Help with son's homework

[ArmorOfGod]

Okay everyone,
My 7 year old son and I cannot find the answer to some make-up work he got from school (he was absent today).
Q: A ________ describes how matter looks, feels, smells, or tastes.
(fill in the blank)

The answer is 8 letters long and the next to last letter is a "t."

What is it?!?!?!?!?!?!?

AoG

 

[AMP-RYU]

The answer is PROPERTY! 150% sure!

 

[Sukerkin]

I'd second that suggestion :tup:.

 

[Carol]

Agreed. It's PROPERTY.

http://www.nyu.edu/pages/mathmol/textbook/whatismatter.html

What is Matter - Grade 4



What are the following familiar objects? How can you describe them if you didn't know what they were?

People describe objects in many ways using size, shape, colors, and textures. Describing objects by using

• size (place images here)
• shape
• color
• texture

uses an object's properties. A property describes how an object looks, feels, or acts.

 

[Drac]

Agreed. It's PROPERTY.

Ditto...

 

[terryl965]

It is Property and that is all.

 

[Gordon Nore]

Agreed. It's PROPERTY.

http://www.nyu.edu/pages/mathmol/textbook/whatismatter.html

What is Matter - Grade 4

What are the following familiar objects? How can you describe them if you didn't know what they were?

People describe objects in many ways using size, shape, colors, and textures. Describing objects by using

• size (place images here)
• shape
• color
• texture

uses an object's properties. A property describes how an object looks, feels, or acts.

Similar to Ontario:

Matter and Materials

In this strand, the study of matter in science is integrated with the use of materials in technology. In studying matter, students develop an understanding of the properties of substances, which will serve as a foundation for future theoretical studies in science. In designing and making useful objects, students apply their knowledge of the properties of the materials they are using, as well as knowledge of aesthetic and ergonomic principles in the area of technological design.

The topics covered in this strand are:

Grade 1: Characteristics of Objects and Properties of Materials
Grade 2: Properties of Liquids and Solids...

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/scientec18curr.pdfScience and Technology
The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8
1998

I haven't taught science at this level, but I really think the use of the term "properties" is highly abstract for that age. I understand it being in the curriculum, but I don't know why it's in the actual lessons. There's this huge thing about 'modeling correct language' in education, but it gets kinda' funny sometimes. As a student teacher in 2000, trying to find a familiar phrase that grade five might understand, I used the word, "takeaway," as a noun referring to subtraction. My son had been taught this only six years earlier, but I was immediately corrected, as this had recently expunged from Provincial curricular language.

 

[MBuzzy]

Yay for 4th grade!!! I wouldn't have known and I'm an engineer. I guess I fail 4th grade.

 

[dart68]

Okay everyone,
My 7 year old son and I cannot find the answer to some make-up work he got from school (he was absent today).
Q: A ________ describes how matter looks, feels, smells, or tastes.
(fill in the blank)

The answer is 8 letters long and the next to last letter is a "t."

What is it?!?!?!?!?!?!?

AoG

I was going to say adjective until I read that the work ends in "t".

 

[Carol]

Yay for 4th grade!!! I wouldn't have known and I'm an engineer. I guess I fail 4th grade.

I didn't know either (but I can google my way out of anything...)

We could start a club of engineers that fail 4th grade

Similar to Ontario:

I haven't taught science at this level, but I really think the use of the term "properties" is highly abstract for that age. I understand it being in the curriculum, but I don't know why it's in the actual lessons. There's this huge thing about 'modeling correct language' in education, but it gets kinda' funny sometimes. As a student teacher in 2000, trying to find a familiar phrase that grade five might understand, I used the word, "takeaway," as a noun referring to subtraction. My son had been taught this only six years earlier, but I was immediately corrected, as this had recently expunged from Provincial curricular language.

I can understand "modeling correct language" to a point, but my niece and nephew were both home-schooled and the science curriculum for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders is bloody ridiculous. These kids are getting so bogged down in vocabulary lists that they aren't learning any science!

Its a real shame...rather than fascinating a child with the wonders of the natural and physical world, we're bogging them down with memorising the differences between cytoplasm and golgi bodies.

 

[seasoned]

Ditto, to all the above.

 

[MBuzzy]

I didn't know either (but I can google my way out of anything...)

We could start a club of engineers that fail 4th grade

I would totally be in. DEFINITELY a solid member here. I have been trying to memorize all of the state capitols in the spare time....just because it's one of those things that I figured I should know.

I can understand "modeling correct language" to a point, but my niece and nephew were both home-schooled and the science curriculum for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders is bloody ridiculous. These kids are getting so bogged down in vocabulary lists that they aren't learning any science!

My first guess for the answer to the question was: "word." And I would argue with the teacher as to whether it was right or wrong. Because that is definitely A right answer. One of the many in the set of right answers. Unfortunately, in 4th grade, they teach kids that there is one right answer and only one right answer.

 

[ArmorOfGod]

Oh, thank you everyone. My son is in 2nd grade and is testing in 4rth/5th grade level and this was driving him CRAZY!!
I just ran in and told him.

AoG