How living in groups helps animals survive

Grade 9 Science Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Flocks of different sizes (model data)

   flock size	seconds one bird scans per minute	seconds until the flock spots a threat
   1	40	12
   4	30	6
   16	20	3

2. 1.

   Bo reads model data on flocks. Which statement does the table support?

   • Flock size changes how much food the birds find, not the scanning
   • Each bird scans more in a bigger flock, since more birds share the work
   • A bigger flock spots a threat later, since each bird scans fewer seconds in a minute
   • Each bird scans less in a bigger flock, yet the flock spots a threat sooner

3. Nesting colonies (model data)

   nests in the colony	nests with parasites (%)
   10	20
   50	40
   100	60

4. 2.

   Esme reads model data on nesting colonies. Which cost of a larger colony does the table show?

   • Less food for each nest, which the parasite column shows
   • More nests have parasites: 20% in a colony of 10 and 60% in a colony of 100
   • No cost: a bigger colony helps, since more adults can watch the nests
   • Fewer nests have parasites: 60% in a colony of 10 and 20% in a colony of 100
5. 3.

   Jun reads the graph. During which days did the alone minnows fall fastest, and by how many?

   • Days 0 to 1: the alone line falls from 20 to 16, a loss of 4 minnows
   • Days 0 to 1: the school line falls from 20 to 19, a loss of 1 minnow
   • Days 1 to 2: the alone line falls from 16 to 13, a loss of 3 minnows
   • Days 5 to 6: the alone line ends at 9, its lowest point
6. 4.

   Kira reads the graph. Which statement is right about adding minnows to a group?

   • Survival rises 20 points between 10 and 20 minnows, so doubling the group doubles how many survive
   • Survival keeps rising, but each added minnow helps less: 10 points from 5 to 10, 4 from 15 to 20
   • Survival will reach 100% in a big enough group, so a group has no cost
   • Survival rises by the same amount for each minnow added
7. 5.

   Luz reads the model graph of huddled birds that touch their neighbors. A bird alone loses 100 units. Which reason best fits the graph?

   • The birds in the middle save heat; the edge birds still lose 100 units
   • Huddling helps the birds find food, so they lose less heat
   • Touching birds expose less body surface to the cold, and each added bird saves less
   • Each bird makes more heat when more birds crowd in, so the loss keeps falling at the same rate

8. Two waggle dances (model data)

   dance	waggle run (s)	angle clockwise from vertical (°)
   dance P	1.0	70
   dance Q	3.0	70

9. 6.

   Noah reads two dances from one hive at the same time. Distance grows in proportion to run length. Which statement does the card support?

   • Different kinds of resource, since the runs differ
   • Same direction; Q's place is two times as far as P's
   • Same direction; Q's place is three times as far as P's
   • Same distance; Q's place lies in a different direction

10. Waggle dance card (1 s of run = 400 m; a bee flies 8 m each second) (model data)

    dance	waggle run (s)
    dance 3	2.5

11. 7.

    Pia decodes the dance. About how long does the one-way flight to the resource take?

    • About 250 s: 2,000 m for the round trip ÷ 8
    • About 125 s: 2.5 × 400 = 1,000 m, and 1,000 ÷ 8 = 125
    • About 8,000 s: 1,000 m × 8 m each second
    • About 2.5 s, the same number as the run

12. Use the table

    Emperor penguin huddles in the Antarctic winter (data: Gilbert et al. 2006)

    measure	value
    average outside temperature	−17 °C
    temperature the birds felt in huddles	above 0 °C
    warmest temperature in a huddle	37.5 °C
    penguins fitted with data loggers	8

13. 8.

    Ren reads the table. By at least how much did huddling raise the temperature the birds felt?

    • About 54.5 °C, from −17 °C to 37.5 °C
    • Less than 17 °C, since the outside air was already cold
    • 37.5 °C, the warmest huddle reading
    • More than 17 °C, from −17 °C to above 0 °C
14. 9.

    Tala reads the table. A bigger spread means huddle lengths differ more. What does the spread say about the huddles?

    • Huddles lasted the whole winter, since males huddled for 38% of their time overall
    • Huddle lengths varied widely, so a huddle did not stay together all winter
    • Every huddle lasted about 1.6 h, since that is the average
    • Each huddle lasted 1.7 h more than the average
15. 10.

    Zee reads the table. Which claim about who got warm does the table support?

    • Huddles stayed above 20 °C for all of the huddling time
    • Huddling helped the birds find food in winter
    • Every bird had equal access to warmth, though huddles were uneven
    • Only the birds in the middle got warm