Praxis Earth and Space Sciences Online Center
This Praxis Earth and Space Sciences Online Center brings together practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Choose the resource that matches the skill you want to work on next.
Praxis Earth and Space Sciences Practice Center
Take a full 150-minute form, then read the explanation under every question you missed. Watch for two things while you sort the misses. Some are plain content gaps. Others are questions where you knew the science but the item was really asking about investigation design or about how a student was thinking, and those need different practice.
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Praxis Earth and Space Sciences at a glance
This is the ETS secondary content test for prospective high school Earth science teachers, and the first thing to know about it is how lopsided the weighting is. Almost half of the exam is geology. Astronomy, which candidates often study hardest because it is the most fun, is under a fifth of the questions. ETS aligned the framework to the Next Generation Science Standards and to NSTA preparation standards, so science and engineering practices and teaching decisions are layered through the content rather than sitting in a category of their own. Confirm that the state you are seeking licensure in accepts this test.
| Test code | 5572 (Earth and Space Sciences: Content Knowledge). The ETS test page and the test schedule shorten the title to Earth and Space Sciences; it is the same test. |
|---|---|
| Status | Current as of September 2026. The 2026-2027 Praxis test schedule lists 5572 as available daily, with no retirement or replacement notice. |
| Number of questions | 125 selected-response questions. There is no constructed response. |
| Time limit | 150 minutes, one session, with no separately timed sections |
| Question types | A mix of single-answer items and items that ask you to select one or more choices. ETS does not publish how the mix splits. |
| Calculator | None is provided, and ETS states none is needed. |
| Reference materials | A periodic table is on the Help screen, along with a table of physical constants and a few SI conversion factors. No geologic time scale, rock chart, or star chart is provided. |
| Format | Computer-delivered |
| Score scale | 100 to 200, in 1-point intervals. On most Praxis tests each correct selected-response question is worth one raw point. |
| Passing score | ETS does not set one. Each state or agency sets its own qualifying score, so check the requirement where you are seeking licensure. |
| How it is asked | ETS states that half or more of the questions integrate a science and engineering practice, and about one-quarter to one-third assess content applied to a task of teaching science. |
| Unscored items | ETS says the test may include some questions that do not count toward your score, without saying how many. |
ETS publishes approximate percentages and question counts for all four categories: Nature and Impact of Science and Engineering 15 percent and about 19 questions, Earth’s Processes and Materials 45 percent and about 56 questions, Earth’s Hydrosphere and Atmosphere 22 percent and about 28 questions, Astronomy 18 percent and about 22 questions. Category II alone is more than twice any other category, and with Category III it accounts for two-thirds of the exam. ETS publishes no percentage for the subcategories inside a category, so treat the II.A through II.D split as unknown and study all four.
The four categories, in plain language
ETS lists each category with the topics under it. Here is what each one asks of you, and what it is worth.
I. Nature and impact of science and engineering (15 percent, about 19 questions)
How science and engineering work, and what they do to the planet and to people. This is not a soft category; a good share of it is arithmetic you must do by hand.
- Empirical evidence, hypotheses, laws, theories, and models
- Designing an investigation and identifying variables
- Units, dimensional analysis, scientific notation, and significant figures
- Error analysis: accuracy against precision, mean, percent error, sources of error
- Reading data from maps, cross sections, graphs, and models
- Engineering design, criteria, constraints, and optimization
- Pollution, greenhouse gases, resource extraction, land use, and biodiversity loss
- Laboratory and field safety and equipment handling
II. Earth’s processes and materials (45 percent, about 56 questions)
The solid Earth, from the chemistry and physics behind it to the rock record. Nearly half the test lives here.
- Matter, energy, heat transfer, specific heat, and latent heat in Earth systems
- Plate tectonics, boundary types, driving forces, and the supporting evidence
- Crustal deformation: folds, faults, mountain building, rifting, isostasy
- Earthquakes, seismic waves, and what they reveal about Earth’s interior
- Volcano types, distribution, and eruptive behavior
- Mineral identification and the rock cycle
- Weathering, erosion, deposition, and soil formation
- Biogeochemical cycles and geosphere feedbacks
- Relative and radiometric dating and the geologic time scale
- Major events in Earth history and what the fossil record shows
III. Earth’s hydrosphere and atmosphere (22 percent, about 28 questions)
Water and air: the fluid parts of the Earth system, plus weather and climate.
- The properties of water and why they matter to Earth systems
- The water cycle, energy transfer, and the distribution of Earth’s water
- Streams, groundwater, aquifers, and hazards such as flooding and sinkholes
- The cryosphere, glacial cycles, and glacial landforms
- Ocean chemistry, circulation, waves, tides, and coastal processes
- Atmospheric structure, composition, and the energy budget
- Air masses, fronts, cloud and precipitation formation, and severe weather
- Climate zones, their controls, and natural drivers of climate change
IV. Astronomy (18 percent, about 22 questions)
The Sun-Earth-Moon system first, then the solar system, the stars, and the universe.
- Earth’s rotation and revolution, axial tilt, seasons, solstices, and equinoxes
- Moon phases, eclipses, and tides
- Solar structure, fusion, and solar activity effects on Earth
- Gravitation and Kepler’s laws
- Solar system formation, planets, and small bodies
- Stellar life cycles and the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
- Galaxies, dark matter, and evidence for the origin of the universe
A study routine for a 150-minute test
One hundred twenty-five questions in one hundred fifty minutes is seventy seconds each. That is enough time to read a diagram and think, but only if the vocabulary and the processes are already automatic. Build the plan around the weighting, not around what you enjoy.
Complete topic map
Eighty-four study points covering every subcategory ETS lists, grouped the way ETS groups them. Work down a group and mark the points you cannot explain out loud.
I.A Nature of science
- 01Recognize that scientific knowledge rests on empirical evidence, is interdisciplinary, and changes as new evidence arrives
- 02Apply the processes of science, including asking questions, forming hypotheses, and using laws and theories to explain phenomena
- 03Develop and apply models, and reason by observing, categorizing, comparing, generalizing, inferring, and concluding
- 04Work in standard units: dimensional analysis, unit conversion, and scale
- 05Use scientific notation and significant figures without a calculator
- 06Design an investigation, identify variables, plan data collection, and judge whether the design answers the question
- 07Process, organize, and report data, and interpret data given as maps, models, cross sections, and graphs
- 08Perform error analysis: accuracy and precision, mean, percent error, and systematic, random, and sampling error
- 09Evaluate the uses and limits of technologies such as remote sensing, geophysical methods, computer modeling, and research vehicles
- 10Prepare, use, store, and dispose of laboratory and field materials safely, and calibrate and maintain equipment
I.B Science, engineering, technology, society, and the environment
- 11Apply engineering design: define the problem, set criteria and constraints, evaluate solutions, and optimize through revision
- 12Explain how science, engineering, and technology drive each other forward
- 13Analyze air pollution and acid rain, including tropospheric ozone and sulfur and nitrogen oxides
- 14Analyze greenhouse gases and their effects: climate change, sea-level rise, ocean acidification, and stratospheric ozone depletion
- 15Analyze water pollution, thermal pollution, excess nutrient runoff, and the management of water resources
- 16Analyze loss of habitat and biodiversity
- 17Evaluate energy resources, renewable and nonrenewable, and compare fossil fuel, nuclear, hydro, solar, wind, and geothermal
- 18Analyze the global distribution and extraction of ores, groundwater, and mineral and energy resources
- 19Analyze land use, urban development, agriculture, soil degradation, and deforestation
- 20Analyze lifecycle costs of consumer products, and identify Earth science applications in daily life such as satellites, GPS, and hazard forecasting
II.A Matter and energy in Earth and space systems
- 21Describe atoms, molecules, ions, elements, and compounds, and distinguish mixtures, solutions, and precipitates
- 22Distinguish solids, liquids, gases, and plasmas, and apply kinetic molecular theory and the ideal gas law
- 23Identify chemical and physical properties and changes, including bonding, solubility, pH, oxidation, phase change, and density
- 24Apply conservation of matter and conservation of energy to physical and chemical processes
- 25Identify forms of energy, including thermal and chemical energy
- 26Apply wave properties, distinguish mechanical waves, and identify regions of the electromagnetic spectrum
- 27Explain conduction, convection, and radiation, and where each dominates in Earth systems
- 28Apply heat capacity and specific heat to Earth materials, especially land against water
- 29Explain latent heat and what the energy of phase transitions means for the water cycle and the energy budget
- 30Use temperature scales, and explain thermal expansion and contraction
II.B Tectonics and internal Earth processes
- 31Apply plate tectonic theory: convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries, plate rates and directions, and driving forces such as mantle convection, ridge push, and slab pull
- 32Weigh the evidence for plate tectonics: seismic, magnetic, fossil, and hot-spot data
- 33Analyze crustal deformation: anticlines and synclines, normal, reverse, and strike-slip faults, and compression, tension, and shear
- 34Explain mountain building, rifting, and isostasy, including postglacial rebound
- 35Interpret earthquakes: focus and epicenter, depth and distribution patterns, and magnitude against intensity on the Richter and Mercalli scales
- 36Read seismic waves and seismograms and explain what they reveal about Earth’s interior
- 37Describe the crust, mantle, and core and the properties of the lithosphere and asthenosphere
- 38Explain volcano formation and distribution at hot spots, subduction zones, and divergent boundaries
- 39Compare shield, composite, and cinder cone volcanoes and their eruptive behavior
II.C Earth’s materials and surface processes
- 40Define a mineral and identify minerals by hardness, cleavage, luster, streak, density, and crystal structure
- 41Classify igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks and trace the rock cycle
- 42Explain the carbon cycle, its reservoirs, and the processes that move carbon among them
- 43Explain the nitrogen cycle, nitrogen fixation, and nutrient cycling
- 44Distinguish chemical from physical weathering, and explain erosion and deposition
- 45Analyze feedbacks between the geosphere and the biosphere and between the geosphere and the hydrosphere
- 46Explain soil formation, soil profiles, and the factors that control the rate of soil development
II.D History of Earth and its life-forms
- 47Apply uniformitarianism and state its limitations
- 48Apply relative dating: original horizontality, superposition, crosscutting relationships, and stratigraphy
- 49Apply radiometric dating, isotopes, and half-lives, and calculate ages by hand
- 50Place events on the geologic time scale from the Precambrian through the Cenozoic
- 51Identify major events in Earth history such as the great oxidation, mass extinctions, and the end of the last ice age
- 52Explain changes in atmospheric composition over time and the origin of ocean water and its salinity
- 53Read the fossil record: fossilization processes, the appearance of major groups, and what the record shows about early life
III.A Earth’s hydrosphere
- 54Explain the properties of water, including hydrogen bonding, the density of ice, high specific heat, and high heat of vaporization
- 55Trace the water cycle, the phase changes and energy transfers in it, and the distribution of Earth’s fresh and salt water
- 56Describe streams, lakes, and wetlands, including erosion, deposition, and channel migration
- 57Describe groundwater, aquifers, springs, the water table, porosity and permeability, and hazards such as flooding, sinkholes, and drought
- 58Describe the cryosphere: ice sheets, alpine glaciers, sea ice, permafrost, glacial cycles, and glacial landforms
- 59Describe the ocean water column, surface and deep circulation, wave formation, and seafloor topography
- 60Explain tides, tidal range, coastal erosion and deposition, longshore currents, tsunamis, and island formation
- 61Explain ocean links to the atmosphere and biosphere: gas exchange, upwelling of nutrients, coral reefs, and hydrothermal vents
III.B Earth’s atmosphere
- 62Describe atmospheric composition, layers, and temperature and pressure profiles
- 63Apply the energy budget: absorption, reflection, scattering, and the greenhouse effect and its gases
- 64Explain cloud development and types and the formation of each kind of precipitation
- 65Explain air masses, fronts, and their weather, and interpret station models and weather maps
- 66Explain severe weather, including thunderstorms and lightning, hurricanes, and tornadoes
- 67Explain what sets climate zones: latitude, elevation, geography, atmospheric circulation, and ocean currents
- 68Identify natural drivers of climate variability and the proxy evidence for them, including ice cores, sediment cores, tree rings, volcanic eruptions, impacts, and Milankovitch cycles
IV.A The Sun-Earth-Moon system
- 69Explain Earth’s rotation and revolution and the sky as an observer on Earth sees it, including sunrise and sunset, seasonal stars, and time zones
- 70Explain axial tilt and its consequences: seasons, solstices, and equinoxes
- 71Explain Moon phases and solar and lunar eclipses
- 72Explain tides, tidal cycles, and spring against neap tides
- 73Describe solar activity and its effects on Earth, including solar wind, flares, and sunspots
IV.B The solar system and the universe
- 74Apply Newton’s law of universal gravitation and Kepler’s laws of planetary motion
- 75Explain the theory of planetary system formation
- 76Compare the planets by location, orbit, size, composition, and rotation rate
- 77Describe the Sun’s layers, composition, fusion, magnetic field, sunspots, and prominences
- 78Describe the structure, characteristics, and orbit of the Moon
- 79Identify asteroids, meteoroids, comets, dwarf planets, and natural satellites and what distinguishes them
- 80Trace the life cycle of stars from nebula and protostar to main sequence, white dwarf, supernova, and black hole
- 81Compare stars by mass, color, temperature, luminosity, and apparent brightness, and interpret the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
- 82Explain nuclear fusion and the formation of elements such as carbon, iron, and gold
- 83Describe galaxies, including shape, distribution, motion, dark matter, and supermassive black holes
- 84Evaluate the evidence for the origin and evolution of the universe, including redshift and the cosmic microwave background, and use spectra as evidence of composition, temperature, and motion
Before test day
Three reminders. Know the reference materials: the periodic table and the constants table are one click away, and candidates waste minutes trying to recall what is already on the screen. Read each stem for what it actually asks, because a stem about a volcano can be a question about experimental design or about a student’s reasoning. And keep the weighting in mind while you review; a candidate who arrives fluent in geology and merely competent in astronomy is in far better shape than one who did it the other way round.
A USEFUL NEXT STEP
Praxis Earth and Space Sciences: study questions
What can I study in this Praxis Earth and Space Sciences Online Center?
This Praxis Earth and Space Sciences Online Center includes practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Topics on the page include I.A Nature of science, I.B Science, engineering, technology, society, and the environment, II.A Matter and energy in Earth and space systems.
How should I use the Praxis Earth and Space Sciences resources?
Choose a topic or practice activity from this Online Center. Review the linked explanation, try the practice, and use the result to decide what to study next. Check each resource’s directions for its format and access requirements.
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