• Ask questions that arise from careful observation of phenomena, or unexpected results, to clarify and/or seek additional information.

• Ask questions that arise from examining models or a theory, to clarify and/or seek additional information and relationships.

• Ask questions to determine relationships, including quantitative relationships, between independent and dependent variables.

• Ask questions to clarify and refine a model, an explanation, or an engineering problem.

• Evaluate a question to determine if it is testable and relevant.

• Ask questions that can be investigated within the scope of the school laboratory, research facilities, or field (e.g., outdoor environment) with available resources and, when appropriate, frame a hypothesis based on a model or theory.

• Ask and/or evaluate questions that challenge the premise(s) of an argument, the interpretation of a data set, or the suitability of a design.

• Define a design problem that involves the development of a process or system with interacting components and criteria and constraints that may include social, technical, and/or environmental considerations.

• 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.

• HS-LS4 – BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION: UNITY AND DIVERSITY

  • HS-LS4-6: Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

• LS2: ECOSYSTEMS: INTERACTIONS, ENERGY, AND DYNAMICS

  • LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

    • Ecosystems have carrying capacities, which are limits to the numbers of organisms and populations they can support. These limits result from such factors as the availability of living and nonliving resources and from such challenges such as predation, competition, and disease. Organisms would have the capacity to produce populations of great size were it not for the fact that environments and resources are finite. This fundamental tension affects the abundance (number of individuals) of species in any given ecosystem.

  • LS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience

    • A complex set of interactions within an ecosystem can keep its numbers and types of organisms relatively constant over long periods of time under stable conditions. If a modest biological or physical disturbance to an ecosystem occurs, it may return to its more or less original status (i.e., the ecosystem is resilient), as opposed to becoming a very different ecosystem. Extreme fluctuations in conditions or the size of any population, however, can challenge the functioning of ecosystems in terms of resources and habitat availability.

    • Moreover, anthropogenic changes (induced by human activity) in the environment—including habitat destruction, pollution, introduction of invasive species, overexploitation, and climate change—can disrupt an ecosystem and threaten the survival of some species.

• 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

• None for Chemistry

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.