Stage A - Science

Descriptors

11A - Students who meet the standard know and apply the concepts, principles, and processes of scientific inquiry.

1. Describe an observed science concept using appropriate senses, making applicable estimations and measurements, predicting steps or sequences, describing changes in terms of starting and ending conditions using words, diagrams or graphs.
2. Begin guided inquiry asking questions using prior knowledge and observations, inferring from observations to generate new questions, or developing strategies to investigate questions.
3. Conduct guided inquiry following appropriate procedural steps and safety precautions as directed by teacher.
4. Collect data for guided inquiry identifying and using instruments for gathering data, making estimates and measurements, recording observations, or reading data from data-collection instruments.
5. Record and store data assembling pictures to illustrate data, or organizing data on charts and pictographs, tables, journals or computers.
6. Analyze and display results recognizing and describing patterns, noting similarities and differences in patterns, or predicting trends.
7. Communicate individual and group results identifying similar data from others, generalizing data, drawing simple conclusions, or suggesting more questions to consider.

11B - Students who meet the standard know and apply the concepts, principles, and processes of technological design.

1. Propose ideas for solutions to technological design questions asking questions about concept (e.g., how to demonstrate that sound is produced by vibrating objects), identifying criteria for measuring success of design or prioritizing possible solutions from given list.
2. Select a possible solution which addresses the design question choosing materials from teacher-generated options, determining the order of assembly steps, identifying the variables for testing criteria factors, proposing procedural steps to test design or sketching the projected final design.
3. Construct the selected technological solution using the materials and tools provided or recording observational data for design process.
4. Test for design success based on teacher-generated criteria conducting multiple trials or collecting data from tests using appropriate measurement methods.
5. Communicate results of design tests comparing data from student trials to evaluate design success, reporting the procedures followed, evaluating best design to solve technological design question or proposing modifications for design solution in additional trials.

12A - Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that explain how living things function, adapt, and change.

1. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to introduce basic needs, characteristics and component parts of living things, comparing living and non-living things, describing basic needs and characteristics of living things, sorting the common key structures and functions for animal and plant groupings, classifying common animals by size, color, family units, and shape, and explaining the rationale for the grouping, or distinguishing common physical characteristics or structures for groupings of animals or plants with regard to seasonal, age changes and parent characteristics.

12B - Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that describe how living things interact with each other and with their environment.

1. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore the relationships of living things to their environment, identifying the common characteristics of habitats, matching the needs of organisms in local and global habitats.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore how living things are dependent on one another for survival, identifying the survival needs of plants and animals, matching groupings of animals (e.g., lion's pride, gaggle of geese, herds, packs), predicting what would happen to organisms when their environmental resources are changed (i.e., seasonally or climatically), or explaining how humans adapt to their environments.

12C - Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that describe properties of matter and energy and the interactions between them.

1. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine forms of energy, exploring sources and types of energy in familiar situations, experimenting with sounds by vibrating different materials, exploring ways that heat, light and sound are produced naturally and artificially.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore the states and properties of matter, comparing solids, liquids and gases and how they change states, or sorting objects by similar large-scale physical properties.

12D - Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that describe force and motion and the principles that explain them.

1. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore simple forces around us, describing how push or pull may affect the motion of objects, classifying materials by their magnetic attraction or repulsion, or sorting examples of simple machines.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore the simple concepts of motion, changing the position and motion of objects or showing simple inertia and momentum in real-world applications.

12E - Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that describe the features and processes of Earth and its resources.

1. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to introduce the Earth's land, water and atmospheric components, sorting pictures of different land features, identifying the basic features of globes or maps, classifying major sources or uses of water, or sketching atmospheric features seen in the sky over time.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to introduce weather and seasonal changes,collecting daily weather data, predicting local weather conditions based on collected data, associating seasonal variations of weather data, or creating pictographs or other graphic displays of local weather patterns.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to classify renewable and non-renewable natural resources, sorting different examples of simple natural resources, identifying the origin of these examples with their recyclable possibilities, or setting and working toward a possible recycling or reusing goal for classroom application effort.

12F - Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that explain the composition and structure of the universe and Earth's place in it.

1. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore the familiar objects of the solar system, identifying the easily visible components, exploring their relative sizes using scale models, recording daily and/or nightly moon sightings, or introducing space mission studies.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore the explanations of the daily and annual patterns of the Earth's motion, recording observations of the daily path of the sun over time, comparing shadows during a day, or observing the daily and seasonal differences of the day and night sky.

13A - Students who meet the standard know and apply accepted practices of science.

1. Apply the appropriate principles of safety using established classroom safety, order and cleanliness rules during science inquiry or design investigations, applying general science rules in home and playground settings, role-playing what should be done in case of fire, explaining when and why electricity can be harmful and helpful, or reinforcing decision-making skills related to the promotion and protection of individual health.
2. Apply scientific habits of mind valuing the importance of recording scientific data accurately and honestly in inquiry and design investigations, comparing observations by different students observing the same activity, proposing reasons for differences in observations, or reporting data from repeated observations across timed intervals.

13B - Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that describe the interaction between science, technology, and society.

1. Apply the use of appropriate scientific tools in inquiry or design investigations using instruments for measuring length and temperature, or recording values with accuracy.
2. Explore the contributions of men and women in the life, environmental, physical, earth and space sciences identifying individuals and their discoveries or inventions, or explaining how scientists have advanced our knowledge in real life.
3. Describe ways that science and technology are found in real-world situations identifying familiar jobs and careers from science fields, inferring the impact of science and technologies in their lives, identifying how technologies make work easier, faster or more efficient, or describing ways that scientists are working to solve problems.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of conservation and the need to protect natural resources identifying types and causes of pollution, listing materials that can be recycled, or suggesting ideas for reducing, reusing, or recycling renewable resources.

back to Science Classroom Assessments and Performance Descriptors