Need help with 6th grade science question

6,287 Views | 51 Replies | Last: 8 yr ago by Shawdaddy
unmade bed
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Many years ago in 6th grade science I took a test that had the following question:


The Earth _____________ as it goes around the Sun.

A. Rotates
B. Revolves
C. Resolves
D. Revives






I picked A which was marked as wrong. It was the only question I missed and I am still bitter about it. I understood and still understand the difference in rotate and revolve. But the way the question was worded makes A the correct answer.

The Earth REVOLVES around the Sun

The Earth ROTATES as it is revolving around the Sun.

Am I an idiot? Should I let it go after all these years?
boy09
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
quote:
The Earth REVOLVES around the Sun

The Earth ROTATES as it is revolving around the Sun.
I'm with you on this. Poorly worded question.
kb2001
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Let it go, all I'm picturing right now is Steve Buscemi

unmade bed
How long do you want to ignore this user?
quote:
Let it go, all I'm picturing right now is Steve Buscemi




Ha. After some pretty intense therapy and several years of being doped out of my mind with antidepressants I thought I was over it. However all the awful memories came rushing back yesterday when I was helping my 1st grader with her homework and the question was:

[Ice cube picture] is to [refrigerator picture] as
__________________ is to [oven picture]

Answers were :
[Lamp picture]
[Campfire picture]
[Fireman picture]
[Thanksgiving Turkey picture]

My daughter picked thanksgiving turkey because "ice goes inside the refrigerator and turkey goes inside the oven."

I think the answer is probably going to be campfire and what they are getting at is Ice=cold=refrigerator and fire=hot=oven, but my daughter is not necessarily wrong either.
redd38
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I agree that it rotates as it revolves.

What was your teacher's name?
redd38
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
In the second question I believe your daughter is correct
wee_ag
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Also agree daughter is correct... You better keep us updated on this OP.

And yes it rotates.
TX AG 88
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
quote:
Many years ago in 6th grade science I took a test that had the following question:


The Earth _____________ as it goes around the Sun.

A. Rotates
B. Revolves
C. Resolves
D. Revives






I picked A which was marked as wrong. It was the only question I missed and I am still bitter about it. I understood and still understand the difference in rotate and revolve. But the way the question was worded makes A the correct answer.

The Earth REVOLVES around the Sun

The Earth ROTATES as it is revolving around the Sun.

Am I an idiot? Should I let it go after all these years?

I agree with your thinking, but I get what the test maker was going after... they just worded the question poorly.

The Earth rotates around its axis, and it revolves around the sun. if they had just omitted the "as it goes" part of the question, we'd all have gotten it right. (I would have made the same "mistake" as you.)

I think your daughter is right. A refrigerator (the freezer part) produces ice cubes. An oven produces turkeys.
Absolute
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I am constantly amazed at the ambiguous questionsI see on my kid's homework and tests. Seems like everyone one I look at has at least one like that.
unmade bed
How long do you want to ignore this user?
I let her choose the turkey because I think she was thinking about it the right way. We will see if it gets marked wrong. I don't even know if they get grades in first grade.

I do think just based on what she is learning that the fire is going to be the "right" answer. Opposites/comparisons etc.
AgsWin2011
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
The earth rotates as it revolves around the sun.
KeithDB
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
quote:
I am constantly amazed at the ambiguous questionsI see on my kid's homework and tests. Seems like everyone one I look at has at least one like that.
Way back in the early 70s I was asked a question in a World History exam asking me to compare two ancient civilizations and provide three examples. So, I provided two examples of how they were different, and one as to how they were similar. I received one-third credit.

Befuddled, because all the comparisons seemed accurate I confronted "Mr. Eichler" the history teacher. He told me that I did not get credit for showing the two differences because the question said to compare the civilizations and compare meant to only show likenesses, not differences. He claimed that taking my approach would have required the question to say "compare and/or contrast."

I said that was not true, that "compare" could mean to discuss both similarities and differences. He told me I was wrong. I had in my three ring binder (because I was/am a dork) an abbreviated dictionary. I flipped it open in front of him and the definition was "to show likenesses or differences."

He said he would not accept that silly little dictionary.

The next day I brought in five dictionaries, big ones, some from the school library. In those days you couldn't just copy the page, you had to bring the book. After class I confronted him as they all supported my position and I urged him to change my grade. He refused. I may have said something abrupt like "well, the evidence be damned." He called my parents on me.

I resolved that day to if I ever had kids to never give the teacher the benefit of the doubt. A promise I kept with my two kids.
KeithDB
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
In regards to the OP's question I went to dictionary.com I found the following definition as the primary definition of "rotate."

quote:
1. to cause to turn around an axis or center point; revolve.

In regards to the the definition of "revolve" the source said the following:


quote:
1. to move in a circular or curving course or orbit:
The earth revolves around the sun.

2. to turn around or rotate, as on an axis:
The wheel revolves slowly.

I the thesaurus function, revolve and rotate are synonyms.

So what does this leave us with? The question demanded that you distinguish between two words that are defined as synonyms. That's a damn poor question and the grade should be changed, or at least the question dropped from the grading.

Your teacher was nearly as wrong as my World History teacher was, all those years ago. And I still have not let that go!

jeffk
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I failed my 6 multiplication table quiz in third grade because I started it with 6x0=0 instead of 6x1=6 like my teacher wanted.

Greatest injustice of my educational career.
TefIon Don
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Sort of related: I lost the sixth grade spelling bee because I rushed through the final word. I spelled satellite as "satelite", forgetting the second l. I'm not mad about that at all. What I AM mad about, is the word that the dbag behind was given for a chance to win it all: Orbit.
Al Bula
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Almost there...

permabull
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
OnlyForNow
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
ice cubes aren't made or put into the refrigerator.... secondly a refrigerator is NOT FREEZER.

That is a HORRIBLE question. There is no acceptable answer, as ice cubes will melt in a fridge and a turkey cooks in an oven, provided they both are supplied with power/gas.

I despised these kinds of questions, because they are in fact unanswerable.

And to add onto the significant figures thing. My dad would have had a canip***** over that, as I would now. how many did the teacher say were there?

Unless it was written out as 52.00 or 52.0, two would be the right answer.
BrazosDog02
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
This is public school s*** isnt it?
JDCAG (NOT Colin)
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
At A&M on a lab quiz I found my answer and plugged it back into the original equation to "prove" it was correct. The Lab TA took 1 point off and asked what the additional work was and I told her I was showing it was correct and she said she didn't know what i was doing and not to do that and that is why she took off the point. Answer was right. To make matters worse, it was a 10 point quiz and one of like 5 that went towards or final grade so it actually had some weight to it.
OnlyForNow
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
So you got a point off for not following directions and showing work or by doing the problem a different way than taught?
kjcAg
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
My 7th grade science teacher marked my answer as wrong when they marked my friend's answer as correct, even though we gave the same answer. She refused to change my grade when I pointed it out.

Side note: She also didn't come back after Christmas break that year because she had a baby she didn't know was coming.
Ag03 CQE
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I argued with a teacher that 1 was a prime number because we were taught the criteria for a number to be prime was that it was evenly divisible only by 1 and itself. The teacher was stumped by my logic beacause she knew 1 wasn't a prime number but didn't realize the definition states that a prime number has exactly TWO factors, thereby excluding 1 as a prime.
JDCAG (NOT Colin)
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
quote:
So you got a point off for not following directions and showing work or by doing the problem a different way than taught?


No, I got a point off cause the TA didn't seem to understand what I was doing.

The instructions were just to find the answer and the way I did it was the way that was taught. They weren't sure what the other junk was, so the took off a point.

It'd be the same as saying:

5 = X + 2
X = 3

then adding below that
5 = 3 + 2
5 = 5
OnlyForNow
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I would have gone straight to the professor of record
boy09
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
quote:
I argued with a teacher that 1 was a prime number because we were taught the criteria for a number to be prime was that it was evenly divisible only by 1 and itself. The teacher was stumped by my logic beacause she knew 1 wasn't a prime number but didn't realize the definition states that a prime number has exactly TWO factors, thereby excluding 1 as a prime.
Today I learned 1 is not a prime number.
JDCAG (NOT Colin)
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
quote:
I would have gone straight to the professor of record


Yeah. That is what I should have done.
bbattbq01
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
quote:
Sort of related: I lost the sixth grade spelling bee because I rushed through the final word. I spelled satellite as "satelite", forgetting the second l. I'm not mad about that at all. What I AM mad about, is the word that the dbag behind was given for a chance to win it all: Orbit.


Fourth grade. States and capitals test. Got a 99 because I rushed: "Mississsippi"
OnlyForNow
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I mean it's petty but as a former TA it's what I would have expected from my juniors and seniors if I was that much of a moron.
PooDoo
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
2nd grade daughter just brought this home....
JDCAG (NOT Colin)
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
lol.

Which is a verb
a. store
b. record
c. brush
d. sail
91_Aggie
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
quote:
Sort of related: I lost the sixth grade spelling bee because I rushed through the final word. I spelled satellite as "satelite", forgetting the second l. I'm not mad about that at all. What I AM mad about, is the word that the dbag behind was given for a chance to win it all: Orbit.


I won a third grade spelling bee but the teacher kept asking me words and finally said I spelled Saturday wrong because I didn't say "capital s" when I started spelling it. Hated her forever.
jamaggie06
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
You don't rotate around something; you rotate with respect to something.

Think of it this way, draw and XY coordinate system on each body. Now, rotate one of the coordiante systems. The bodies never move but there is a change in coordinates that cooresponds to a rotation. ie, the x cooridnate in one system is now a combination of the x & y of the other. Same for the y coordinate.

Similarly, draw the same two bodies but hold the coordinate systems in their same respective orientations. Now move one body around the other. One system is revolving around the other. Though the coordinates do change, the x direction always remains parallel to the other coordinate systems x direction. No rotation has occured

As mentioned, the Earth bothe revoles around the sun while simultaneously rotating with reapect to it.
double aught
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I like this thread.
reb,
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
quote:
I like this thread.
ditto.

there's some real humor/pain in these posts, and i understand it completely.
Page 1 of 2
 
×
subscribe Verify your student status
See Subscription Benefits
Trial only available to users who have never subscribed or participated in a previous trial.