• 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.

• Make a quantitative and/or qualitative claim regarding the relationship between dependent and independent variables.

• Construct and revise an explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from a variety of sources (including students’ own investigations, models, theories, simulations, peer review) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

• Apply scientific ideas, principles, and/or evidence to provide an explanation of phenomena and solve design problems, taking into account possible unanticipated effects.

• Apply scientific reasoning, theory, and/or models to link evidence to the claims to assess the extent to which the reasoning and data support the explanation or conclusion.

• Design, evaluate, and/or refine a solution to a complex real-world problem, based on scientific knowledge, student-generated sources of evidence, prioritized.

• 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-LS2-4: Use mathematical representations to support claims for the cycling of matter and flow of energy among organisms in an ecosystem.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

• LS1: FROM MOLECULES TO ORGANISMS: STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES

  • LS1.C: Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms:

    • The process of photosynthesis converts light energy to stored chemical energy by converting carbon dioxide plus water into sugars plus released oxygen.

    • The sugar molecules thus formed contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen: their hydrocarbon backbones are used to make amino acids and other carbon-based molecules that can be assembled into larger molecules (such as proteins or DNA), used for example to form new cells.

    • As matter and energy flow through different organizational levels of living systems, chemical elements are recombined in different ways to form different products.

    • As a result of these chemical reactions, energy is transferred from one system of interacting molecules to another. Cellular respiration is a chemical process in which the bonds of food molecules and oxygen molecules are broken and new compounds are formed that can transport energy to muscles. Cellular respiration also releases the energy needed to maintain body temperature despite ongoing energy transfer to the surrounding environment.

• 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

• HS-PS1 – MATTER AND ITS INTERACTIONS

  • HS-PS1-5: Apply scientific principles and evidence to provide an explanation about the effects of changing the temperature or concentration of the reacting particles on the rate at which a reaction occurs.

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.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.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer :

    • Conservation of energy means that the total change of energy in any system is always equal to the total energy transferred into or out of the system.

    • Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be transported from one place to another and transferred between systems.

    • Mathematical expressions, which quantify how the stored energy in a system depends on its configuration (e.g. relative positions of charged particles, compression of a spring) and how kinetic energy depends on mass and speed, allow the concept of conservation of energy to be used to predict and describe system behavior.

    • The availability of energy limits what can occur in any system.

    • Uncontrolled systems always evolve toward more stable states—that is, toward more uniform energy distribution (e.g., water flows downhill, objects hotter than their surrounding environment cool down).