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9th grade Feedback loops: changes that grow or shrink themselves worksheet

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Feedback loops: changes that grow or shrink themselves

Grade 9 Science Worksheet - Challenge Me

NameDate

Circle the best answer.

  1. Four loop cards, labeled A to D. Which chain of links makes the ice-albedo feedback loop, by Esme's reading?

    • Warmer → less ice → less sunlight absorbed → cooler
    • Warmer → less ice → more sunlight absorbed → warmer
    • More fuel burned → warmer → more fuel burned
    • Warmer → more ice → more sunlight absorbed → warmer

  2. A loop reads: warmer air → more permafrost thaws → ? → warmer air. Which link completes it, by Jun's reading?

    • More carbon dioxide and methane released
    • People burn more fuel
    • Less carbon dioxide and methane released
    • More ice forms in the soil

  3. Loop diagram with four links marked +, +, − and −. A loop's links have the signs +, +, − and −. What is the loop's sign, and why, by Kira's count?

    • Positive: the two − links cancel each other
    • Neither: the + and − links cancel to zero
    • Negative, since two of the links are bad
    • Negative: it contains − links

  4. Luz's friend reads that the ice-albedo loop is a positive feedback and says that is good news for the Arctic. Which response is best?

    • Agree: positive means helpful
    • Agree: positive loops shrink warming
    • Disagree: positive means it amplifies the warming
    • Disagree: positive feedback means the change stops

  5. Milo's cousin says the carbon dioxide from burning fuel is itself a climate feedback. Which response is best?

    • Disagree: carbon dioxide has no effect on temperature
    • Agree: fuel burning loops back on itself
    • Agree: anything that warms Earth is a feedback
    • Disagree: it is the forcing; feedbacks respond to it

  6. Noah's friend says extra plant growth will take up every bit of carbon dioxide people add. Which response is best (NASA)?

    • Agree: a negative feedback undoes a change completely
    • Agree: plants can take up unlimited carbon dioxide
    • Disagree: plant growth adds carbon dioxide, a positive loop
    • Disagree: it slows the rise, limited by water and nitrogen

  7. Ice-albedo, water vapor, plant uptake of carbon dioxide, home thermostat. Which two loops both amplify warming, by Ren's reading?

    • Ice-albedo and plant uptake of carbon dioxide
    • Plant uptake of carbon dioxide and a home thermostat
    • Water vapor and plant uptake of carbon dioxide
    • Ice-albedo and water vapor

  8. Sweating and ice-albedo. Tala compares sweating with the ice-albedo loop. Which statement is right?

    • Both keep temperature steady
    • Sweating steadies body heat; ice-albedo amplifies Arctic warming
    • Sweating overcools the body; ice-albedo cools the Arctic
    • Both are positive, since both are natural

  9. In a model, a forcing alone warms a region by 1.0 °C, and the ice-albedo loop adds 0.5 °C more. What is the total warming, by Zee's math?

    • 1.0 °C, since feedbacks add nothing
    • 0.5 °C, since the loop subtracts
    • 1.5 °C
    • 0.5 °C, since melting ice reflects more

  10. Carbon dioxide alone would warm Earth by 1.0 °C in a model. NASA estimates the water-vapor loop more than doubles that. Which total fits, by Ari's reading?

    • 0 °C; the feedback cancels the warming
    • More than 2.0 °C
    • Less than 1.0 °C
    • 1.0 °C; water vapor just reacts and adds nothing
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9th grade Feedback loops: changes that grow or shrink themselves worksheet – printable
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About this worksheet

Feedback loops: changes that grow or shrink themselves. Every version has 10 questions, and the answer key prints on the second page.

What your child will learn

  • I can tell a positive loop (grows a change) from a negative loop (shrinks it), without reading positive as good.
  • I can sign each link and find a loop's sign by counting − links.
  • I can compute absorbed sunlight from albedo, read loop evidence in data, and separate a forcing from a feedback.

Standard: HS-ESS2-2

Words to know

feedback loop: A chain of changes that comes back to affect its own start

positive feedback: A loop that makes the first change bigger

negative feedback: A loop that makes the first change smaller

albedo: The fraction of sunlight a surface reflects, from 0 to 1

forcing: The first push that starts a change, such as added carbon dioxide

Common mistakes

Your child read positive as good. In a feedback loop, positive means the loop makes the first change bigger; negative means it makes the change smaller.

Your child got the loop's sign wrong. Follow every link around the loop: an even number of − links makes it positive, an odd number makes it negative.

Your child reversed which surface reflects more. Light, icy surfaces reflect most sunlight (high albedo); dark water and ground absorb more (low albedo).

Questions parents ask

What is the most common mistake with feedback loops: changes that grow or shrink themselves?

Your child read positive as good. In a feedback loop, positive means the loop makes the first change bigger; negative means it makes the change smaller.

Are these 9th grade science worksheets free to print?

Yes. All 6 printable versions at each level are free to print, with the answer key, and no account is needed.

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