7th grade Science practice sheet
Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards · from Gradelings · Name: ______________________
Question 1
Inherited or acquired? Sort each trait.
Sort into: 🧬 inherited (in the genes) · 🏋️ acquired during life
- 🐕a dog that learned to sit
- 🌵a cactus's sharp spines
- 🩹a scar from a cut
- 💪muscles built by lifting weights
- 🚲knowing how to ride a bike
- 🐅a tiger's stripe pattern
- 🌺a flower's petal color
- 👁️a person's natural eye color
🧬 inherited (in the genes): a cactus's sharp spines, a tiger's stripe pattern, a flower's petal color, a person's natural eye color · 🏋️ acquired during life: a dog that learned to sit, a scar from a cut, muscles built by lifting weights, knowing how to ride a bike
Hint: Inherited traits are passed from parents to offspring in their genes. Acquired traits are gained during one organism's life and are not passed on to its offspring.
Question 2
A group of similar cells working together forms a…
- organelle
- organism
- molecule
- tissue
tissue
Hint: Like muscle tissue.
Question 3
What are the products of photosynthesis?
- carbon dioxide and water
- carbon dioxide and oxygen
- water and energy
- glucose (sugar) and oxygen
glucose (sugar) and oxygen
Hint: Glucose stores energy for the plant, and oxygen is released.
Question 4
Put the path of liquid waste (urine) through the excretory system in order.
- The bladder stores urine
- Ureters carry urine down from the kidneys
- Kidneys filter wastes out of the blood
- Urine leaves the body through the urethra
Kidneys filter wastes out of the blood → Ureters carry urine down from the kidneys → The bladder stores urine → Urine leaves the body through the urethra
Hint: The kidneys clean the blood first. Tubes called ureters lead to the bladder, which stores urine until it leaves through the urethra.
Question 5
What does photosynthesis make?
- Soil and sugar
- Sugar (food for the plant) and oxygen
- Water and nitrogen
- Carbon dioxide and water
Sugar (food for the plant) and oxygen
Hint: The plant stores the sugar as food and releases oxygen.
Question 6
Which of these is a biotic component of a pond ecosystem?
- sunlight
- dissolved oxygen
- algae
- water temperature
algae
Hint: Biotic parts are living things. Algae are living; the others are non-living conditions.
Question 7
Put this food chain in order, from the organism that makes food to the last to eat.
- 🦅hawk
- 🌾grass
- 🦗grasshopper
- 🐸frog
grass → grasshopper → frog → hawk
Hint: Energy flows from the producer (grass) to the grasshopper, frog, snake and then hawk.
Question 8
Why does cycling matter help keep an ecosystem sustainable?
- Producers create extra matter as they grow
- Nutrients are reused, so the supply does not run out
- Cycling removes all waste from Earth
- New nutrients fall from space each day
Nutrients are reused, so the supply does not run out
Hint: Atoms of carbon, nitrogen and water are used again and again.
Question 9
A dominant allele…
- is always harmful
- never shows
- shows its trait when present
- only appears in plants
shows its trait when present
Hint: Capital letter.
Question 10
Who first described natural selection, along with Alfred Wallace?
- Marie Curie
- Isaac Newton
- Galileo
- Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Hint: Galápagos finches.
Answer key
- 1. 🧬 inherited (in the genes): a cactus's sharp spines, a tiger's stripe pattern, a flower's petal color, a person's natural eye color · 🏋️ acquired during life: a dog that learned to sit, a scar from a cut, muscles built by lifting weights, knowing how to ride a bike (Natural Selection)
- 2. tissue (Cells: Life's Building Blocks)
- 3. glucose (sugar) and oxygen (Cells & Life Processes)
- 4. Kidneys filter wastes out of the blood → Ureters carry urine down from the kidneys → The bladder stores urine → Urine leaves the body through the urethra (Body Systems)
- 5. Sugar (food for the plant) and oxygen (How Plants Work)
- 6. algae (Ecosystems)
- 7. grass → grasshopper → frog → hawk (Food Chains & Energy)
- 8. Nutrients are reused, so the supply does not run out (Cycles & Succession)
- 9. shows its trait when present (Genes & Heredity)
- 10. Charles Darwin (Natural Selection)
Want more than 10 questions?
In Gradelings the questions change every time and adjust to your child, with hints and kind feedback. See all science units.