Sound

1.  What is sound?  How might you model a sound wave in a classroom?

2.  Why can't sound travel in outer space?

3.  What is pitch, and what aspect of the sound wave does it correspond to?  Give an example of something making a sound, and explain how pitch could be changed.

4.  What is loudness, and what aspect of the sound wave does it correspond to?  Give an example of something making a sound, and explain how loudness could be changed.

5.  What is an echo?  How could you model it in class?

6.  What would you do to construct a sound-proof room?  Why would this work?
 

Light:

What is the difference between a longitudinal wave (like sound) and a transverse wave (like an ocean wave)?  As the wave passes in each case, how do the particles move?

What characteristics could be used to describe a given transverse wave? Show these on a diagram.

What does a red shirt look like under a white light? Why?  Draw a diagram showing the wavelengths of light in white light and what happens when they hit the shirt.  What is this process called?

What does a red shirt look like through a green filter?  Add a green filter to the diagram you drew above.  What does it do?  What is this called?

If you look at a mirror from off to the side (not straight on), you don't see your own face.  Why not?  Draw a diagram which shows what you would see.  What principle is at work here?

Explain how a prism creates a rainbow.

Why is the sky blue?  Why is the sunset red? Draw a diagram of these processes.
 
 
 

Chemistry and the Nature of Matter:

Draw an atom with one proton, one neutron and one electron.   If this atom were blown up to the size of a quarter mile track around a football field, how large would the electron and proton be on that scale?

What is the difference between an atom and a molecule?  Give an example using the names of an actual molecule and actual atoms.

What is the difference between a physical change and a chemical change?  Give two examples of each, and explain what the difference is between the two types of changes, making reference to what is happening to the molecules in each situation.  Be sure to distinguish between the idea of atoms and the idea of molecules in your answer.

What is combustion?  Give an example of this, noting what is going on at a molecular level.

What part of a candle burns?  Why?

Where did the energy come from that you use to accelerate your car?  How was it stored?  How was it released?
 
 

Plants/Animals

What are the major differences among fungi, plants and animals?

A candle is placed in a jar and goes out after a short time.  A second candle placed in this jar goes out right away.  Why? If a plant is now placed in the jar in the light, and a third candle is put in the jar, it stays lit.  Why?

A mouse in a sealed jar dies after a short time, but a mouse in a jar with a plant in the light can stay alive.  Why?  A mouse in a jar with a plant in the dark dies.  Why?

A seed grows into a huge tree.  Where did most of the mass of this tree come from?  (Where were the carbon atoms in this tree before they were a part of the wood?)

Some of the air we breathe in undergoes a chemical change.  Explain what happens, making reference to what gas we breathe in, what goes on inside our body when we "burn" food, and what gas we breathe out as a result of the chemical change.

People infected with bacterial infections such as strep take antibiotics for that infection and begin to feel better after a few days.  In many cases, people stop taking their medication at this point.  How has this practice changed the population of bacteria around us?  Why is this a problem?  (Look over notes on natural selection and adaptation for this one.)

What is a the difference between a bacteria and a virus?  Why would it be useless to take an antibiotic for a viral infection?

What is a vaccine?  What does it protect you from and how?  Why is the word 'vaccine' related to the Latin word for 'cow'?

Give an example of the random variation/ natural selection process.

Mr. Greenspan starts with two identical pieces of wood.  Some fungus begins to grow on one of them, but not on the other.  (Mr. Greenspan is hungry, and the fungus turns out to be edible, so he eats some as it grows.)  The next year, Mr. Greenspan’s wife is cold so he offers to burn one of his pieces of wood.  Which of the two pieces will now give the most energy when burned?  Why?
 
 
 

Ecology/Ecosystems

Starting with the sun, describe all the possible components of the food chain.  List a specific example of a food chain and discuss in detail the short and long term effects to the other components of that chain if a specific creature in that chain is removed.

In the world, we tend to have food webs instead of food chains.  What is the difference?   Give an example.

What is the relationship between producers, consumers and decomposers? Draw a chart.

Give an example of water moving through the water cycle (hydrologic cycle).

Give an example of carbon moving through the carbon cycle.  Note where it is in the form of complex molecules (with stored chemical potential energy) and where it is in the form of simple molecules (with little stored chemical potential energy).  How does it get from one form to another?

What is 'carrying capacity'?  What happens when a population exceeds the carrying capacity of the environment?  Give an example.

What is exponential growth?  Give an example.  How does this relate to human population growth?