• Compare and evaluate competing arguments or design solutions in light of currently accepted explanations, new evidence, limitations (e.g., trade-offs), constraints, and ethical issues.

• Evaluate the claims, evidence, and/or reasoning behind currently accepted explanations or solutions to determine the merits of arguments.

• Respectfully provide and/or receive critiques on scientific arguments by probing reasoning and evidence, challenging ideas and conclusions, responding thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, and determining additional information required to resolve contradictions.

• Construct, use, and/or present an oral and written argument or counter-arguments based on data and evidence.

• Make and defend a claim based on evidence about the natural world or the effectiveness of a design solution that reflects scientific knowledge and student generated evidence.

• Evaluate competing design solutions to a real-world problem based on scientific ideas and principles, empirical evidence, and/or logical arguments regarding relevant factors (e.g. economic, societal, environmental, ethical considerations).

Performance Standards

• HS-LS2 – ECOSYSTEMS: INTERACTIONS, ENERGY, AND DYNAMICS

  • HS-LS2-7: Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

• LS2: ECOSYSTEMS: INTERACTIONS, ENERGY, AND DYNAMICS

  • LS2.D: Social Interactions and Group Behavior

    • Group behavior has evolved because membership can increase the chances of survival for individuals and their genetic relatives.

• LS3: HEREDITY: INHERITANCE AND VARIATION OF TRAITS

  • LS3.B: Variation of Traits

    • In sexual reproduction, chromosomes can sometimes swap sections during the process of meiosis (cell division), thereby creating new genetic combinations and thus more genetic variation. Although DNA replication is tightly regulated and remarkably accurate, errors do occur and result in mutations, which are also a source of genetic variation. Environmental factors can also cause mutations in genes, and viable mutations are inherited.

    • Environmental factors also affect expression of traits, and hence affect the probability of occurrences of traits in a population. Thus the variation and distribution of traits observed depends on both genetic and environmental factors.

• LS4: BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION: UNITY AND DIVERSITY

  • LS4.D: Biodiversity and Humans

    • Biodiversity is increased by the formation of new species (speciation) and decreased by the loss of species (extinction).

    • Humans depend on the living world for the resources and other benefits provided by biodiversity. But human activity is also having adverse impacts on biodiversity through overpopulation, overexploitation, habitat destruction, pollution, introduction of invasive species, and climate change. Thus sustaining biodiversity so that ecosystem functioning and productivity are maintained is essential to supporting and enhancing life on Earth. Sustaining biodiversity also aids humanity by preserving landscapes of recreational or inspirational value.

Performance Standards

• HS-PS4 – WAVES AND THEIR APPLICATIONS IN TECHNOLOGIES FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER

  • HS-PS4-4: Evaluate the validity and reliability of claims in published materials of the effects that different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation have when absorbed by matter.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

• PS1: MATTER AND ITS INTERACTIONS

  • PS1.C: Nuclear Processes

    • Nuclear processes, including fusion, fission, and radioactive decays of unstable nuclei, involve release or absorption of energy. The total number of neutrons plus protons does not change in any nuclear process. (HS-PS1-8)

    • Spontaneous radioactive decays follow a characteristic exponential decay law. Nuclear lifetimes allow radiometric dating to be used to determine the ages of rocks and other materials.

• PS3: ENERGY

  • PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life

    • Although energy cannot be destroyed, it can be converted to less useful forms—for example, to thermal energy in the surrounding environment.

    • Solar cells are human-made devices that likewise capture the sun’s energy and produce electrical energy.

    • The main way that solar energy is captured and stored on Earth is through the complex chemical process known as photosynthesis.

    • Nuclear Fusion processes in the center of the sun release the energy that ultimately reaches Earth as radiation.

Performance Standards

• HS-PS4 – WAVES AND THEIR APPLICATIONS IN TECHNOLOGIES FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER

  • HS-PS4-2: Evaluate questions about the advantages of using a digital transmission and storage of information.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

• PS4: WAVES AND THEIR APPLICATIONS IN TECHNOLOGIES FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER

  • PS4.C: Information Technologies and Instrumentation

    • Multiple technologies based on the understanding of waves and their interactions with matter are part of everyday experiences in the modern world (e.g., medical imaging, communications, scanners) and in scientific research. They are essential tools for producing, transmitting, and capturing signals and for storing and interpreting the information contained in them.