DOK Test Question Examples | Reading Passages with DOK Test Questions

CCSS ELA Expository Reading Passages with DOK Test Question Examples

Top 10 Female Scientists who Changed the World:

1st Marie Curie

1.     While many people are familiar with male scientists and Nobel Prize winners, there are many brilliant and illustrious women out there who have made a significant difference in the world of science, which has had many repercussions in many other areas, including health care.

2.     Born Maria Sladowska in Poland in 1867, Marie Curie was the first women to win the Nobel Prize in two different categories, for her work in physics in 1903 and in chemistry in 1911. She was a pioneer in an era when women were facing many barriers in education and in particular the sciences, as well as teaching.

3.     It’s hard to imagine today that any woman would not get into university when she was a top student in her high school, but university was not permitted for women in Poland at the time, as it was in many countries around the world in the Victorian era. Marie attended a night school to further her education, known as the ‘floating university’ in Warsaw, that eluded the Russian occupation by teaching Polish students at night and changing locations frequently to avoid being intercepted

4.     At the time, the only university in Poland would not admit her, she had to leave her home country of Poland in order to complete her Ph.D. and further her studies in the scientific realm.

5.     She began interested in radium, and along with her husband, Pierre Curie, she began to study the rays it emitted, which has fascinated her. Her husband, Pierre, set aside his own work in order to pursue a joint study with her, and they worked together in their pursuit of radium, until his untimely death in a carriage accident.

6.      Both of Marie Curie’s parents were teachers and she continued in this route when she became the first female professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, as his position was made available to her after his death.

7.     While Marie Curie’s advancements in radium affected our understanding of atomic chemistry, but the most important contribution her work has made was leading to the development of X-ray technology that we still use today in health care, primarily in order to look at broken bones, and even in radiation treatments for cancer patients.

8.     During World War I she established the first radiological centres and mobile X-ray units to assist in the care of soldiers, and travelled to raise some funds so that she could establish the radium research institute, in order to continue her work on radioactivity.

9.     She was the first to speak about radioactivity, and also discovered a new radioactive element, polonium, which was named after her home country of Poland.

10.      Marie Curie died of leukemia, as a result of her ongoing exposure to radium and radioactivity. As the harmful effects and risks of radiation were not known at the time, Marie Curie would often carry test tubes in her pocket and was heavily exposed to radioactivity throughout her work, which lead to her death in 1934.

11.     While Marie Curie is widely known for her work on radioactivity, her legacy is not only tied to her breakthroughs in science, but also in how she contributed to the advancement of women in science and education with a number of important firsts to her name.

12.     Her legacy also continued beyond her death, as she has also received many posthumous awards. Many institutes recognize her work by bearing her name, such as the Maria Slodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology in her native Warsaw, Poland; and the Institute Curie in Paris, her second home.

13.     Arguably the most famous female scientist the world has known, Marie Curie has inspired many female scientists to follow in her footsteps, while also opening new doors for women to teach at the University level, and work in the field of mathematics, chemistry and physics.

Open-ended Reading Comprehension questions

1. Why was the university that Marie Curie attended known as the floating university?

2. What was Marie Curie’s contribution to the field of health care?

3. What was unique about Marie Curie’s Nobel Prize recognition?

4. Why did Marie Curie leave Warsaw?

5. What was so important about Marie Curie’s legacy?

6. What did Marie Curie contribute to the advancement of women?

Reading comprehension questions

1. Why was the university that Marie Curie attended known as the floating university?

a. The subject matter was always changing

b. It was always a different group of students

c. They always changed locations

2. What was one of Marie Curie’s contributions to the field of health care?

a. Radiation therapy

b. Chemotherapy

c. Radiotherapy

3. What was unique about Marie Curie’s Nobel Prize recognition?

a. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize

b. She was the first women to win the Nobel Prize in both physics and chemistry

c. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in physics

d. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in chemistry

4. Why did Marie Curie leave Warsaw?

a. Because she has leukemia

b. Because she could not attend the men’s university

c. Because she wanted to meet her future husband

5. What was so important about Marie Curie’s legacy?

a. She was the first woman scientist

b. She created an Oncology institute in her name

c. She inspired many women scientists

6. What did Marie Curie contribute to the advancement of women?

a. She allowed women to study science

b. She was the first woman scientist

c. She opened doors for women to teach in university

d. She opened doors for women to be part of World War I

Pick One DOK Level 3 Question and Research, Discuss, and Share with a partner.
• How are Marie Curie's discoveries related to physics today?
• What conclusions can you draw from a lack of female scientist in the 19th Century?
• How would you adapt Marie Curie's bio into a graphic time-line?
• How would you develop a checklist for selecting a new Nobel Laureates in science?
• Can you predict who will be the next women to receive the Nobel Prizes?
• What is the best text evidence to why Marie Curie selected science as a field of study? Why?
• What conclusion can be drawn from these three texts?
• What is your interpretation of a lack of female physicist, use text evidence to support your rationale.
• How would you describe the sequence of events that lead to Marie Curies death?
• What facts would you select to support Marie Curies is a maverick?
•Can you elaborate on the reason why her work was important to WWII?
• What would happen if Marie Curie never made her discoverers?
• Can you formulate a theory for radioactivity?
• How would you test to see if a substance was radioactive?
• Can you elaborate on the reasons you agree or disagree with the articles Title? Why?