Quick Quizzes | Science Writing Resources (new)

We have designed a number of quick quizzes, which can be accessed by following the links below, to give you an idea of how well you have grasped the important concepts relating to the specific topics that they assess.

In all cases, we encourage you to read the associated resources before attempting to complete the quizzes, because the material in the resources emphasizes the most important concepts we hope to clarify. Many of the resources also include short videos that reinforce the more challenging concepts.

We hope that you will find the quizzes useful and encourage you to complete them all to try to hone your science writing skills.

Resources with Quick Quizzes:

Comparisons and Descriptions

Effective Tables and Figures

Producing Effective Tables and Figures

Take this quick quiz to check to see if you are a wizard at producing effective tables and figures.

Decide whether the following four situations are better suited to displaying data in a figure or a table.
1) You have sampled 35 different ponds in British Columbia and taken two measurements in each one (water temperature and O2 concentration (%)).
2) You measured the length (cm) and weight (g), and counted the number of colourful spots on 25 different salmon caught in one lake and want to show the variation in these fish.
3) You wanted to see which food type these salmon preferred when given a choice of worms, beetles, larvae, and bread, so you made all four types available to each salmon and recorded its first choice.
4) You noted whether each fish ate one of the food types within 30 seconds, whether it swam alone or in a shoal, and whether it was scared or curious when it heard a ‘plop’ in the water and want to display these data.

Grammatical Devices in STEM

Grammatical Device in STEM

1) Does the following sentence show the correct use of the indefinite and definite articles? Note: If incorrect, think about how you would re-write them correctly.
THE only US-produced single I bought last summer went on to be A one-hit wonder.
If incorrect, how would you re-write it correctly?
2) Does the following sentence mix tenses? Note: If they do, think about how you could re-write them to make sure they were in the same tense.
I will probably have graduated by the time I will know what sort of career I want.
If 'YES', think about how you could re-write it to make sure it was in the same tense.
3) Which form of the verbs should be used to fill in the gaps in the following sentences?
a) NASA’s astronauts, like Mike, the bomb disposal specialist I know, ARE/IS trained under simulated conditions before being asked to work in real-life situations.
b) Neither I, nor my colleagues, FEEL/FEELS that science funding bodies should favour applied research proposals over basic research proposals.

Mechanics and Punctuation

1) Read the following sentence and decide which option places (or does not place) hyphens correctly in it: _____________________ from the University of British Columbia run the program.
2) Read the following sentence and decide which option places (or does not place) apostrophes correctly in it: ________________________ are all very friendly.
3) Read the following sentence and decide which grammar mechanic is incorrectly used: By using the Floral Powerset’s data, like minded-researchers can probe important ecological questions without ever conducting fieldwork themselves.

Numbers and Units

1) Read the following sentence and select the correct style for the number in it: ______________ years ago, the Earth’s rainforests were in a much better state.
2) Read the following sentence and select the correct style for the number in it: Now, due to deforestation, experts predict that up to _____________ species go extinct each year.
3) Read the following sentence and select the correct style for the number and unit in it: This means that ____________ of all species might be gone by 2065.
4) Read the following sentence and select the correct style for the number and unit in it: As a measure of how rapidly forests can be lost, logging in Amazonian Brazil rose by ________________ in just 12 months, between 2007 and 2008.