• 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.

• 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-LS1 – FROM MOLECULES TO ORGANISMS: STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES

  • HS-LS1-1: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the structure of DNA determines the structure of proteins which carry out the essential functions of life through systems of specialized cells.

• HS-LS4 – BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION: UNITY AND DIVERSITY

  • HS-LS4-1: Communicate scientific information that common ancestry and biological evolution are supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence.

  • HS-LS4-2: Construct an explanation based on evidence that the process of evolution primarily results from four factors: (1) the potential for a species to increase in number, (2) the heritable genetic variation of individuals in a species due to mutation and sexual reproduction, (3) competition for limited resources, and (4) the proliferation of those organisms that are better able to survive and reproduce in the environment.

  • HS-LS4-4: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

• LS4: BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION: UNITY AND DIVERSITY

  • LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity - Genetic information provides evidence of evolution. DNA sequences vary among species, but there are many overlaps; in fact, the ongoing branching that produces multiple lines of descent can be inferred by comparing the DNA sequences of different organisms. Such information is also derivable from the similarities and differences in amino acid sequences and from anatomical and embryological evidence.

Performance Standards

• None for Chemistry

Disciplinary Core Ideas

• None for Chemistry

Performance Standards

• HS-PS2 – MOTION AND STABILITY: FORCES AND INTERACTIONS

  • HS-PS2-4: Use mathematical representations of Newton’s Law of Gravitation and Coulomb’s Law to describe and predict the gravitational and electrostatic forces between objects..

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

  • HS-PS4-1: Use mathematical representations to support a claim regarding relationships among the frequency, wavelength, and speed of waves traveling in various media.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

• PS2: MOTION AND STABILITY: FORCES AND INTERACTIONS

  • PS2.A: Forces and Motion:

    • Newton’s second law accurately predicts changes in the motion of macroscopic objects.

    • Momentum is defined for a particular frame of reference; it is the mass times the velocity of the object. In any system, total momentum is always conserved.

    • If a system interacts with objects outside itself, the total momentum of the system can change; however, any such change is balanced by changes in the momentum of objects outside the system.

  • PS2.B: Types of Interactions:

    • Newton’s law of universal gravitation and Coulomb’s law provide the mathematical models to describe and predict the effects of gravitational and electrostatic forces between distant objects.

    • Forces at a distance are explained by fields (gravitational, electric, and magnetic) permeating space that can transfer energy through space. Magnets or electric currents cause magnetic fields; electric charges or changing magnetic fields cause electric fields.

    • Attraction and repulsion between electric charges at the atomic scale explain the structure, properties, and transformations of matter, as well as the contact forces between material objects. (HS-PS1-1), (secondary to HS-PS1-3)

• PS3: ENERGY

  • PS3.A: Definitions of Energy:

    • Energy is a quantitative property of a system that depends on the motion and interactions of matter and radiation within that system. That there is a single quantity called energy is due to the fact that a system’s total energy is conserved, even as, within the system, energy is continually transferred from one object to another and between its various possible forms.

    • At the macroscopic scale, energy manifests itself in multiple ways, such as in motion, sound, light, and thermal energy.

    • These relationships are better understood at the microscopic scale, at which all of the different manifestations of energy can be modeled as a combination of energy associated with the motion of particles and energy associated with the configuration (relative position of the particles). In some cases the relative position energy can be thought of as stored in fields (which mediate interactions between particles). This last concept includes radiation, a phenomenon in which energy stored in fields moves across space.

  • PS3.C: Relationship Between Energy and Forces - When two objects interacting through a field change relative position, the energy stored in the field is changed.