Stage F - Science

Descriptors

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

1. Formulate hypotheses generating if-then, cause-effect statements and predictions, or choosing and explaining selection of the controlled variables.
2. Design and conduct scientific investigation, incorporating appropriate safety precautions, available technology and equipment, researching historic and current foundations for similar studies, or replicating all processes in multiple trials.
3. Collect and organize data accurately, using consistent measuring and recording techniques with necessary precision, using appropriate metric units, documenting data accurately from collecting instruments, or graphing data appropriately.
4. Interpret and represent results of analysis to produce findings, differentiating observations that support or refute a hypothesis, identifying the unexpected data within the data set, or proposing explanations for discrepancies in the data set.
5. Report the process and results of an investigation, using available technologies for presentations, distinguishing observations that support the original hypothesis, analyzing a logical proof or explanation of findings, or generating additional questions which address procedures, similarities, discrepancies or conclusions for further investigations.

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

1. Formulate proposals for technological designs which model or test scientific principles, generating investigation ideas to apply curricular science principles (e.g., how to test phase changes of substances or acceleration in free fall, or effect of ice/glaciers on rocks), brainstorming pertinent variables, researching historic designs, or conducting peer review and choice for design and criteria selection.
2. Plan and construct technological design, incorporating the safety and procedural guidelines into the construction plan, or maximizing resource capabilities.
3. Collect and record data accurately using consistent metric measuring and recording techniques with necessary precision, or documenting data from collecting instruments accurately in selected format.
4. Interpret and represent results of analysis to produce findings, comparing data sets for supporting or refuting scientific principle, evaluating multiple criteria for overall design success, or proposing explanations for sources of error in the data set for process or product design flaws.
5. Communicate the results of design investigation presenting an oral and/or written report, explaining the test of the scientific principle, using available technologies, relating anecdotal and quantitative observations, or generating additional design modifications which can be tested later.

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 examine the cellular unit recognizing how cells function independently to keep the organism alive at the single cell level and dependently at specialized levels, or comparing the metabolic and reproductive processes, structures and functions of single and multi-cellular organisms, to examine the patterns of change and stability over time, investigating the development of organisms and their environmental adaptations over broad time periods, or comparing the physical characteristics of two to three generations of familial characteristics.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore the basic roles of genes and chromosomes in transmitting traits over generations, describing how physical traits are transmitted through sexual or asexual reproductive processes, charting 'pedigree' probabilities for transmissions, identifying examples of selective breeding for particular traits, or analyzing how familiar human diseases are related to genetic mutations.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine stimulus-response reactions in organisms, comparing growth responses in plants, comparing simple locomotive or metabolic responses in simple or complex life forms.

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 study the impact of multiple factors that affect organisms in a habitat, describing how behaviors are influenced by internal and external factors, sketching the interrelationships among/between the land, water and air components to life in the system, predicting the consequences of the disruption of a food pyramid, identifying the interrelationships and variables that affect population sizes and behaviors, or identifying different niches and relationships found among organisms in an Illinois habitat.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to apply the competitive, adaptive and survival potential of organisms, describing how fossils are used to determine patterns of evolution, observing how plant and animal characteristics help organisms survive in their environments, or analyzing how environmental factors threaten or enhance the survival potential of populations.

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 demonstrate the interactions of energy forms explaining how interactions of matter and energy affect the changes of state, tracing electrical current in simple direct and alternating circuits, or diagramming how sound, heat and light energy forms are detected by humans and other organisms.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore the basic structure of matter illustrating the structure of elements and simple compounds, measuring the masses of chemical reactants and products to show that the sum equals the parts, investigating the compressibility and expansion of gases at colder and hotter temperatures, or analyzing the electrical nature of charges, attraction, and repulsion.

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 examine gravitational forces, correlating how an object's mass and distances affect weight in Earth and planetary examples, identifying the effects of the Sun's gravitational force in the solar system, or predicting direct and inverse proportional trends from data of gravitational attraction.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to incorporate the impact of force on motion, associating Newton's three laws of motion to mass, distance, and acceleration, making metric mathematical calculations of average speed, velocity, and acceleration, or comparing resistance and friction factors in electrical, magnetic, fluid, and physical systems.

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 examine the large-scale dynamic forces, events and processes that affect Earth's land and populations, demonstrating tectonic movements related to earthquakes, tsunamies and volcanoes, or researching past, current and projected Earth system phenomena that affect populations.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine the large-scale dynamic forces, events and processes that affect Earth's water/atmospheric systems and populations, researching hurricane paths, global temperature trends, ocean temperatures and their effects on populations, researching past, current and projected Earth system phenomena that affect populations, or exploring the concepts associated with the 'greenhouse effect' on Earth.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to relate various pollution and resource relationships, examining community and national policies for regulating recycling, pollution, and production of resources, or evaluating biodegradability of natural and synthetic materials according to composition and risk/benefits.

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 analyze the solar system and planetary characteristics, comparing gravitational, atmospheric, compositional, and energy factors necessary for planetary habitation, describing evidence for presence of water beyond Earth, or predicting factors and materials necessary for interplanetary travel and study.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine the features of the universe introducing the calculations associated with the scale of the universe in terms of the speed of light, describing the star groupings according to masses, color, apparent color, distances and brightness, identifying these characteristics about our star and its layers, or comparing the capabilities of different kinds of telescopes and imaging technologies.

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

1. Apply appropriate principles of safety, outlining safety precautions, clean-up and disposal procedures, as well as specimen care and handling for inquiry or design investigations, role-playing responses for individual or group reactions in threatening weather, hazardous chemical contamination, or other unsafe situations, or conducting safety tests or surveys about potential safety hazards in the classroom, school building, or home.
2. Apply scientific habits of mind, generating questions and strategies to test science concepts using critical and creative thinking, researching historic examples of valid and faulty hypothesis generation and investigations, contrasting the scientific methods of observational and experimental investigations, or proposing how and why more than one possible conclusion should be considered and can be drawn from scientific investigations.
3. Analyze cases of scientific studies, studying historic examples of valid inquiry investigations associated with the life, environmental, physical, earth and space sciences, contrasting faulty studies with deviations from established scientific methods, contrasting the scientific methods between observational, remote and experimental investigations, or suggesting how societal influences have affected scientific inquiry positively and negatively.

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

1. Apply scientific technologies, incorporating technology and probe ware into classroom research, investigations, and contextual studies, or projecting possible technological advances in the near and long-term future.
2. Research the interactions of technology in science and societal situations, explaining ways that ecosystems have been changed as results of technological innovations, inferring technological impact in published medical, economic, and population statistics (e.g., birth/death rates, disease transmission), or explaining how changes in transportation, communication, production, and other technologies affect the location of economic activities.
3. Analyze the societal interactions resulting from scientific discoveries and technological innovations, researching the scientific milestones that have revolutionized thinking over time, grouping technological innovations to historic time periods and changes in communities and countries, or comparing public perceptions about the costs and impact of pure science research and applied science solutions.