Seventh grade science by Utah's five SEEd strands: forces, a changing Earth, cells, inheritance and change in species.
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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with the Utah State Board of Education. Bank checked October 13, 2026.
The real test: RISE science, grade 7
Time limit
None
Blueprint
10 clusters: 2 on each of the five strands, 20% of the test each. The blueprint gives no number of questions.
Strands
7.1 Forces Are Interactions Between Matter, 7.2 Changes to Earth Over Time, 7.3 Structure and Function of Life, 7.4 Reproduction and Inheritance, 7.5 Changes in
How it is given
On a computer, adaptive and not timed. The blueprint calls it a matrix-designed test: each student is assessed on a subset of the standards in a strand.
Subjects in grade 7
English language arts, mathematics and science.
Scores
A scale score and one of four proficiency levels: Below Proficient, Approaching Proficient, Proficient or Highly Proficient.
Spring 2027 window
March 9 to June 4, 2027 for the summative tests. Each district or charter school has 8 weeks within that window.
Strand 7.1: Forces Are Interactions Between Matter 8
A balloon rubbed on hair makes small bits of paper jump up to it before it touches them. Which force lifts the paper?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.1.3 (Strand 7.1: Forces Are Interactions Between Matter)
A compass needle turns when a bar magnet is brought near it, even though the two never touch. What explains this?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.1.3 (Strand 7.1: Forces Are Interactions Between Matter)
A hockey puck slides across smooth ice in a straight line at a steady speed. What does that tell you about the forces on the puck?NASA Glenn Research Center, Newton's Laws of Motion; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.1.1 (Strand 7.1: Forces Are Interactions Between Matter)
A rolling cart hits a parked cart. During the hit, the rolling cart pushes on the parked cart with a force of 40 newtons. What force does the parked cart put on the rolling cart?NASA Glenn Research Center, Newton's Laws of Motion; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.1.2 (Strand 7.1: Forces Are Interactions Between Matter)
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Strand 7.1: Forces Are Interactions Between Matter, continued
A rover weighs less on a small, low-mass planet than it does on Earth, though its own mass is the same. Why?NASA Space Place, What Is Gravity?; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.1.5 (Strand 7.1: Forces Are Interactions Between Matter)
A student wraps wire around an iron nail and connects it to a battery. With 10 turns of wire the nail lifts 4 paper clips, with 20 turns it lifts 9, and with 30 turns it lifts 13. What do the data show?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.1.4 (Strand 7.1: Forces Are Interactions Between Matter)
Two sleds sit on flat snow. One is empty and one is loaded with firewood. Each sled gets the same shove. Which sled speeds up more?NASA Glenn Research Center, Newton's Laws of Motion; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.1.1 (Strand 7.1: Forces Are Interactions Between Matter)
Which change would make the gravitational pull between two objects stronger?NASA Space Place, What Is Gravity?; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.1.5 (Strand 7.1: Forces Are Interactions Between Matter)
Strand 7.2: Changes to Earth Over Time 8
A road cut through a hillside exposes flat sedimentary layers that were never tilted or folded. A geologist wants a sample from the youngest layer. Where should she take it?U.S. Geological Survey, Fossils, Rocks, and Time: Rocks and Layers; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.2.6 (Strand 7.2: Changes to Earth Over Time)
Deep underground, heat and pressure change a layer of shale into a denser rock without melting it. What kind of rock has formed?U.S. Geological Survey, What are metamorphic rocks?; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.2.1 (Strand 7.2: Changes to Earth Over Time)
Engineers are designing a bridge near an active fault. Which statement is a constraint, a limit the design must work within?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.2.3 (Strand 7.2: Changes to Earth Over Time)
Fossils of the same land species are found on the coasts of South America and Africa, which an ocean now separates. What does this evidence support?U.S. Geological Survey, This Dynamic Earth: Historical perspective; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.2.5 (Strand 7.2: Changes to Earth Over Time)
Magma trapped deep underground cools slowly over thousands of years until it hardens. Which kind of rock has formed?U.S. Geological Survey, What are igneous rocks?; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.2.1 (Strand 7.2: Changes to Earth Over Time)
On a world map, most earthquakes and volcanoes fall in narrow bands instead of being spread evenly. What do the bands follow?U.S. Geological Survey, What is the "Ring of Fire"?; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.2.5 (Strand 7.2: Changes to Earth Over Time)
Which change to Earth's surface can happen in minutes rather than over millions of years?Utah Geological Survey, Landslide Hazards; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.2.2 (Strand 7.2: Changes to Earth Over Time)
Why is Earth's core at the center of the planet, under the mantle and the crust?U.S. Geological Survey, This Dynamic Earth: Inside the Earth; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.2.4 (Strand 7.2: Changes to Earth Over Time)
Strand 7.3: Structure and Function of Life 8
A bacterium and an oak tree are both alive. How do they differ in their cells?National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary: Cell; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.3.1 (Strand 7.3: Structure and Function of Life)
A model shows a cell as a factory. Which part should be labeled as the power plant that supplies most of the cell's chemical energy?National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary: Mitochondria; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.3.2 (Strand 7.3: Structure and Function of Life)
A stain colors only chromosomes. Which part of a plant or animal cell will take up the color?National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary: Nucleus; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.3.2 (Strand 7.3: Structure and Function of Life)
A student compares a leaf cell with a cheek cell under a microscope. Which two parts are found only in the leaf cell?Arizona State University, Ask A Biologist: Cell Parts; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.3.2 (Strand 7.3: Structure and Function of Life)
A student looks at onion skin, a leaf and a scraping from her own cheek under a microscope. All three are built from the same basic units. What are the units?National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary: Cell; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.3.1 (Strand 7.3: Structure and Function of Life)
The heart is made of several layers of tissue that work together to pump blood. What level of organization is the heart?National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, How the Heart Works; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.3.3 (Strand 7.3: Structure and Function of Life)
In a body, cells form tissues. What comes next as the levels get larger?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.3.3 (Strand 7.3: Structure and Function of Life)
Which part of a cell controls which materials enter and leave it?National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary: Cell Membrane; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.3.2 (Strand 7.3: Structure and Function of Life)
Strand 7.4: Reproduction and Inheritance 8
A bee sips nectar from an apple blossom and leaves with pollen stuck to its body. How does this help the apple tree reproduce?U.S. Forest Service, What is Pollination?; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.4.2 (Strand 7.4: Reproduction and Inheritance)
A beetle carries a change in its DNA sequence that neither of its parents had. What is such a change called?National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary: Mutation; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.4.3 (Strand 7.4: Reproduction and Inheritance)
A coral polyp buds off a new polyp without a mate. How do the new polyp's genes compare with the parent's?NOAA National Ocean Service, How do corals reproduce?; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.4.1 (Strand 7.4: Reproduction and Inheritance)
A grower tests two ways to breed sweeter strawberries. Method A raised the sugar level in 3 of 20 plant lines. Method B raised it in 12 of 20. What do the data support?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.4.4 (Strand 7.4: Reproduction and Inheritance)
A male bird has bright feathers and a loud song. How can these traits raise his chance of reproducing?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.4.2 (Strand 7.4: Reproduction and Inheritance)
A mutation changes one gene in a pea plant. What can be said about its effect on the plant before anyone studies it?MedlinePlus Genetics, Do all gene variants affect health and development?; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.4.3 (Strand 7.4: Reproduction and Inheritance)
For many generations, farmers let only their best milk-producing cows have calves. What is this practice called?UC Museum of Paleontology, Understanding Evolution: Artificial selection; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.4.4 (Strand 7.4: Reproduction and Inheritance)
Why are offspring from sexual reproduction genetically different from each parent?UC Museum of Paleontology, Understanding Evolution: Sex and genetic shuffling; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.4.1 (Strand 7.4: Reproduction and Inheritance)
Strand 7.5: Changes in Species Over Time 8
A fossil snake about 95 million years old has small hind legs. Modern snakes have none. What does comparing the ancient and modern snakes suggest?UC Museum of Paleontology, Understanding Evolution: Developmental biology; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.5.3 (Strand 7.5: Changes in Species Over Time)
Baleen whales have no teeth as adults, but they grow teeth early in development and lose them before birth. What does this suggest?UC Museum of Paleontology, Understanding Evolution: Developmental biology; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.5.4 (Strand 7.5: Changes in Species Over Time)
The fossil animal Archaeopteryx had a skeleton like a reptile, with teeth and a long bony tail, but it was covered with feathers. What do scientists infer from it?U.S. Geological Survey, Fossils, Rocks, and Time: Fossil Succession; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.5.3 (Strand 7.5: Changes in Species Over Time)
In a population of 200 lizards, 50 are pale. Ten years later the population is still 200 and 120 are pale. How did the share of pale lizards change?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.5.1 (Strand 7.5: Changes in Species Over Time)
Older rock layers hold fossils of fish but none of mammals. Younger layers above them hold both. What does this pattern show?U.S. Geological Survey, Fossils, Rocks, and Time: Fossil Succession; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.5.2 (Strand 7.5: Changes in Species Over Time)
Pale and dark lizards live on pale desert sand, where hawks hunt by sight and catch more of the dark lizards. Body color is inherited. What is likely to happen over many generations?UC Museum of Paleontology, Understanding Evolution: Natural selection; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.5.1 (Strand 7.5: Changes in Species Over Time)
What do most fossils represent?U.S. Geological Survey, Fossils, Rocks, and Time: Fossil Succession; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.5.2 (Strand 7.5: Changes in Species Over Time)
Which condition must be true for natural selection to change a trait in a population?UC Museum of Paleontology, Understanding Evolution: Natural selection; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 7.5.1 (Strand 7.5: Changes in Species Over Time)
How this list was compiled: Outline: Utah RISE Science Grades 6-8 Blueprints, the grade 7 table (clusters and percent of the test for each strand), Utah State Board of Education, https://utahrise.org/content/contentresources/en/Science-Gr-6-8-Public-Facing-Blueprints.pdf, read 2026-10-13. Each question names the standard it practices in the Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (Utah State Board of Education, adopted June 2023), grade 7, https://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/science/_science_/UtahSEEdStandards.pdf, read 2026-10-13; the fact in an answer is one the standard or its strand text gives, or is worked out from the data in the question. 32 of the 40 questions also rest on a public page named under the answer, each opened 2026-10-13: NASA Glenn Research Center, Newton's Laws of Motion; NASA Space Place, What Is Gravity?; U.S. Geological Survey, What are igneous rocks?; U.S. Geological Survey, What are metamorphic rocks?; Utah Geological Survey, Landslide Hazards; U.S. Geological Survey, This Dynamic Earth: Inside the Earth; U.S. Geological Survey, What is the "Ring of Fire"?; U.S. Geological Survey, This Dynamic Earth: Historical perspective; U.S. Geological Survey, Fossils, Rocks, and Time: Rocks and Layers; National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary: Cell; National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary: Nucleus; National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary: Mitochondria; National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary: Cell Membrane; Arizona State University, Ask A Biologist: Cell Parts; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, How the Heart Works; NOAA National Ocean Service, How do corals reproduce?; UC Museum of Paleontology, Understanding Evolution: Sex and genetic shuffling; U.S. Forest Service, What is Pollination?; National Human Genome Research Institute, Talking Glossary: Mutation; MedlinePlus Genetics, Do all gene variants affect health and development?; UC Museum of Paleontology, Understanding Evolution: Artificial selection; UC Museum of Paleontology, Understanding Evolution: Natural selection; U.S. Geological Survey, Fossils, Rocks, and Time: Fossil Succession; UC Museum of Paleontology, Understanding Evolution: Developmental biology. Test facts: RISE Testing: A Guide for Utah Families (June 2026), Making Sense of RISE Scores (June 2026), RISE Testing Overview (October 2025) and the 2026-2027 Assessment Director Resource Guide (updated September 2026), linked from https://schools.utah.gov/assessment/assessments/rise, read 2026-10-13. No training test, benchmark module or released item was opened. Licence: Own work. Questions, answer choices and explanations were written for this site from Utah's published science standards. Nothing is copied or reworded from a RISE test, a training test, a benchmark module, a released item or another practice test.
How it works
Unofficial practice for Utah's grade 7 RISE science test. Each of the five SEEd strands gets 8 of 40 questions, matching the blueprint's equal weights. None is from a RISE test. Not affiliated with the Utah State Board of Education.
Read the full guide
What the grade 7 RISE science test covers
Strand 7.1 is forces: Newton's laws, collisions, and electric, magnetic and gravitational fields. Strand 7.2 is Earth over time: the rock cycle, Earth's layers, plate tectonics and the geologic time scale. Strand 7.3 is cells and the levels of body organization. Strand 7.4 is reproduction, inheritance and mutations. Strand 7.5 is natural selection and its evidence: fossils, body structures and embryos.
What grade 7 leaves for high school
Force problems stay in one dimension, with no vectors. Body systems are tested as levels of organization, not as the jobs of single organs. Mutations are tested as changes that may harm, help or do nothing, without protein synthesis or the named types of mutation.
Balanced forces do not mean no motion: with no net force, a moving object keeps the same speed and direction.
Questions and answers
How many questions are on the 7th grade RISE science test?
No number is published. The grades 6-8 science blueprint gives grade 7 a total of 10 clusters, 2 from each of the five strands, and says each student is assessed on only some of the standards within a strand.
Is the RISE science test timed?
No. The State Board's guide for families lists RISE tests as not timed. The test is computer adaptive, so the questions change in difficulty as a student answers.
What is a passing score on the 7th grade RISE science test?
Utah publishes no percent to pass. A student gets a scale score and one of four proficiency levels: Below Proficient, Approaching Proficient, Proficient or Highly Proficient.
Is there an official RISE practice test for 7th grade science?
The State Board offers training tests on the Utah RISE portal, linked in the box under the questions. They show the tools and question types and give no score.