HS-PS1-1
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Use the periodic table as a model to predict the relative properties of elements based on the patterns of electrons in the outermost energy level of atoms.
Clarification Statement: Examples of properties that could be predicted from patterns could include reactivity of metals, types of bonds formed, numbers of bonds formed, and reactions with oxygen.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to main group elements: Assessment does not include quantitative understanding of ionization energy beyond relative trends.
Science and Engineering Practices
Developing and Using Models
Modeling in 9–12 builds on K–8 and progresses to using, synthesizing, and developing models to predict and show relationships among variables between systems and their components in the natural and designed worlds.
- Use a model to predict the relationships between systems or between components of a system.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter
- Each atom has a charged substructure consisting of a nucleus, which is made of protons and neutrons, surrounded by electrons.
- The periodic table orders elements horizontally by the number of protons in the atom’s nucleus and places those with similar chemical properties in columns. The repeating patterns of this table reflect patterns of outer electron states.
Crosscutting Concepts
Patterns
- Different patterns may be observed at each of the scales at which a system is studied and can provide evidence for causality in explanations of phenomena.
HS-PS1-2
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Construct and revise an explanation for the outcome of a simple chemical reaction based on the outermost electron states of atoms, trends in the periodic table, and knowledge of the patterns of chemical properties.
Clarification Statement: Examples of chemical reactions could include the reaction of sodium and chlorine, of carbon and oxygen, or of carbon and hydrogen.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to chemical reactions involving main group elements and combustion reactions.
Science and Engineering Practices
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Constructing explanations and designing solutions in 9–12 builds on K–8 experiences and progresses to explanations and designs that are supported by multiple and independent student-generated sources of evidence consistent with scientific ideas, principles, and theories.
- Construct and revise an explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from a variety of sources (including students’ own investigations, models, theories, simulations, and 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.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter
- The periodic table orders elements horizontally by the number of protons in the atom’s nucleus and places those with similar chemical properties in columns. The repeating patterns of this table reflect patterns of outer electron states.
PS1.B: Chemical Reactions
- 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.
Crosscutting Concepts
Patterns
- Different patterns may be observed at each of the scales at which a system is studied and can provide evidence for causality in explanations of phenomena.
HS-PS1-3
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
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.
Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on understanding the strengths of forces between particles, not on naming specific intermolecular forces (such as dipole-dipole). Examples of particles could include ions, atoms, molecules, and networked materials (such as graphite). Examples of bulk properties of substances could include the melting point and boiling point vapor pressure, and surface tension.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include Raoult’s law calculations of vapor pressure.
Science and Engineering Practices
Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
Planning and carrying out investigations in 9-12 builds on K-8 experiences and progresses to include investigations that provide evidence for and test conceptual, mathematical, physical, and empirical models.
- 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.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter
- The structure and interactions of matter at the bulk scale are determined by electrical forces within and between atoms.
Crosscutting Concepts
Patterns
- Different patterns may be observed at each of the scales at which a system is studied and can provide evidence for causality in explanations of phenomena.
HS-PS1-4
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Develop a model to illustrate that the release or absorption of energy from a chemical reaction system depends upon the changes in total bond energy.
Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the idea that a chemical reaction is a system that affects the energy change. Examples of models could include molecular-level drawings and diagrams of reactions, graphs showing the relative energies of reactants and products, and representations showing energy is conserved.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include calculating the total bond energy changes during a chemical reaction from the bond energies of reactants and products.
Science and Engineering Practices
Developing and Using Models
Modeling in 9–12 builds on K–8 and progresses to using, synthesizing, and developing models to predict and show relationships among variables between systems and their components in the natural and designed worlds.
- Develop a model based on evidence to illustrate the relationships between systems or between components of a system.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter
- A stable molecule has less energy than the same set of atoms separated; one must provide at least this energy in order to take the molecule apart.
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.
Crosscutting Concepts
Energy and Matter
- Changes of energy and matter in a system can be described in terms of energy and matter flows into, out of, and within that system.
HS-PS1-5
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
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.
Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on student reasoning that focuses on the number and energy of collisions between molecules.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to simple reactions in which there are only two reactants evidence from temperature, concentration, and rate data and qualitative relationships between rate and temperature.
Science and Engineering Practices
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Constructing explanations and designing solutions in 9–12 builds on K–8 experiences and progresses to explanations and designs that are supported by multiple and independent student-generated sources of evidence consistent with scientific ideas, principles, and theories.
- Apply scientific principles and evidence to provide an explanation of phenomena and solve design problems, taking into account possible unanticipated effects.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
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.
Crosscutting Concepts
Patterns
- Different patterns may be observed at each of the scales at which a system is studied and can provide evidence for causality in explanations of phenomena.
HS-PS1-6
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Refine the design of a chemical system by specifying a change in conditions that would produce increased amounts of products at equilibrium.
Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the application of Le Chatlier’s Principle and on refining designs of chemical reaction systems, including descriptions of the connection between changes made at the macroscopic level and what happens at the molecular level. Examples of designs could include different ways to increase product formation including adding reactants or removing products.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to specifying the change in only one variable at a time. Assessment does not include calculating equilibrium constants and concentrations.
Science and Engineering Practices
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Constructing explanations and designing solutions in 9–12 builds on K– 8 experiences and progresses to explanations and designs that are supported by multiple and independent student-generated sources of evidence consistent with scientific ideas, principles, and theories.
- Refine a solution to a complex realworld problem, based on scientific knowledge, student-generated sources of evidence, prioritized criteria, and tradeoff considerations.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS1.B: Chemical Reactions
- 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.
ETS1.C: Optimizing the Design Solution
- Criteria may need to be broken down into simpler ones that can be approached systematically, and decisions about the priority of certain criteria over others (tradeoffs) may be needed. (secondary)
Crosscutting Concepts
Stability and Change
- Much of science deals with constructing explanations of how things change and how they remain stable.
HS-PS1-7
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Use mathematical representations to support the claim that atoms, and therefore mass, are conserved during a chemical reaction.
Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on using mathematical Ideas to communicate the proportional relationships between masses of atoms in the reactants and the products, and the translation of these relationships to the macroscopic scale using the mole as the conversion from the atomic to the macroscopic scale. Emphasis is on assessing students’ use of mathematical thinking and not on memorization and rote application of problem-solving techniques.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include complex chemical reactions.
Science and Engineering Practices
Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
Mathematical and computational thinking at the 9–12 level builds on K–8 and progresses to using algebraic thinking and analysis, a range of linear and nonlinear functions including trigonometric functions, exponentials and logarithms, and computational tools for statistical analysis to analyze, represent, and model data.
Simple computational simulations are created and used based on mathematical models of basic assumptions.
- Use mathematical representations of phenomena to support claims.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS1.B: Chemical Reactions
- 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.
Crosscutting Concepts
Energy and Matter
- The total amount of energy and matter in closed systems is conserved.
- Science assumes the universe is a vast single system in which basic laws are consistent.
HS-PS1-8
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Develop models to illustrate the changes in the composition of the nucleus of the atom and the energy released during the processes of fission, fusion, and radioactive decay.
Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on simple qualitative models, such as pictures or diagrams, and on the scale of energy released in nuclear processes relative to other kinds of transformations.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include quantitative calculation of energy released. Assessment is limited to alpha, beta, and garnma radioactive decays.
Science and Engineering Practices
Developing and Using Models
Modeling in 9–12 builds on K–8 and progresses to using, synthesizing, and developing models to predict and show relationships among variables between systems and their components in the natural and designed worlds.
- Develop a model based on evidence to illustrate the relationships between systems or between components of a system.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
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.
Crosscutting Concepts
Energy and Matter
- In nuclear processes, atoms are not conserved, but the total number of protons plus neutrons is conserved.
HS-PS2-1
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Analyze data to support the claim that Newton’s second law of motion describes the mathematical relationship among the net force on a macroscopic object, its mass, and its acceleration.
Clarification Statement: Examples of data could include tables or graphs of position or velocity as a function of time for objects subject to a net unbalanced force, such as a falling object, an object rolling down a ramp, or a moving object being pulled by a constant force.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to one-dimensional motion and to macroscopic objects moving at nori-relativistic speeds.
Science and Engineering Practices
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Analyzing data in 9–12 builds on K–8 and progresses to introducing more detailed statistical analysis, the comparison of data sets for consistency, and the use of models to generate and analyze data.
- 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.
Connections to Nature of Science
Science Models, Laws, Mechanisms, and Theories Explain Natural Phenomena
- Theories and laws provide explanations in science.
- Laws are statements or descriptions of the relationships among observable phenomena.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS2.A: Forces and Motion
- Newton’s second law accurately predicts changes in the motion of macroscopic objects.
Crosscutting Concepts
Cause and Effect
- Empirical evidence is required to differentiate between cause and correlation and make claims about specific causes and effects.
HS-PS2-2
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Use mathematical representations to support the claim that the total momentum of a system of objects is conserved when there is no net force on the system.
Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the quantitative conservation of momentum in interactions and the qualitative meaning of this principle.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to systems of two macroscopic bodies moving in one dimension.
Science and Engineering Practices
Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
Mathematical and computational thinking at the 9–12 level builds on K–8 and progresses to using algebraic thinking and analysis; a range of linear and nonlinear functions including trigonometric functions, exponentials and logarithms; and computational tools for statistical analysis to analyze, represent, and model data. Simple computational simulations are created and used based on mathematical models of basic assumptions.
- Use mathematical representations of phenomena to describe explanations.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS2.A: Forces and Motion
- Momentum is defined for a particular frame of reference; it is the mass times the velocity of the object.
- 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.
Crosscutting Concepts
Systems and System Models
- When investigating or describing a system, the boundaries and initial conditions of the system need to be defined.
HS-PS2-3
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Apply scientific and engineering ideas to design, evaluate, and refine a device that minimizes the force on a macroscopic object during a collision.
Clarification Statement: Examples of evaluation and refinement could include determining the success of the device at protecting an object from damage and modifying the design to improve it. Examples of a device could include a football helmet or a parachute.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to qualitative evaluations and/or algebraic manipulations.
Science and Engineering Practices
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Constructing explanations and designing solutions in 9–12 builds on K–8 experiences and progresses to explanations and designs that are supported by multiple and independent student-generated sources of evidence consistent with scientific ideas, principles, and theories.
- Apply scientific ideas to solve a design problem, taking into account possible unanticipated effects.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS2.A: Forces and Motion
- 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.
ETS1.A: Defining and Delimiting an Engineering Problem
- Criteria and constraints also include satisfying any requirements set by society, such as taking issues of risk mitigation into account, and they should be quantified to the extent possible and stated in such a way that one can tell if a given design meets them. (secondary)
ETS1.C: Optimizing the Design Solution
- Criteria may need to be broken down into simpler ones that can be approached systematically, and decisions about the priority of certain criteria over others (tradeoffs) may be needed. (secondary)
Crosscutting Concepts
Cause and Effect
- Systems can be designed to cause a desired effect.
HS-PS2-4
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Use mathematical representations of Newton’s Law of Gravitation and Coulomb’s Law to describe and predict the gravitational and electrostatic forces between objects.
Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on both quantitative and conceptual descriptions of gravitational and electric fields.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to systems with two objects.
Science and Engineering Practices
Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
Mathematical and computational thinking at the 9–12 level builds on K–8 and progresses to using algebraic thinking and analysis; a range of linear and nonlinear functions including trigonometric functions, exponentials and logarithms; and computational tools for statistical analysis to analyze, represent, and model data. Simple computational simulations are created and used based on mathematical models of basic assumptions.
- Use mathematical representations of phenomena to describe explanations.
Connections to Nature of Science
Science Models, Laws, Mechanisms, and Theories Explain Natural Phenomena
- Theories and laws provide explanations in science.
- Laws are statements or descriptions of the relationships among observable phenomena.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
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.
Crosscutting Concepts
Patterns
- Different patterns may be observed at each of the scales at which a system is studied and can provide evidence for causality in explanations of phenomena.
HS-PS2-5
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that an electric current can produce a magnetic field and that a changing magnetic field can produce an electric current.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to designing and conducting investigations with provided materials and tools.
Science and Engineering Practices
Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
Planning and carrying out investigations to answer questions or test solutions to problems in 9–12 builds on K–8 experiences and progresses to include investigations that provide evidence for and test conceptual, mathematical, physical and empirical models.
- 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.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
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. (HS-PS2-4)
- 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.
PS3.A: Definitions of Energy
- “Electrical energy” may mean energy stored in a battery or energy transmitted by electric currents. (secondary)
Crosscutting Concepts
Cause and Effect
- Empirical evidence is required to differentiate between cause and correlation and make claims about specific causes and effects.
HS-PS2-6
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the attractive and repulsive forces that determine the functioning of the material. Examples could include why electrically conductive materials are often made of metal, flexible but durable materials are made up of long chained molecules, and pharmaceuticals are designed to interact with specific receptors.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to provided molecular structures of specific designed materials.
Science and Engineering Practices
Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information in 9–12 builds on K–8 and progresses to evaluating the validity and reliability of the claims, methods, and designs.
- Communicate scientific and technical information (e.g., about the process of development and the design and performance of a proposed process or system) in multiple formats (including oral, graphical, textual and mathematical).
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS2.B: Types of Interactions
- 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.
Crosscutting Concepts
Structure and Function
- Investigating or designing new systems or structures requires a detailed examination of the properties of different materials, the structures of different components, and connections of components to reveal its function and/or solve a problem.
HS-PS3-1
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Create a computational model to calculate the change in the energy of one component in a system when the change in energy of the other component(s) and energy flows in and out of the system are known.
Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on explaining the meaning of mathematical expressions used in the model.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to basic algebraic expressions or computations; to systems of two or three components; and to thermal energy, kinetic energy, and/or the energies in gravitational, magnetic, or electric fields.
Science and Engineering Practices
Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
Mathematical and computational thinking at the 9–12 level builds on K–8 and progresses to using algebraic thinking and analysis; a range of linear and nonlinear functions including trigonometric functions, exponentials and logarithms; and computational tools for statistical analysis to analyze, represent, and model data. Simple computational simulations are created and used based on mathematical models of basic assumptions.
- Create a computational model or simulation of a phenomenon, designed device, process, or system.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
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.
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.
Crosscutting Concepts
Systems and System Models
- Models can be used to predict the behavior of a system, but these predictions have limited precision and reliability due to the assumptions and approximations inherent in models.
- Science assumes the universe is a vast single system in which basic laws are consistent.
HS-PS3-2
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Develop and use models to illustrate that energy at the macroscopic scale can be accounted for as a combination of energy associated with the motions of particles (objects) and energy associated with the relative position of particles (objects).
Clarification Statement: Examples of phenomena at the macroscopic scale could include the conversion of kinetic energy to thermal energy, the energy stored due to position of an object above the earth, and the energy stored between two electrically-charged plates. Examples of models could include diagrams, drawings, descriptions, and computer simulations.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include quantitative calculations.
Science and Engineering Practices
Developing and Using Models
Modeling in 9–12 builds on K–8 and progresses to using, synthesizing, and developing models to predict and show relationships among variables between systems and their components in the natural and designed worlds.
- Develop and use a model based on evidence to illustrate the relationships between systems or between components of a system.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
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.
Crosscutting Concepts
Energy and Matter
- Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it only moves between one place and another place, between objects and/or fields, or between systems.
HS-PS3-3
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on both qualitative and quantitative evaluations of devices. Examples of devices could include Rube Goldberg devices, wind turbines, solar cells, solar ovens, and generators. Examples of constraints could include use of renewable energy forms and efficiency.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment for quantitative evaluations is limited to formal mathematical or statistical testing.
Science and Engineering Practices
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Constructing explanations and designing solutions in 9–12 builds on K–8 experiences and progresses to explanations and designs that are supported by multiple and independent student-generated sources of evidence consistent with scientific ideas, principles, and theories.
- Design, evaluate, and/or refine a solution to a complex real-world problem based on scientific knowledge, student-generated sources of evidence, prioritized criteria, and tradeoff considerations.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS3.A: Definitions of Energy
- At the macroscopic scale, energy manifests itself in multiple ways, such as in motion, sound, light, and thermal energy.
PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes
- Although energy cannot be destroyed, it can be converted to less useful forms — for example, to thermal energy in the surrounding environment.
ETS1.A: Defining and Delimiting an Engineering Problem
- Criteria and constraints also include satisfying any requirements set by society, such as taking issues of risk mitigation into account, and they should be quantified to the extent possible and stated in such a way that one can tell if a given design meets them. (secondary)
Crosscutting Concepts
Energy and Matter
- Changes of energy and matter in a system can be described in terms of energy and matter flows into, out of, and within that system.
- Modern civilization depends on major technological systems. Engineers continuously modify these technological systems by applying scientific knowledge and engineering design practices to increase benefits while decreasing costs and risks.
HS-PS3-4
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on analyzing data from student investigations and using mathematical thinking to describe the energy changes both quantitatively and conceptually. Examples of investigations could include mixing liquids at different initial temperatures or adding objects at different temperatures to water.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to investigations based on materials and tools provided to students.
Science and Engineering Practices
Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
Planning and carrying out investigations to answer questions or test solutions to problems in 9–12 builds on K–8 experiences and progresses to include investigations that provide evidence for and test conceptual, mathematical, physical, and empirical models.
- 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.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS3.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer
- Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be transported from one place to another and transferred between systems.
- 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).
PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes
- Although energy cannot be destroyed, it can be converted to less useful forms — for example, to thermal energy in the surrounding environment.
Crosscutting Concepts
Systems and System Models
- When investigating or describing a system, the boundaries and initial conditions of the system need to be defined and their inputs and outputs analyzed and described using models.
HS-PS3-5
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Develop and use a model of two objects interacting through electric or magnetic fields to illustrate the forces between objects and the changes in energy of the objects due to the interaction.
Clarification Statement: Examples of models could include drawings, diagrams, and texts, such as drawings of what happens when two charges of opposite polarity are near each other.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to systems containing two objects.
Science and Engineering Practices
Developing and Using Models
Modeling in 9–12 builds on K–8 and progresses to using, synthesizing, and developing models to predict and show relationships among variables between systems and their components in the natural and designed world(s).
- Develop and use a model based on evidence to illustrate the relationships between systems or between components of a system.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
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.
Crosscutting Concepts
Cause and Effect
- Cause and effect relationships can be suggested and predicted for complex natural and human-designed systems by examining what is known about smaller scale mechanisms within the system.
HS-PS4-1
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Clarification Statement: Examples of data could include electromagnetic radiation traveling in a vacuum and glass, sound waves traveling through air and water, and seismic waves traveling through the Earth.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to algebraic relationships and describing those relationships qualitatively.
Science and Engineering Practices
Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
Mathematical and computational thinking at the 9-12 level builds on K-8 and progresses to using algebraic thinking and analysis; a range of linear and nonlinear functions including trigonometric functions, exponentials and logarithms; and computational tools for statistical analysis to analyze, represent and model data. Simple computational simulations are created and used based on mathematical models of basic assumptions.
- Use mathematical representations of phenomena or design solutions to describe and/or support claims and/or explanations.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
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.
Crosscutting Concepts
Cause and Effect
- Empirical evidence is required to differentiate between cause and correlation and make claims about specific causes and effects.
HS-PS4-2
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Clarification Statement: Examples of advantages could include that digital information is stable because it can be stored reliably in computer memory, transferred easily, and copied and shared rapidly. Disadvantages could include issues of easy deletion, security, and theft.
Science and Engineering Practices
Asking Questions and Defining Problems
Asking questions and defining problems in grades 9–12 builds from grades K–8 experiences and progresses to formulating, refining, and evaluating empirically testable questions and design problems using models and simulations.
- Evaluate questions that challenge the premise(s) of an argument, the interpretation of a data set or the suitability of a design.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS4.A: Wave Properties
- 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.
Crosscutting Concepts
Stability and Change
- Systems can be designed for greater or lesser stability.
- Modern civilization depends on major technological systems.
- Engineers continuously modify these technological systems by applying scientific knowledge and engineering design practices to increase benefits while decreasing costs and risks.
HS-PS4-3
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning behind the idea that electromagnetic radiation can be described either by a wave model or a particle model, and that for some situations one model is more useful than the other.
Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on how the experimental evidence supports the claim and how a theory is generally modified in light of new evidence. Examples of a phenomenon could include resonance, interference, diffraction, and photoelectric effect.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include using quantum theory.
Science and Engineering Practices
Engaging in Argument from Evidence
Engaging in argument from evidence in 9– 12 builds on K–8 experiences and progresses to using appropriate and sufficient evidence and scientific reasoning to defend and critique claims and explanations about the natural and designed world(s). Arguments may also come from current scientific or historical episodes in science.
- Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning behind currently accepted explanations or solutions to determine the merits of arguments.
Connections to Nature of Science
Science Models, Laws, Mechanisms, and Theories Explain Natural Phenomena
- A scientific theory is a substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment. The science community validates each theory before it is accepted. If new evidence is discovered that the theory does not accommodate, the theory is generally modified in light of this new evidence.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS4.A: Wave Properties
- [From the 3–5 grade band endpoints] Waves can add or cancel one another as they cross, depending on their relative phase (i.e., relative position of peaks and troughs of the waves), but they emerge unaffected by each other. (Boundary: The discussion at this grade level is qualitative only; it can be based on the fact that two different sounds can pass a location in different directions without getting mixed up.)
PS4.B: Electromagnetic Radiation
- Electromagnetic radiation (e.g., radio, microwaves, light) can be modeled as a wave of changing electric and magnetic fields or as particles called photons. The wave model is useful for explaining many features of electromagnetic radiation, and the particle model explains other features.
Crosscutting Concepts
Systems and System Models
- Models (e.g., physical, mathematical, and computer models) can be used to simulate systems and interactions — including energy, matter and information flows — within and between systems at different scales.
HS-PS4-4
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Evaluate the validity and reliability of claims in published materials of the effects that different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation have when absorbed by matter.
Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the idea that photons associated with different frequencies of light have different energies, and the damage to living tissue from electromagnetic radiation depends on the energy of the radiation. Examples of published materials could include trade books, magazines, web resources, videos, and other passages that may reflect bias.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to qualitative descriptions.
Science and Engineering Practices
Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information in 9–12 builds on K–8 and progresses to evaluating the validity and reliability of the claims, methods, and designs.
- Evaluate the validity and reliability of multiple claims that appear in scientific and technical texts or media reports, verifying the data when possible.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS4.B: Electromagnetic Radiation
- When light or longer wavelength electromagnetic radiation is absorbed in matter, it is generally converted into thermal energy (heat). Shorter wavelength electromagnetic radiation (ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays) can ionize atoms and cause damage to living cells.
Crosscutting Concepts
Cause and Effect
- Cause and effect relationships can be suggested and predicted for complex natural and human-designed systems by examining what is known about smaller scale mechanisms within the system.
HS-PS4-5
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
Clarification Statement: Examples could include solar cells capturing light and converting it to electricity; medical imaging; and communications technology.
Assessment Boundary: Assessments are limited to qualitative information. Assessments do not include band theory.
Science and Engineering Practices
Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information in 9–12 builds on K–8 and progresses to evaluating the validity and reliability of the claims, methods, and designs.
- Communicate technical information or ideas (e.g., about phenomena and/or the process of development and the design and performance of a proposed process or system) in multiple formats (including orally, graphically, textually, and mathematically).
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes
- Solar cells are human-made devices that likewise capture the sun’s energy and produce electrical energy. (secondary)
PS4.A: Wave Properties
- 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.
PS4.B: Electromagnetic Radiation
- Photoelectric materials emit electrons when they absorb light of a high-enough frequency.
- 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.
Crosscutting Concepts
Cause and Effect
- Systems can be designed to cause a desired effect.
- Science and engineering complement each other in the cycle known as research and development (R&D). Influence of Engineering, Technology, and Science on Society and the Natural World
- Modern civilization depends on major technological systems.