TeachersFirst's Middle School Brain Twisters

Week of May 18, 2012

1.What sort of shape will you create if you graph the following set of coordinate pairs: (0,0) (1,-2) (2,-4) (3,-8) (4,-16) (5,-32) ? (10 points)

a curve that slopes down
a line that slopes down
a circle
a curve that slopes up
a line that slopes up

2.The science lab floor measures 42 feet by 36 feet and has four 4 by 4 foot tables permanently anchored as "islands." To replace the flooring in the exposed areas, the school must buy tiles in boxes that cover 300 square feet. How many boxes must they buy? (20 points)

3.Point is to font as ... (10 points)

millimeter is to small
gross is to dozen
liter is to pour
gram is to mass
yard is to meter

4.What natural phenomenon enables there to be palm trees in southern England? (10 points)

The continental shelf
The middle Atlantic Plate
The jet stream
The Gulf Stream
The Labrador current

5.Samantha's science fair project investigated laundry detergents. She tried three different detergents on each of stains made by grass, chocolate, dirt, and mustard. What was the dependent variable in her experiment? (10 points)

The amount of dirt
The brand of mustard
None of these
The results of each detergent on each stain
The type of washing machine

6.How many seats in the House of Representatives are up for election this year? (5 points)

200
all of them
the same number as in the Senate
one third of them
150

7.Which is likely to have appeared last on Earth? (5 points)

Mosquito
Gibbon
Clam
Eagle
Salamander

8.Which belongs to the group "fauna?" (5 points)

Granite
Galapagos
Gasoline
Gerbil
Geranium

9.If a lemonade recipe calls for 1/4 cup of lemon juice per quart of water, how much lemon juice will you need to make a batch that uses three gallons of water? (5 points)

4 cups
2.5 cups
1.5 pints
3.5 cups
1 quart

10.Use estimation to decide which is greatest... (20 points)

2 squared
The square root of 9
The cube root of 27
The cube root of 60
The square root of 2 cubed

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