FCAT Prep Week

1

FCAT practice

questionsEnergy

2

18

Quinn has a container for making frozen juice bars.

He pours juice into the container and then puts the

container into the freezer for 12 hours. What

happens to the juice molecules in the container

during these 12 hours?

A. They lose kinetic energy.

B. B. They lose chemical energy.

C.C. They gain electrical energy.

D.D. They gain gravitational energy.

3

4

Leah is using a 3.4meter (m) ladder to paint the

exterior of her house. Leah has a mass of 50kilograms

(kg). The acceleration due to gravity is equal to 9.8

meters per second squared(m/s²). What force, in

Newton's (N) does Leah exert on the ladder when she is

standing on it?

5

Calculate the mechanical energy of an object being

thrown through the air. The object has 28 Joules (J) of

potential energy due to its position above the ground,

and 41 Joules (J) of kinetic energy due to its motion.

Mechanical energy = potential energy

+

Kinetic energy

6

If a pendulum is swinging back and forth, energy is

being converted from to another. Kinetic energy is the

energy of motion…so why does the pendulum slow down

and eventually stop if energy is conserved?

7

Gail’s cross-country coach advised her to eat well-balanced meals in order

to have plenty of energy for their upcoming track meet. To which

transformation of energy is Gail’s coach referring?

A. heat energy to mechanical energy

B. mechanical energy to electrical energy

C. chemical energy to mechanical energy

D. thermodynamic energy to dynamic energy

8

Explain the changes in potential & kinetic energy as the golf ball moves

through A – D.

9

FCAT practice

questionsSolar System:

Earth / Space

10

For thousands of years, astronomers believed that all the objects in the

night sky that had produced their own light were individual stars. Since

the invention of the modern telescope, we have been able to examine

those sources of light and have discovered that many of them are not

individual stars. Which sources of light have been found to be collections

of billions of stars and not individual stars?

A. comets

B. constellations

C. galaxies

D. meteors

11

12

23

Carol and Deborah are looking at stars on a dark night and notice that two

stars next to each other are equally bright, but one is red and one is

orange. Which of the following best explains why the stars are different

colors?

A. The stars are in different galaxies.

B. The stars are different distances away.

C. The stars are at different stages in their life cycles.

D. The stars have different numbers of planets orbiting them

13

24

Although the planets in our solar system have unique features, they also

have similarities. Which of the following characteristics is most similar

among the planets in our solar system?

F. mass

G. shape of orbit

H. number of satellites

I. chemical composition

14

Explain how our current understanding of the solar system differs from an Earth

centered system.

15

Based on the data in the table, approximately how

many planetary years does Mercury complete during the

length of time that Earth has one Planetary year?

Name of

planet

Distance from

sun (km)

Period of

revolution

Mercury 58 88

Venus 108 225

Earth 150 365

16

a. ¼ of a yearb. 4 yearsc. 6 yearsd. 24 years

a. Earth is in side the galaxy

b. Earth is close to the other galaxy

c. Earth is rotating too quickly to view the galaxy

d. Earth’s atmosphere distorts light from the galaxy

The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, yet when Gordon looked at the stars one

night, they Milky Way galaxy looked like a flat band of star across the sky.

Why does the Milky Way galaxy appear to be flat?

17

a. Electric forces are acting on the ball

b. Air resistance is accelerating the ball

c. Magnetic forces are pushing the ball

d. gravitational force is pulling on the ball

Sam drops a rubber ball from the top of a staircase to his friend on the

bottom of the staircase. The speed of the ball increases as it gets farther

away from Sam’s hand.

What is the best explanation for the increase of speed of the ball?

18

What causes a comet to have a

tail when it nears the Sun?

a. Streams of burning gas

b. Dust that reflects sunlight

c. Gas from the comet’s melting ice

d. Water vapor trailing behind the

comet’s orbit.

19

To date, space probes have visited

or have passed near

all the planets except which one?

a.Mercury

b.Neptune

c.Pluto

d.Uranus20

Which best describes

our Sun?

a.A red giant in the

Papillion Galaxy

b.A white dwarf in

the Pinwheel

galaxy

c.A blue supergiant

in the Andromeda

Galaxy

d.A yellow, main

sequence star in

the Milky way

galaxy

21

What are sunspots?

A. The white halo spots around the sun

B. Huge, reddish loops of gas that extend over the edge

of the Sun

C. gases on the Sun’s surface that are cooler than

surrounding gases

D. The reddish glow that comes from the middle layer

of the Sun’s atmosphere.

22

Which is the most common

element found in most stars,

including our Sun?

A. Helium

B. hydrogen

C. nitrogen

D. oxygen

23

Which is not a type of galaxy?

A. Elliptical

B. Irregular

C. nebula

D. spiral

24

Why are spring tides the

highest tides?

a. The moon is closer to

the earth and has a

stronger gravitational

pull

b. The moon and the sun

are pulling on the

earth at right angles

c. The gravitational

pulls of the moon and

the sun are

combined.

d. The sun is pulling the

moon more

powerfully than at

other times of the

year.

25

How often do

neap tides

occur?

a. Daily in

summer and

winter

b. Twice a

month

c. Once a

month in

autumn

d. Once every

week26

FCAT practice

ProblemsForce and Motion

27

36

Amanda placed a small television on a metal rolling cart. On her

way to the library, her friend Carlos stepped in front of the cart.

Although Amanda stopped suddenly, the television stayed in place

on the cart.

What kept the television on the cart when she stopped suddenly?

A. friction

B. magnetism

C. air pressure

D. Buoyant force

28

Which is NOT a result of unbalanced forces acting on an

object?

A. The object will start moving

B. the object will stop moving

C. the object will change directions

D. the object will change in mass and volume

29

Suppose an object is acted upon by two forces acting in the same

direction. What will be the effect on the object?

A. the object will move in a direction opposite the forces.

B. the object will move in the same direction as the forces.

C. the object will not move because the forces cancel each other out.

D. the object will not move because two different forces can not act on an

object

30

Calculate

How much work, In Joules, is done by a pulley system

when a 1000 Newton crate is lifted to a height of 3

meters.

31

Suppose a railroad car suddenly slows from 5m/s to

rest. What would happen to empty cardboard boxes

inside the car?

A. they would remain in place

B. they would slide backwards

C. they would continue to move forward

D. they would spread out in all directions

32

What is the attractive force between two objects that

have mass?

A. Acceleration

B. gravity

C. magnetism

D. momentum

33

The strength of the gravitational force between two

objects depends on mass and which other factor?

A. Distance

B. size

C. speed

D. weight

34

FCAT practice

questionswaves

35

36

The diagram above shows an

example of a mechanical wave.

What is the difference from one

wave crest to the other wave

crest?

A. Amplitude

B. Frequency

C. Speed

D. wavelength37

The electromagnetic spectrum shows all

the wavelengths of radiation. What is the

source of MOST electromagnetic radiation?

a. The sun

b. Radioactive isotopes

c. Electrical appliances

d. Interactions between the sun

and the moon

Describe:

How the

colors of the

visible light

change as the

frequency

increases.

38

a. Diffraction

b. Frequency

c. Refraction

d. wavelength

Light waves, sound waves, and other waves travel at different speeds in

different materials. When light enters a medium in which its speed

changes, it bends. What is this property of light called?

39

FCAT practice

problemsLife Science

40

Ear lobe attached Unattached Ear lobe

Lisa has been studying the inheritance of

traits in humans. She learned that

unattached earlobes (E) are dominant

over attached Earlobes (e). The Punnett

square shown below represents four

children in one family.

According to the results shown in the

Punnett square, what are the genotypes

of the parents?A. EE and EE

B. Ee and Ee

C. EE and ee

D. ee and ee41

31

A species of chicken has alleles for black (B) or white (W)

feathers. Neither of these genes is dominant. Mating

between a black (BB) chicken and a white (WW) chicken

produces all gray (BW) offspring.

If two of the gray offspring mate, what percent of their

offspring can be expected to have black feathers?

F. 25%

G. 50%

H. 75%

I. 100%

42

The human body has many different cells. Which of the following cells

carries genetic information from the parents to their children?

A.

Red

blood

cell

B.

Muscle

cell

C.

Reproductiv

e cell

D.

Nerve

Cell

43

● 8

The human body has three different kinds of muscle cells. Striated

(skeletal) muscle cells move such structures as the arms and legs.

Cardiac muscle cells move blood into and out of the heart. Smooth

muscle cells move food through the digestive system. While each of the

muscle cells performs a different job, they function in a similar way.

What makes muscle cells different from other cells in the body?

F. Muscle cells can hold more blood than other cells.

G. Muscle cells can divide and reproduce at a faster rate than other

cells.

H. Muscle cells can work together to contract and relax while other

cells cannot.

I. Muscle cells can move freely to different parts of the body while

other cells cannot. 44

Sexual reproduction for some fish occurs when the female lay eggs and

the male fish locates the eggs and fertilizes them. What is the advantage

in fertilization eggs outside the female’s body?

A. Fewer eggs and sperm needed

B. many sperm can fertilize the same egg

C. many of the eggs can be fertilized at the same time.

D. the fertilized egg can produce offspring identical to one parent.

45

41

Some diseases in humans are caused by

genetic mutations. The mutated genes

can then be passed from parent to child.

Where does the replication of these

mutated genes occur in the human cell?

A. nucleus

B. B. ribosome

C. C. cell membrane

D. D. endoplasmic reticulum

46

Which is the basic unit of

structure o all living things?

a. The cell

b. The skeleton

c. the organ systems

d. the genetic

material47

Which is not a purpose

of cell division?

a. Growth

b. Producing more cells

c. Repairing damaged

tissue

d. Respiration and

photosynthesis

48