Q&A - PSLE Science

[ADoc]

tisha:

Wow! there is so much to water and ice in primary science :roll:

ADoc,
Thanks for the clear explainations. I'm not able to find this kind of explaination in the text book or in the Mini Science encyclopedia. Could you please suggest any book where I can find such explaination for the primary science topics.

anneshirleygilbert,
Where did you get these Qs from?

Hi Tisha! Most of the primary texts that I have \"browsed\" so far do not state the term \"co-exist\". Even if they do, they rarely explain further. Not because the books aren't good, just that there isn't a good way to explain to primary students without introducing more scientific terms and concepts. Instead they use the cooling or heating curves to illustrate the boiling and melting processes. What I tell my students is to \"pay attention to the flat part of the curves\" as it contain part solid, part liquid (freezing & melting), & part liquid, part gas (boiling, condensing), as well as what will happen if you remove or add heat at zero & 100 deg celsius. Just when they are about to scratch their heads thinking what the hell you are talking about, I'll bring them a glass of (pure) water with (pure) ice, and a thermometer. All things being equal, the students should be convinced that at zero deg Celsius, we can have part liquid (water) and part solid (ice). It's harder to show with experiment & temperature measurement for part liquid, part gas/steam.

For the more inquisitive students, they may ask what's the temperature of the ice in my home's freezer compartment or can we have liquid water below zero deg celsius? Can solid, liquid, gas/eous (states of water) exist together? Or that at the north pole, is the entire ocean solid ice? That opens a whole new can of very messy worms. haha!

I won't worry too much about explaining concepts other than that required of primary curriculum. You don't need any extra books. Some times, extra books mean extra information, which may end up confusing the kids if we don't spend the effort guiding and explaining clearly. And this upsets certain Ministry, and your kid ends up scoring zero for section B. Oh well...that's really another can of very very messy and frustrating worms.

[anneshirleygilbert]

tisha:

ADoc:

[quote=\"anneshirleygilbert\"]Can somebody pls help with this question?


We know :
The freezing point of water is 0 degrees.
The melting point of ice is 0 degrees.

Are the following two statements correct?
Water at 0 degrees is in the solid state.
Ice at 0 degrees is in the liquid state.

In view of the above, does it mean the following two statements are incorrect?
Water at 0 degrees is in the liquid state.
Ice are 0 degrees is in the solid state.

Thank you in advance.

Hi there! These are great questions! To avoid unnecessary debate from other friendly & knowledgeable forum-ers, let's keep the arguments within the context of Primary curriculum.

Are the following two statements correct?
Water at 0 degrees is in the solid state.
Ice at 0 degrees is in the liquid state.

These two statements are \"wrong\". Without further heat loss (freezing) or gain (melting), water & ice will just remain as water & ice at zero deg Celsius. For Primary's curriculum, these questions are meant to test the students' understanding of the process of melting & freezing, & the \"flat\" part of the heating or cooling curve: water starts to freeze or ice starts to melt at zero deg Celsius. For example, if we supply enough heat to a block of ice, it will start to melt (hence part liquid water) at zero deg Celsius. Conversely, if we remove enough heat, water still start to freeze (hence part solid water = ice) at zero deg Celsius. In both instances, we see that both contain part water (liquid) & part ice (solid) until the freezing or melting process is complete, i.e. water & ice can co-exist during its freezing or melting process (freezing or melting point).

In view of the above, does it mean the following two statements are incorrect?
Water at 0 degrees is in the liquid state.
Ice are 0 degrees is in the solid state.

These two statements are correct (unless the statements are further supplemented with phrases such as melting process / freezing process).

Wow! there is so much to water and ice in primary science :roll:

ADoc,
Thanks for the clear explainations. I'm not able to find this kind of explaination in the text book or in the Mini Science encyclopedia. Could you please suggest any book where I can find such explaination for the primary science topics.

anneshirleygilbert,
Where did you get these Qs from?[/quote]Thank you ADoc, for your explanation. It does clear up our (my daughter and my) understanding. Your explanation actually means all four statements are (or can be) correct when understood in the light of the melting and freezing [u]process. Yes, I understand what you mean by the flat part of the curve on the graph.

Tisha, the question originated from my daughter's mind. I merely put them into words. She's extremely inquisitive and hair-splittingly meticulous when it comes to understanding new concepts, whether science or math or grammar rules.... I guess, you could say she's pretty driven to get full marks for each question.

Thank you, all of you parents and tutors. I've learnt much from this forum. You are all so kind and generous in sharing your knowledge. Many thanks, indeed.

[ADoc]

anneshirleygilbert:

tisha:

[quote=\"ADoc\"]
Hi there! These are great questions! To avoid unnecessary debate from other friendly & knowledgeable forum-ers, let's keep the arguments within the context of Primary curriculum......

ADoc,
Thanks for the clear explainations. I'm not able to find this kind of explaination in the text book or in the Mini Science encyclopedia. Could you please suggest any book where I can find such explaination for the primary science topics.

anneshirleygilbert,
Where did you get these Qs from?

Thank you ADoc, for your explanation. It does clear up our (my daughter and my) understanding. Your explanation actually means all four statements are (or can be) correct when understood in the light of the melting and freezing [u]process. Yes, I understand what you mean by the flat part of the curve on the graph.

Tisha, the question originated from my daughter's mind. I merely put them into words. She's extremely inquisitive and hair-splittingly meticulous when it comes to understanding new concepts, whether science or math or grammar rules.... I guess, you could say she's pretty driven to get full marks for each question.

Thank you, all of you parents and tutors. I've learnt much from this forum. You are all so kind and generous in sharing your knowledge. Many thanks, indeed.

[/quote]

Hi Tisha! You're welcome! This forum is great!
Oh and just to share. Do advise and guide your daughter to avoid answering PSLE science questions outside the realm of the primary curriculum. Since she is exceptionally inquisitive and I suppose brilliant too, she may end up \"thinking too deep\" into the section B answers.

Also, you may want to refer to the glossary of terms for PSLE science questions to tailor the length and suitability of answers (extracted from PSLE Science Syllabus).

cheers
ADoc

http://postimage.org/image/lc4nkslg/

[Mum1113]

ADoc:

http://postimage.org/image/lc4nkslg/

This is great sharing, thanks ADoc, will share with both sons and remind them for their Science paper :salute:

[anneshirleygilbert]

Thank you, ADoc. The glossary is very detailed and helpful. Will surley heed your advice about answering within the realm of Spore Primary Science syllabus. Thanks again.

[ADoc]

Mum1113:

ADoc:

http://postimage.org/image/lc4nkslg/

This is great sharing, thanks ADoc, will share with both sons and remind them for their Science paper :salute:

cheers!
In the spirit of sharing once again:
I came across this sort of questions numerous times, which I thought is exceptionally good to test the fundamental understanding of light & reflection, etc. This may have had appeared/discussed in this thread already. Just wanna bring this up again.

Which of the following does/do not reflect light?
(1) glass
(2) mirror
(3) opaque cloth
(4) transparent liquid

A: (1) only
B: (3) only
none of the above
(3) & (4)

[ADoc]

anneshirleygilbert:

Thank you, ADoc. The glossary is very detailed and helpful. Will surley heed your advice about answering within the realm of Spore Primary Science syllabus. Thanks again.

cheers anneshirleygilbert!
just wanna do my part for the primary kids (& parents of course) with whatever open-source information I can lay my hands on. Thank God that 14 of my cousins have already completed their PSLE. 4 more to go..haha!!

And yes, my mum is the eldest of her 8 siblings. (ok...too much information here) haha!

[Mum1113]

ADoc:

Which of the following does/do not reflect light?
(1) glass
(2) mirror
(3) opaque cloth
(4) transparent liquid

A: (1) only
B: (3) only
none of the above
(3) & (4)

DS answered this : D . Correct ?

[anneshirleygilbert]

Mum1113:

ADoc:

Which of the following does/do not reflect light?
(1) glass
(2) mirror
(3) opaque cloth
(4) transparent liquid

A: (1) only
B: (3) only
none of the above
(3) & (4)

DS answered this : D . Correct ?

My daughter says the answer is C. We are able to see them because light falls on these objects and they reflect the light into our eyes, thus enabling us to see them. Is she right? :?

[ADoc]

anneshirleygilbert:

Mum1113:

[quote=\"ADoc\"]
Which of the following does/do not reflect light?
(1) glass
(2) mirror
(3) opaque cloth
(4) transparent liquid

A: (1) only
B: (3) only
none of the above
(3) & (4)

DS answered this : D . Correct ?

My daughter says the answer is C. We are able to see them because light falls on these objects and they reflect the light into our eyes, thus enabling us to see them. Is she right? :?[/quote]We

Hi anne, mum1113!
the answer should be C.
In the context of primary syllabus, the key concept would be \"as long as an object can be seen, it means it reflect light\". Just an additional piece of info: in our usual daily lives, we would expect to \"see through\" (clear) glass & transparent liquid, especially when we start to recall hilarious (& even real-life sometimes) scenes of movies whereby someone bumps into a glass. That would be \"visually\" true if there aren't any frames (for glass) or containers (for the transparent liquid). Optically, however, a 100% transmission of light (\"invisible\") by any material (let's not talk about our surrounding air, micro-organisms, etc. for example) is unattainable unless there's an absence of structural defects such as voids, cracks, etc.

cheers!