Judge a biology claim: evidence, reasoning and reliable sources

Grade 9 Science Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. 1.

   Bright light helps these bean seedlings grow taller. Bo labels another sentence on the strip. Which label fits it?

   • Evidence
   • A question
   • Reasoning
   • Claim
2. 2.

   Esme labels the last sentence on the strip. Which label fits it?

   • A question
   • Evidence
   • Claim
   • Reasoning

3. Read this first

   Days until mold was first seen, 5 slices each (example data)

   Where kept	Temperature	Mean days
   fridge	4 °C	12
   counter	22 °C	5

4. 3.

   Jun kept bread slices in two places and checked for mold each day. Which claim do the data support?

   • The fridge's darkness is what slowed the mold
   • Mold showed up sooner on the bread kept on the counter
   • Mold showed up sooner on the bread in the fridge
   • Cold stops mold from growing on bread

5. Bee visits to three flower patches, 30-minute count (example data)

   Patch	Visits
   purple	24
   yellow	15
   white	6

6. 4.

   Kira counted bee visits to three flower patches for 30 minutes. Which claim do the data support?

   • In this count, bees visited the purple patch most
   • Purple flowers get more visits because they make more nectar
   • Bees visited the white patch most
   • Bees can see purple and no other color

7. Bean seeds sprouted by day 5, 20 seeds each (example data)

   Seeds	Sprouted
   soaked overnight	18
   not soaked	11

8. 5.

   Luz soaked some bean seeds overnight and planted them beside unsoaked ones. Which claim do the data support?

   • More unsoaked seeds had sprouted by day 5
   • More soaked seeds than unsoaked seeds had sprouted by day 5
   • Soaked seeds need no light to sprout
   • Soaking makes any kind of seed sprout faster
9. 6.

   Milo reads four comments about a bag of compost. Which one is evidence?

   • It smells earthy, so it must work
   • The compost is amazing, says the bag
   • Twelve of 15 plants given compost grew new leaves within a week
   • A gardener down the street says the compost works wonders on roses
10. 7.

    Noah reads four comments about a plant spray. Which one is evidence?

    • The label on the bottle calls it a miracle for thirsty, droopy garden plants
    • In a test of 40 plants, sprayed and unsprayed plants grew the same
    • Five stars from a happy customer
    • My neighbor loves this spray
11. 8.

    Pia sees a testimonial: "This plant spray saved my garden!" Why is a testimonial weak evidence?

    • It is a careful report written by a trained scientist in a lab
    • It is too long for most people to read
    • Testimonials are measured data, so it is strong
    • It is one person's report that usually cannot be checked
12. 9.

    Ren wants to learn how plants use light. Which source is most reliable?

    • A shop page selling grow lamps
    • An unsigned post with no date
    • A university biology textbook with references
    • A friend's guess in a group chat
13. 10.

    A science page ends with "Last reviewed: 2009." Why does that date matter, Zee asks?

    • The date shows who paid for the page
    • Dates do not matter on science pages
    • Older pages are more correct, since they came first
    • Science changes, so an old page may be out of date