A student's field sketch of a road cut records the following, from bottom to top. Layer 1: gray shale containing trilobite fossils A granite body cuts upward through Layers 1 and 2. The rock along its contacts with Layers 1 and 2 is baked and hardened. The top of Layer 2 and the top of the granite form an uneven surface. Rounded pebbles of granite sit on this surface. Layer 3: limestone, lying on the uneven surface. The limestone shows no baking where it touches the granite. Which sequence of events, from oldest to youngest, is best supported by the sketch?

Shale, sandstone, granite intrusion, erosion, limestone

Shale, granite intrusion, sandstone, limestone, erosion

Granite intrusion, shale, sandstone, erosion, limestone

Shale, sandstone, limestone, granite intrusion, erosion

A teacher boils water in a clear kettle. A student points to the white cloud above the spout and says, "That white cloud is water vapor." Which is the most effective next step for the teacher?

Point out the clear gap just above the spout, then hold a cold spoon in the cloud to collect droplets.

Boil salt water and show that the white cloud leaves all of the salt behind in the kettle.

Weigh the kettle before and after boiling to show that some of the water left the kettle as a gas.

Have students look up the words vapor and cloud in a glossary and copy both definitions.

Red-green color blindness is an X-linked recessive trait. A woman with normal color vision whose father was color-blind marries a man with normal color vision. Which prediction about their children is correct?

Each son has a 50% chance of being color-blind, and no daughter is expected to be color-blind.

Each daughter has a 50% chance of being color-blind, and no son is expected to be color-blind.

No children can be color-blind, because both parents have normal color vision.

Each son and each daughter has the same 25% chance of being color-blind.

During a lesson on the water cycle, a student says, "When the floating sea ice around the North Pole melts, sea level will rise and flood coastal cities." Which demonstration would best help students evaluate the student's claim?

Melt floating ice in one tub and ice set on a rock above the water in another; compare levels.

Warm a tub of water under a lamp and mark how far the water level rises as it heats.

Float ice in salt water and in fresh water, then time how long the ice takes to melt in each.

Melt a large block of ice in an empty tub and measure how deep the meltwater becomes.

Human ABO blood type is controlled by three alleles: IA and IB are codominant, and i is recessive to both. A parent with type AB blood has a child with a parent who has type O blood. Which statement about the possible blood types of their children is correct?

Each child has a 50% chance of type A blood and a 50% chance of type B blood.

Every child will have type AB blood, because both IA and IB are dominant to i.

Each child has a 50% chance of type AB blood and a 50% chance of type O blood.

Each child has an equal 25% chance of type A, B, AB or O blood.

Scientists measured the concentration of a persistent pesticide in organisms from one lake. Which explanation best accounts for the pattern in the data?

The pesticide is stored in tissues and builds up at each level as predators eat many prey.

Birds absorb the pesticide directly from the water, which has the highest concentration.

The pesticide is broken down by each organism, so levels fall as it moves up the food chain.

The pesticide is spread evenly among all organisms in the lake by diffusion through water.

Substance | Melting point | Conducts electricity when dissolved in water Both substances are white solids that dissolve in water. Which conclusion is best supported by the data?

X is likely ionic and Y covalent, because only X forms ions that move in water.

Both are likely ionic, because both dissolve in water to form a clear solution.

X is likely covalent and Y ionic, because shared electrons cause high melting points.

Both are likely covalent, because neither one was tested as a melted liquid.

Praxis Elementary Education Fundamentals: Science (8005)

Free Praxis Science 8005 Practice Questions

10 sample questions for the Praxis Elementary Education Fundamentals: Science (8005), with the correct answer and an explanation for each. No account needed. Try each one before you open the answer.

Sections covered on the exam: Earth and Space Sciences, Life Sciences.

Question 1 · Earth and Space Sciences
A student's field sketch of a road cut records the following, from bottom to top.
Layer 1: gray shale containing trilobite fossils
A granite body cuts upward through Layers 1 and 2. The rock along its contacts with Layers 1 and 2 is baked and hardened.
The top of Layer 2 and the top of the granite form an uneven surface. Rounded pebbles of granite sit on this surface.
Layer 3: limestone, lying on the uneven surface. The limestone shows no baking where it touches the granite.
Which sequence of events, from oldest to youngest, is best supported by the sketch?
- A.Shale, granite intrusion, sandstone, limestone, erosion
- B.Granite intrusion, shale, sandstone, erosion, limestone
- C.Shale, sandstone, limestone, granite intrusion, erosion
- D.Shale, sandstone, granite intrusion, erosion, limestone
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Shale, sandstone, granite intrusion, erosion, limestone
Superposition puts the shale before the sandstone, and the baked contacts show the granite intruded after both formed. Granite pebbles on an eroded surface beneath unbaked limestone show that the granite was exposed and eroded before the limestone was deposited. An intrusion after the limestone would have baked it and could not supply pebbles to its base.
Question 2 · Earth and Space Sciences
A teacher boils water in a clear kettle. A student points to the white cloud above the spout and says, "That white cloud is water vapor."
Which is the most effective next step for the teacher?
- A.Boil salt water and show that the white cloud leaves all of the salt behind in the kettle.
- B.Weigh the kettle before and after boiling to show that some of the water left the kettle as a gas.
- C.Have students look up the words vapor and cloud in a glossary and copy both definitions.
- D.Point out the clear gap just above the spout, then hold a cold spoon in the cloud to collect droplets.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Point out the clear gap just above the spout, then hold a cold spoon in the cloud to collect droplets.
Water vapor is an invisible gas; it is the clear gap just above the spout, and the white cloud forms where the vapor cools and condenses into tiny liquid droplets. Collecting droplets on a cold spoon gives the student direct evidence that the cloud is liquid water. Weighing the kettle shows that water left but does not address what the visible cloud is made of.
Question 3 · Life Sciences
Red-green color blindness is an X-linked recessive trait. A woman with normal color vision whose father was color-blind marries a man with normal color vision.
Which prediction about their children is correct?
- A.Each son has a 50% chance of being color-blind, and no daughter is expected to be color-blind.
- B.Each daughter has a 50% chance of being color-blind, and no son is expected to be color-blind.
- C.No children can be color-blind, because both parents have normal color vision.
- D.Each son and each daughter has the same 25% chance of being color-blind.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Each son has a 50% chance of being color-blind, and no daughter is expected to be color-blind.
The woman received an X carrying the color-blind allele from her father, so she is a carrier. Sons receive their only X from the mother, giving each son a 1/2 chance of being color-blind, while daughters receive a normal X from the father and can at most be carriers. A 25% chance applies only to a child whose sex is not yet known; sons and daughters have different risks.
Question 4 · Life Sciences
In a meadow food chain, the grasses store 40,000 kilocalories of energy per square meter per year. The chain is grass → grasshopper → shrew → owl.
Using the 10% rule, about how much energy per square meter per year is available to the owls?
- A.4 kilocalories
- B.400 kilocalories
- C.4,000 kilocalories
- D.40 kilocalories
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. 40 kilocalories
About 10% passes to each higher level: grasshoppers 40,000 × 0.1 = 4,000 kcal, shrews 4,000 × 0.1 = 400 kcal, and owls 400 × 0.1 = 40 kcal. The owl is the third consumer level, so the 10% rule is applied three times, not one or two times.
Question 5 · Earth and Space Sciences
Aluminum reacts with oxygen gas to form aluminum oxide, Al2O3. Which equation is correctly balanced?
- A.Al2 + O3 → Al2O3
- B.3Al + 2O2 → Al3O4
- C.4Al + 3O2 → 2Al2O3
- D.2Al + 3O2 → Al2O3
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. 4Al + 3O2 → 2Al2O3
In the correct equation, the left side has 4 Al and 3 × 2 = 6 O atoms, and the right side has 2 × 2 = 4 Al and 2 × 3 = 6 O atoms. Rewriting the formulas as Al2, O3 or Al3O4 changes the substances themselves, because only coefficients, never subscripts, may be changed when balancing.
Question 6 · Earth and Space Sciences
Basalt samples are collected along a line running east from the axis of a mid-ocean ridge.
Distance from ridge axis (km) | Age of basalt (million years)
Samples collected to the west of the ridge show the same pattern.
At what average rate has the seafloor east of the ridge moved away from the ridge axis?
- A.20 cm per year
- B.4 cm per year
- C.2 cm per year
- D.0.2 cm per year
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. 2 cm per year
The seafloor moves 20 km every 1 million years. Converting, 20 km = 2,000,000 cm, so the rate is 2,000,000 cm ÷ 1,000,000 years = 2 cm per year. Doubling to 4 cm per year gives the rate at which the two plates separate from each other, not the rate on one side.
Question 7 · Earth and Space Sciences
During a lesson on the water cycle, a student says, "When the floating sea ice around the North Pole melts, sea level will rise and flood coastal cities."
Which demonstration would best help students evaluate the student's claim?
- A.Warm a tub of water under a lamp and mark how far the water level rises as it heats.
- B.Float ice in salt water and in fresh water, then time how long the ice takes to melt in each.
- C.Melt floating ice in one tub and ice set on a rock above the water in another; compare levels.
- D.Melt a large block of ice in an empty tub and measure how deep the meltwater becomes.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Melt floating ice in one tub and ice set on a rock above the water in another; compare levels.
Floating ice already displaces its own weight of water, so the level barely changes when it melts, while ice resting on land adds new water when it melts. Comparing the two tubs lets students see that melting sea ice does little to sea level, whereas melting glaciers and ice sheets on land raise it. Melting ice in an empty tub or timing melt rates does not test the claim, and warming water models thermal expansion rather than melting sea ice.
Question 8 · Life Sciences
Human ABO blood type is controlled by three alleles: IA and IB are codominant, and i is recessive to both. A parent with type AB blood has a child with a parent who has type O blood.
Which statement about the possible blood types of their children is correct?
- A.Every child will have type AB blood, because both IA and IB are dominant to i.
- B.Each child has a 50% chance of type AB blood and a 50% chance of type O blood.
- C.Each child has an equal 25% chance of type A, B, AB or O blood.
- D.Each child has a 50% chance of type A blood and a 50% chance of type B blood.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Each child has a 50% chance of type A blood and a 50% chance of type B blood.
The AB parent passes either IA or IB, and the O parent passes only i, so children are IA i (type A) or IB i (type B) with equal probability. Type AB requires both IA and IB in the child, and type O requires i from both parents, so neither type is possible here.
Question 9 · Life Sciences
Scientists measured the concentration of a persistent pesticide in organisms from one lake.
Which explanation best accounts for the pattern in the data?
- A.The pesticide is stored in tissues and builds up at each level as predators eat many prey.
- B.Birds absorb the pesticide directly from the water, which has the highest concentration.
- C.The pesticide is broken down by each organism, so levels fall as it moves up the food chain.
- D.The pesticide is spread evenly among all organisms in the lake by diffusion through water.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. The pesticide is stored in tissues and builds up at each level as predators eat many prey.
Concentration rises from water to algae to fish to birds, the pattern of biomagnification: the chemical is stored in tissues rather than broken down, and each predator accumulates the amounts in the many prey it eats. The water has the lowest concentration, so direct absorption from water cannot explain the birds' high levels.
Question 10 · Earth and Space Sciences
Substance | Melting point | Conducts electricity when dissolved in water
Both substances are white solids that dissolve in water.
Which conclusion is best supported by the data?
- A.Both are likely ionic, because both dissolve in water to form a clear solution.
- B.X is likely ionic and Y covalent, because only X forms ions that move in water.
- C.X is likely covalent and Y ionic, because shared electrons cause high melting points.
- D.Both are likely covalent, because neither one was tested as a melted liquid.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. X is likely ionic and Y covalent, because only X forms ions that move in water.
Ionic compounds usually have high melting points and conduct electricity when dissolved because their ions are free to move, matching X. Y's lower melting point and lack of conductivity in solution fit a covalent compound such as sugar; dissolving alone does not show that a compound is ionic. Indicator | Color change Methyl orange | red below pH 3.1, yellow above pH 4.4 Bromothymol blue | yellow below pH 6.0, green in between, blue above pH 7.6 Phenolphthalein | colorless below pH 8.2, pink above pH 10 A sample of an unknown solution turns methyl orange yellow and bromothymol blue blue, and phenolphthalein stays colorless.

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