• Plan an investigation or test a design individually and collaboratively to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence as part of building and revising models, supporting explanations for phenomena, or testing solutions to problems. Consider possible confounding variables or effects and evaluate the investigation’s design to ensure variables are controlled.

• Plan and conduct an investigation individually and collaboratively to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence, and in the design: decide on types, how much, and accuracy of data needed to produce reliable measurements and consider limitations on the precision of the data (e.g., number of trials, cost, risk, time), and refine the design accordingly.

• Plan and conduct an investigation or test a design solution in a safe and ethical manner including considerations of environmental, social, and personal impacts.

• Select appropriate tools to collect, record, analyze, and evaluate data.

• Make directional hypotheses that specify what happens to a dependent variable when an independent variable is manipulated.

• Manipulate variables and collect data about a complex model of a proposed process or system to identify failure points or improve performance relative to criteria for success or other variables

• Analyze data using tools, technologies, and/or models (e.g., computational, mathematical) in order to make valid and reliable scientific claims or determine an optimal design solution.

• Apply concepts of statistics and probability (including determining function fits to data, slope, intercept, and correlation coefficient for linear fits) to scientific and engineering questions and problems, using digital tools when feasible.

• Consider limitations of data analysis (e.g., measurement error, sample selection) when analyzing and interpreting data.

• Compare and contrast various types of data sets (e.g., self-generated, archival) to examine consistency of measurements and observations.

• Evaluate the impact of new data on a working explanation and/or model of a proposed process or system.

• Analyze data to identify design features or characteristics of the components of a proposed process or system to optimize it relative to criteria for success.

Performance Standards

• None for Biology

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.

Performance Standards

• HS-PS1 – MATTER AND ITS INTERACTIONS

  • HS-PS1-3: Plan and conduct an investigation to gather evidence to compare the structure of substances at the bulk scale to infer the strength of electrical forces between particles.

• HS-PS3 – ENERGY

• HS-PS3-4: Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that the transfer of thermal energy when two components of different temperature are combined within a closed system results in a more uniform energy distribution among the components in the system (second law of thermodynamics).

Disciplinary Core Ideas

• PS1: MATTER AND ITS INTERACTIONS

  • PS1.B: Chemical Reactions

    • Chemical processes, their rates, and whether or not energy is stored or released can be understood in terms of the collisions of molecules and the rearrangements of atoms into new molecules, with consequent changes in the sum of all bond energies in the set of molecules that are matched by changes in kinetic energy. (HS-PS1-4), (HS-PS1-5)

    • In many situations, a dynamic and condition-dependent balance between a reaction and the reverse reaction determines the numbers of all types of molecules present. (HS-PS1-6)

    • The fact that atoms are conserved, together with knowledge of the chemical properties of the elements involved, can be used to describe and predict chemical reactions. (HS-PS1-2), (HS-PS1-7)

  • 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)

Performance Standards

• None for Physics

Disciplinary Core Ideas

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

  • PS4.A: Wave Properties

    • The wavelength and frequency of a wave are related to one another by the speed of travel of the wave, which depends on the type of wave and the medium through which it is passing. (HS-PS4-1)

    • Information can be digitized (e.g., a picture stored as the values of an array of pixels); in this form, it can be stored reliably in computer memory and sent over long distances as a series of wave pulses. (HS-PS4-2),(HS-PS4-5)

  • 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.