TCAP Study Guide

Inquiry and Engineering

  1. What are the 6 steps to the scientific method?
  1. What is an independent variable?
  1. What is a dependent variable?
  1. What is a control?
  1. Which variable can you only have one of in an experiment?
  1. What is bias?
  1. What is experimental error?
  1. Be able to read a graph. Look at its X and Y axis to help you draw conclusions.
  1. Be able to identify what tool should be used in an experiment:
  2. Taking measurements:
  3. Weighing something:
  4. Timing something:
  1. What are the step to the engineering design process?
  1. What is a prototype?
  1. What are design constraints?
  1. What is a protocol?
  1. What is a prototype?
  1. What is the difference between adaptive as assistive bioengineering?
  1. What is a producer? Also give examples.
  1. What is a consumer? Also give examples.
  1. What is a decomposer? Examples?
  1. What is a scavenger? Examples?
  1. What do the arrows represent in a food web?
  1. If you add an organism to an environment, how does that affect the environment?
  1. If you remove an organism from the environment, how does it affect the environment?
  1. What is the original source of energy in a food chain or food web?

List 3 facts about each biome

  1. Savannah
  1. Tundra
  1. Desert
  1. Tropical Rain Forest
  1. Coniferous Forest
  1. Deciduous Forest
  1. What is the difference between abiotic and biotic factors in an environment?
  1. What makes a day on Earth?
  1. What makes a year on Earth?
  1. What is the difference between rotate and revolve?
  1. Why do we have leap year?
  1. What causes the Earth to have seasons?
  1. Be able to look at a diagram and identify the season of a specific hemisphere. If the Northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun it is? At this same position what would the southern hemisphere be in?


  1. Name the 8 phases of the moon.
  1. What is a lunar cycle?
  1. How long does a lunar cycle take?
  1. What source causes us to see the moon?
  1. What happens during a solar eclipse?
  1. What phase of the moon does it occur?
  1. What happens during a lunar eclipse?
  1. What phase of the moon does it occur?
  1. What is a tide?
  1. What causes tides on Earth?
  1. When does a spring tide occur?
  1. When does a neap tide occur?
  1. What is a convection current?
  1. How does sea breeze form?
  1. How does land breeze form?
  1. What causes wind?
  1. How deep water currents move? What 3 factors cause them?
  1. How do warm water currents move? What three factors cause them?
  1. How does a warm water current affect the land that it flows beside?
  1. What do the following measure?
  2. Anemometer
  1. Wind vane
  1. Thermometer
  1. Psychrometer
  1. Hydrometer
  1. Barometer
  1. When air pressure is falling, what type of weather is coming?
  1. When air pressure is rising what type of weather is coming?
  1. What is the difference between potential and kinetic energy?
  1. What are the three types of potential energy and give an example of each.
  1. What is mechanical energy?
  1. What does the law of conservation of energy state?
  1. What are the three parts to a circuit?
  1. What is a closed circuit?
  1. What opens and closes a circuit?
  1. What materials allow energy to flow through them easily? Give 4 examples.
  1. What is the energy conversion for a flashlight?
  1. What are the three questions we ask our ourselves when we do energy conversions?