PSLE Science 2008

[lizawa]

Fairy:

lizawa:

How did your child find the Science paper ?

Easy. So do most of the children at school. Heard their comments while waiting for my child outside school gate.

Anyway, it doesn't mean the kids will score well even if they find the paper 'easy'. Firstly, they may be careless. Secondly, they may think they know when their answers may be wrong, Thirdly, if most of them find the paper easy, it will be more difficult to score A* or get a high T-score.

Yes, so it's a test of who is more \"careful\". And normally girls tend to be more careful, so we see more female top scorers. This is my observation.

[heutistmeintag]

My son asked me this question (not in exact words)-


What is most important to plants
1) water
2) sunlight
3) nutrients
4) carbon dioxide

He chose sunlight but his class top Science student chose nutrients. I sux at Science., pls help.

[lizawa]

kiasuson:

So this year T-Score will be very close and difficult to break last year record.

Last year's record was 294. I don't think it will be easy to break anyway, for the next 10 years. I recalled a boy from Nanyang Pri. held the record of 287 or 289 for more than 10 years.

[jujuboys]

For me, I would choose carbon dioxide, because plants "breathe" on carbon dioxide. I doubt a plant can survive if we put it inside a vacuum environment.


1) water (cactus can survive without water)
2) sunlight (you can use artificial light nowadays)
3) nutrients (organic plants don’t need nutrients, only water)

But I’m not answering from P6 science perspective. Just some logical thinking. So I may be wrong too.

[ChiefKiasu]

heutistmeintag:

My son asked me this question (not in exact words)-


What is most important to plants
1) water
2) sunlight
3) nutrients
4) carbon dioxide
...

Check out this http://faq.thekrib.com/plant-survival.html. Personally, I will take water as the most important, because that page hardly mentioned it, so it must be so important that it is a given

And if 30% of questions are like that, then I think it has been a very difficult paper indeed.

[kiasuson]

I think the question is not so easy. My son recap that it is a question with 2 pots showing different number of seeds. One with only two and the other with a few. They also show the effect after a few days. One with big roots and the other crowded pots with small roots but tall plants. From this, they ask what the experiment shows and which factor affect the results.


1) water
2) sunlight
3) nutrients
4) carbon dioxide

My son choose Nutrients because of the small roots…

[ChiefKiasu]

kiasuson:

My son recap that it is a question with 2 pots showing different number of seeds. One with only two and the other with a few. They also show the effect after a few days. One with big roots and the other crowded pots with small roots but tall plants. From this, they ask what the experiment shows and which factor affect the results...

In that case, I would agree that the answer should be nutrients too.

[kiasuson]

Another question: There are two contianers with a inflated Balloon on top. One container is mixed with Yeast, Sugar and Water and the other container is mixed with Yeast and Water. Which container will pump up the balloon? My son answer both.

[Fairy]

kiasuson:

I think the question is not so easy. My son recap that it is a question with 2 pots showing different number of seeds. One with only two and the other with a few. They also show the effect after a few days. One with big roots and the other crowded pots with small roots but tall plants. From this, they ask what the experiment shows and which factor affect the results.


1) water
2) sunlight
3) nutrients
4) carbon dioxide

My son choose Nutrients because of the small roots...

My child also has another version of the 'same' question; one involving food-web.

[lizawa]

kiasuson:

Another question: There are two contianers with a inflated Balloon on top. One container is mixed with Yeast, Sugar and Water and the other container is mixed with Yeast and Water. Which container will pump up the balloon? My son answer both.

I don't know if this question is complete. But another parent told me the question asked which balloon will be inflated more ?

From all these discussion, I think most questions really need more thinking than just putting the most \"obvious\" answer down. So tricky paper indeed !