. The study used satellite data to show that the building of huge wind farms in west Texas over the last decade has warmed the nights by up to 0.72⁰C Scientist 2 One of the first things scientists learned is that there are several greenhouse gases responsible for warming, and humans emit them in a variety of ways. Most come from the combustion of fossil fuels in cars, factories and electricity production. The gas responsible for the most warming is carbon dioxide, also called CO2. Mark it Up! • Don’t be reluctant to take a pencil to the passage. • Circle key features of tables and graphs. • If the graph or table shows a trend or pattern, make a brief note of it beside the data. • In Research Summary passages, make notes that identify the controls and variables in each experiment. • In Conflicting Viewpoint passages, make a note about the key differences between hypotheses. Exercise How could we “mark up” this passage? Don’t Drown in Details! • Every passage is made of up two things: main ideas and details. The details may include individual data points on graphs, specific numbers on a table or chart, and reading or values obtained in experiments described. • Of the 5-7 questions for each passage, only a few will focus on specific details and you can always look them up as needed. Exercise Identify the main ideas in the passage and tables below: A scientist investigated the factors that affect seed mass in the plant species Desmodium poniculatum. Some results of this study are summarized in the two tables below. Daylight hours Other variable Average seed mass (in mg) of plants raised at: 23ºC 29ºC 14 — 7.10 5.63 14 Leaves removed 7.15 6.11 14 Reduced water 4.81 5.81 8 — 6.12 — A. Number of seeds per fruit Average seed mass (mg) 1 2 3 4 5 6.62 6.28 5.97 6.00 5.59 B. Position of seed in fruit* Average seed mass (mg) 1 (closest to stem) 2 3 4 5 (farthest from stem) 5.98 6.06 5.96 5.82 5.27 *Seeds closest to the stem mature first and are released first. Blah Blah Blah.. • Don’t get bogged down with scientific jargon. • Unless you are Sheldon Cooper, more than likely you will not understand every term, abbreviation, symbol, and phrase found in the science reasoning section. • All the information you need to answer the questions is included in the passage, and it’s safe to ignore the unfamiliar terms. Exercise How much do you know about airplane wing design? Passage II Airplane wings must be designed Wing Lift Drag Efficiency Design (neutrons) (neutrons) aerodynamically (with consideration to the airflow over the body of the plane) to ensure 1 3 0.15 20:1 efficient flight. Aerodynamic design considers 2 8 0.2 40:1 lift and drag. 10 1 10:1 Lift is the force acting upward on the plane. It is 3 generated because the top of a wing is curved, 4 18 2 9:1 while the bottom is flat. The air moving over the top of the wings must move faster than the air moving over the bottom. This results in a lower A passenger plane is able to carry pressure area above the wing. a fixed weight, including passengers and fuel. Which wing Drag is the air resistance generated by the plane. design would be best for such a This is a force acting in opposition to the planes plane? forward movement. The most efficient planes A. 1 are those with the highest lift to drag ratio. B. 2 Researchers testing new wing designs conducted C. 3 a series of experiments to measure their D. 4 efficiency. Wrong-Answer PLOYS BE CAUTIOUS. Look for wrong-answer choices: • contrary to the passage or stated backward • mentioned in the passage, but does not respond to the question • speculation or unsupported inference • partly supported, but partly unsupported Exercise Scientist 1 One of the main causes of global warming is wind farms. Large windfarms can increase local night time temperatures by fanning warmer air onto the ground, new research has revealed. The study used satellite data to show that the building of huge wind farms in west Texas over the last decade has warmed the nights by up to 0.72⁰C Scientist 2 One of the first things scientists learned is that there are several greenhouse gases responsible for warming, and humans emit them in a variety of ways. Most come from the combustion of fossil fuels in cars, factories and electricity production. The gas responsible for the most warming is carbon dioxide, also called CO2. Which of the following represents a difference in opinion between the two scientists? A. Scientist 1 believes that global warming is happening. B. Scientist 2 believes that the only solution to global warming is for humans to stop driving cars. C. Scientist 2 believes that although several greenhouse gases contribute to global warming, CO2 is the most responsible. D. Scientist 1 believes that the benefit from wind farms outweighs the problem of global warming. Don’t make the Science Reasoning portion of the ACT tougher than it really is. There really are questions that will seem “easy”…and that’s ok! Be confident in your answers and resist the urge to second-guess yourself or invent complications that do not exist.