Q&A - P3 Science

[mynewbz.016333hotmail.016333com]

Hi,


I was looking at my P3’s science book on diversity (plant). It seems to me that the P3 has to "memorise" the plants in order to categorise a particular plant into flowering or non-flowering, floating or half submerged or completely submerged. Any parents can advise how you teach your child, esp when they have not come across plants like cabomba, hydrilla, etc?? Btw, are these part of PSLE syllabus? Thanks.

[Kukumalu]

ChiefKiasu:

I tried to do the P3 Science exams from the top schools and... there's no way I can score 100 for it myself! It's REALLY tough considering that the kids just started science this year. Aside from learning names and stuff (thorax, abdomen, etc), the questions were focused more on application of what they learn... so it was really like conducting investigative work. A lot of the questions were really subjective.


Some examples:
1. What are the purpose of feathers on peacocks
(A) They help the peacock fly
(B) They protect the peacock's skin
(C) They are used to attract mates
(D) They keep the peacock warm

Answer:
(1) B, C, D
(2) B, D
(3) A, B, C, D
(4) C

2. A Molly:
(A) Gives birth to its young
(B) Lays eggs
(C) Is a plant
(D) Is an insect

Anyone dare attempt these questions? Play fair - no googling until you actually tried to answer.

Question 1)1
Question 2)B

[Kukumalu]

cluelessmom:

Extracts from the article:

Is a seed a living thing?
A seed is not exactly a living thing, though it maintains the potential to become alive

Wah piang, so is a seed living or non-living thing? :stupid:

It is a living thing. :celebrate:

[Puffer]

Kukumalu:

ChiefKiasu:

I tried to do the P3 Science exams from the top schools and... there's no way I can score 100 for it myself! It's REALLY tough considering that the kids just started science this year. Aside from learning names and stuff (thorax, abdomen, etc), the questions were focused more on application of what they learn... so it was really like conducting investigative work. A lot of the questions were really subjective.


Some examples:
1. What are the purpose of feathers on peacocks
(A) They help the peacock fly
(B) They protect the peacock's skin
(C) They are used to attract mates
(D) They keep the peacock warm

Answer:
(1) B, C, D
(2) B, D
(3) A, B, C, D
(4) C

2. A Molly:
(A) Gives birth to its young
(B) Lays eggs
(C) Is a plant
(D) Is an insect

Anyone dare attempt these questions? Play fair - no googling until you actually tried to answer.

Question 1)1
Question 2)B

Mollies are live-bearers, as are guppies and swordtails.

[janet88]

Answer:

Q1 C
Q2 A

A seed is the start of a new life. With warmth (sunlight), air and water, it will be develop into a new plant.

[mama_mia]

mrswongtuition:

Actually it depends alot on how the kids are taught. When I tutor my students, I do not force them to memorise. They are taught how to THINK & analyse experiments. What MOE wants to develop are THINKING MINDS.


However, there are of course basic facts they must memorise. The main topics which I feel needs alot of memorisation are Plants, Life Cycles, Solar System (P5 topic), Human Systems and Pollution (P6 topic). The other topics are generally 'easier' to tackle if the kids can use logical thinking to think through the experiments given.

Knowing the science is one part. The next part is being able to answer the questions the 'scientific way'. I have students who give answers which are logical, but their wording & phrasing is not the 'scientific way' that the teaching is looking out for, therefore they do not get the marks.

Example:
Why did John use a plant of the same type & size?

Answer given by student:
So that we can compare the two plants after the experiment without wondering which plant was bigger first.

Answer expected by the teacher:
To ensure a fair test as different plant sizes at the start of the experiment would affect the final results of the experiment.

In this case, the child understood the concept of making it a fair test, but could not phrase his answer properly and resulted in the loss of marks.


The topics that are tested are suitable for cognitive level of 9/10 yo. Many kids do not have trouble understanding or applying the concepts (sometimes the questions are also not phrase clearly).

The main problem is how they answer the question. Not all children have strong linguistic skills to answer the question to the teacher's expectations.

Due to this, I also include 'ideal phrases' commonly expected in answers when revising with my tutees. & with these 'ideal phrases', they score better (although they told me sometimes they really do not know the answer, so they just try the 'ideal phrase' which they think is most applicable to the question instead of leaving blank).

& another problem is that there are many science TBs in the market now. All of which have varying content. There is not 'standard' content to follow & it makes it really hard as some books really do not cover much & if the teacher is not hardworking in creating their own extra notes for the students, the students really lose out! In the past we only had ONE science TB (I remember the first P3 topic was MATTER!). It was much easier then as all we had to do was make sure we knew the content from that textbook!

Even if you take a look at MOE's syllabus, it is not specific. One example would be the type of plants which are flowering plants. We can't expect the child to know ALL the flowering plants in the world! There should be a fixed list of plants which they must know (maybe the common ones in SG/Asia for a start).

Dear Mrs. Wong, thank you for sharing, it had helped to put my perspective rights towards handling science subject together my girl. My girl is in P3 now, science is a new subject, i had been looking around trying to find materials, info. to see how i can help her. As you also mentioned the TB, or ABs vary in content and focus, so i was quite confused myself. I hope while pursuing the answers, my girl will pick up new knowledge that could apply. Thanks again.

[Snow-white]

Hi


Can anyone help me with the following two questions? Would appreciate if you could provide an explanation for each given answer. Thanks!

1) Lydia has a pot of orchid plant and a pot of articifial orchid plant. Which one of the following is the incorrect method to find out which is the real plant?

(a) Place them near the window sill.
(b) Count the number of leaves they have.
Leave them without watering for a few days.
(d) Check for wilting or dying leaves and flowers.


2) Vanessa has a pot of sunflower plant and a pot of artificial sunflower (made of plastic).
Which one of the following steps is incorrect to find out whether the plant are living things?

(a) Leave them in the sun for a day.
(b) Count the number of leaves they have after a month.
Leave them without watering for a week.
(d) Check for wilting or dying leaves and flowers after one week.

[ooptimizer]

My answer:

1
2

[acforfamily]

Snow-white:

Hi


Can anyone help me with the following two questions? Would appreciate if you could provide an explanation for each given answer. Thanks!

1) Lydia has a pot of orchid plant and a pot of articifial orchid plant. Which one of the following is the incorrect method to find out which is the real plant?

(a) Place them near the window sill.
(b) Count the number of leaves they have.
(c) Leave them without watering for a few days.
(d) Check for wilting or dying leaves and flowers.

Hi snow-white, just giving my 2 cents worth here.
In answering science questions, we must also go back to the concept. The concept here is the characteristics of living things, one of which is
\"Living things need food, water, air to survive\". For plants, we have to change that to sunlight as they make their own food.
Another characteristic is that they die.

For q1
(a) Place them near the window sill.
This by itself does not tell you whether the plant is real or not. If it has food, water and sunlight, even after a few hours, you won't be able to differentiate.

(b) Count the number of leaves they have.
The real plant and the artificial one can have the same number of leaves. You can only differentiate it if it is left for a few days / weeks when new leaves grow or leaves wilt.

(c) Leave them without watering for a few days.
The real plant will die

(d) Check for wilting or dying leaves and flowers.
Even the real plant may not have dying leaves and flowers if you provide it with air, water, sunlight.

I would be really careful with some of the assessment books' questions ( I presume this is NOT from the school.) I usually cross out those questions which I think is teaching my child the wrong thing! IMHO.

So if forced to answer the question 1, I would choose (b).

[Snow-white]

Hi acforfamily


Thanks for providing the explanation for each answer in question 1. Yes, you are correct. The answer for question 1 is indeed (b)

These two questions came from CA1 and SA1 of two top primary school examination papers.

The answer for question 2 is (a), it is quite confusing as I am not sure if the answer sheet given together with the exam paper is correct or wrong.