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Email to: AndyLing@ScienceShifu.com
Hi there,
Glad you downloaded this free Ebook.
After reading this Ebook, you are one step closer to conquering the
explanation questions in science exams.
How to use this guidebook:
1) There are 13 MUST KNOW concepts.
2) Remember the underlined key words in each concept.
3) Apply the key words in your open-ended questions.
4) For explaining and describing science concepts, I have provided the
answering techniques to write your answers clearly. Use them in the
exams.
To the kids:
I understand your parents might have forced you to read through this
so I have kept this short for your easy reading.
Whenever you use this Ebook, do the following:
- Remember the answering technique behind each concept.
- There are questions in this guidebook (Try them out!)
- Analyse the mistakes made by past students
- Understand the scientific thinking process behind each question.
Take this book as a supplementary reading material before entering
the exam.
Note:
Do not use this Ebook with a “must fit all the words into the question”
approach.
The phrase/sentences MUST answer the question (See the questions
for more details)
Happy reading!
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Table of contents
Example: The iron rod gains heat from the candle flame.
OR
The glass rod loses heat to the surrounding air.
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Question 1
Glass plate
Steel plate
Both plates are placed in the refrigerator for a few hours. Mary then
take them out and touch the two plates.
Explain why her hand feels colder when she touched the steel plate
compared to touching the glass plate.
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The above answer will not give the student full marks…
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ScienceShifu Answer:
Steel is a better conductor of heat than glass.
Mary’s hand loses heat to the steel plate faster than the glass plate.
Mary’s hand feels colder when she touches the steel plate.
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Question 2
Mary wanted to heat up liquid X. She placed the bottle in a container
containing hot water as shown in the diagram below.
After ten minutes, she noticed liquid X was rising up the glass tube and
eventually flows out of the glass tube.
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Question 2 – Continue from previous page
ScienceShifu Answer:
Liquid X gains heat from the hot water and expands.
The air space gains heat from the hot water and expands.
The air space occupies more space inside the bottle and pushes liquid
X.
As liquid X cannot be compressed, liquid X rises up the glass tube and
eventually flows out of the glass tube.
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9) Presence of wind.
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10) Gains heat from the heat source and evaporates into water
vapour
Example: Water gains heat from the flame and evaporates into
water vapour.
11) Warmer water vapour comes into contact with the cooler
surface, loses heat and condenses to form water droplets.
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Question 3
300ml of
Water
Beaker A Beaker B
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3) Question ask you to explain why the final amount of water is lesser in
beaker A than in beaker B. You need to write out the comparative words.
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ScienceShifu Answer:
Beaker A is made of steel which is a better conductor of heat than
glass. The water in beaker A gains heat from steel faster than at B.
Result:
Temperature of water in beaker A rises faster than the water in beaker
B. Rate of evaporation is faster in beaker A than in beaker B.
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13) The object has no fixed shape but it has a fixed volume.
Example: Water has no fixed shape and but has a fixed volume
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Example: Air flows into the container to occupy the space when
water flows out/escapes from the container.
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Question 4
Study the sealed container as shown below. The sealed container has
a total volume of 1000cm3.
500cm3 of rocks is added and 100cm3 of air is pumped into the
container.
Sealed
container
Air pump
200cm3 of
water in
sealed
container
What is the final volume of air inside the sealed container? Explain
your answer.
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ScienceShifu Answer:
300cm3.
Air has no fixed volume and occupies the remaining space inside the
container.
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Animal pollination
18) Pollen grains land on the sticky stigma. Pollination occurs.
Fertilisation of flower
19) Removed stigma, style, ovary, ovule (remove any one of
them) and fertilisation will not take place.
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Question 5
Study flower Z below.
Sticky
stigma
Large petals
Flower Z
David noticed that the petals are brightly coloured. Explain clearly how
this characteristic helps the plant to develop into a fruit?
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ScienceShifu Answer:
The brightly coloured petals attract pollinators to the flower.
Some pollen grains caught by the pollinators land on the sticky stigma
of the flower. Pollination occurs.
Male reproductive cell and female reproductive cell fuses in the ovule
of the flower and fertilisation has taken place. Flower develops into a
fruit.
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Question 6
Study the two diagrams of the blood flow in humans below.
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The weaker student does not know what concept to apply as the
student sees small intestine and blood flow.
Is it circulatory system concepts or digestive system concepts?
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Understanding population
29) Different/types of population of species
Example: There are three different population of insects living
in the garden community.
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Explain why other bulbs will not light up when a bulb is fused
in a series circuit
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32) In parallel circuit, there are a few/more than one paths for
electricity to flow in a circuit.
33) One end of the wire is connected to the metal casing and the
other end of the wire is connected to the metal tip. The bulb will
light up.
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Question 7
When the circuit was closed, it was observed that only Bulb B3 did not
light up. Explain why Bulb B3 did not light up?
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Question 8
Switch
Bulb A
Battery
Bulb B
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ScienceShifu Answer:
Only Bulb B will light up.
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OR
As more bulbs are added in series, all the bulbs are dimmer
because the electrical current flowing across each bulb in series
is slower.
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Note: You must understand the brightness of the bulb when you
add “batteries in series or parallel”. The arrangement of batteries
affects the brightness of the bulb!
OR
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Iron core
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Question 9
Closed switch
Iron rod
Steel nails
The steel nails are attracted to the iron rod when Tom closes the
switch.
When Tom changed the iron rod to a glass rod, will the steel nails
move towards the glass rod? Explain your answer.
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Still, many students “vomit” out the answers as told by their teachers.
The student does not answer the question of “explaining why steel nails
will move or not move to the glass rod”.
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ScienceShifu Answer:
Steel nails will not move towards the glass rod. Since the glass rod is a
non-magnetic material, glass rod cannot be magnetised and there is no
electromagnet.
The glass rod cannot attract the steel nails.
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Example
State the useful energy conversion of the computer when Tom is
watching a video.
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About the Author
Hi there,
My name is Andy Ling and I’ve been teaching science over the past
8 years (from upper primary to lower secondary and ‘O’ levels).
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If you are looking for something that fits your budget, or prefer your
child learn at his or her own pace, you can join our pre-recorded online
science courses.
Your child can pause the video to try out the examples or replay the
lesson videos.
There are many OEQs and MCQs provided for your child to practise.
We also provide 24/7 Homework Helper Service for your child to clarify
his or her doubts in the science questions.
Got a Question?
Contact us via email: AndyLing@ScienceShifu.com
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A strong understanding of concepts will help your child score well in the
MCQs and open-ended questions
In each lesson, your child will discover such mistakes to achieve the
correct understanding of science concepts.
After that, it is time to apply the concepts to the exam questions.
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Join the ScienceShifu Channel to get the latest learning tips from
ScienceShifu.
Plus, we are posting challenging questions for your child to apply the
concepts taught.
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Every week, the girl diligently listens to the scientific concepts in the
online course.
Sometimes, she had a good laugh at the silly answers made by past
students.
Whenever she has doubts, she will take a picture of that question and
WhatsApp ScienceShifu.
The student diligently applies the techniques learnt in her school practice
papers.
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Success story 2
When he enrolled to the online course, he soon found out two things:
- There are missing links in his answer.
In other words, there are gaps in his explanation process. He did not
use the correct keywords in the open-ended answer and his sentence
structures are poorly arranged.
- He is careless.
He frequently misses the clues from the question or misreads them
altogether. Clues from the question will determine what are the
keywords needed in his open-ended answers.
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ScienceShifu gave him specific pointers that are needed to answer the
open-ended questions clearly.
In the end, his exam results from the open-ended questions jumped from
20/44 to 38/44!
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Does your child have problems identifying the concepts for the science
exams?
We are a team of science experts that help your child to master the
open-ended questions with great confidence.
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