Science Assessment ~ Items ~ CA015003

The table below shows the presence or absence of traits in seven different species.

Based only on the traits presented in the table, which organism is most closely related to whales?

Pre-Test

Post-Test (Control)

Post-Test (Treatment)

Group	Correct	Total	Percent
Overall	290	558	52%
Grades
6–8	14	25	56%
9–12	257	498	52%
Gender
Male	133	243	55%
Female	136	274	50%
Primary Language
English	256	502	51%
Other	14	19	74%

Group	Correct	Total	Percent
Overall	157	294	53%
Grades
6–8	15	23	65%
9–12	129	247	52%
Gender
Male	61	109	56%
Female	87	171	51%
Primary Language
English	143	264	54%
Other	3	9	33%

Group	Correct	Total	Percent
Overall	120	281	43%
Grades
6–8	1	3	33%
9–12	111	257	43%
Gender
Male	59	132	45%
Female	57	140	41%
Primary Language
English	110	254	43%
Other	6	11	55%

Disciplinary Core Ideas: LS4.A Anatomical similarities and differences between various organisms living today and between them and organisms in the fossil record, enable the reconstruction of evolutionary history and the inference of lines of evolutionary descent.
Notes: NGSS includes the idea that anatomical similarities and differences can be used to infer lines of evolutionary descent and, by extension, degree of relatedness, but it does not say explicitly that the greater the degree of similarity the more closely organisms are related.

Science Assessment