Stage I - Science

Descriptors

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

1. Formulate independent content-specific hypothesis referencing pertinent reliable prior research, or proposing options for appropriate questions, procedural steps, and necessary resources.
2. Design an inquiry investigation which addresses proposed hypothesis, determining variables and control groups, incorporating all procedural and safety precautions, materials and equipment handling directions and data-collection formatting preparations, or securing approval for all procedures, equipment use and safety concerns.
3. Conduct inquiry investigation, using technologies for observing and measuring directly, indirectly, or remotely, completing multiple, statistically-valid trials, or accurately and precisely recording all data.
4. Interpret and represent analysis of results to produce findings that support or refute inquiry hypothesis, evaluating data sets to explore explanations of outliers or sources of error and trends, or applying statistical methods to compare mode, mean, percent error and frequency functions.
5. Present and defend process and findings in open forum, generating further questions, explaining impact of possible sources of error, or reflecting on and evaluating peer critiques and comparable inquiry investigations for consolidation or refinement of procedures.

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

1. Identify an historic engineering feat, innovation or model, researching historic dilemmas which necessitated new scientific or engineering solutions, obrainstorming the kinds of barriers or circumstances that existed, identifying the simulation materials and procedural sequence which can simulate historic conditions, or determining success criteria, design constraints, and testing logistics encountered.
2. Construct innovation model, sketching progressive schematics of the design, collecting appropriate materials, supplies, and safety equipment, or completing assembly of innovation or model.
3. Test prototype conducting multiple trials according to success criteria, scale, and design constraints, or collecting reliable and precise data.
4. Analyze data to evaluate designs, comparing and summarizing data from multiple trials, evaluating conflicting data for validity and precision, correlating historic conditions and observations to model testing, or determining sources of error.
5. Communicate design evaluation report, selecting graphs and charts that most effectively report the design data, preparing oral and written investigation conclusions for peer review, relating historic setting and impact to scientific or engineering solution and eventual progression of designs, or generating alternative design modifications which can be or could have been tested.

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 explain metabolic processes within cells and between organisms and their environment, explaining gas exchange, food processing, transport, excretion, locomotion, body regulation, and nervous control, investigating enzyme actions in various reactions, or describing the applications of the polar nature of water and the pH index in biochemical reactions.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to analyze the cellular organelles and functions, using different microscopic techniques, explaining functional processes chemically and structurally (e.g., osmotic, active and facilitated transport, enzyme action and protein/lipid/carbohydrate metabolism).
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explain the molecular nature of the genetic code, explaining the function, chemical reactions, and schematic diagrams of the molecular components of DNA, RNA and simple proteins, exploring the processes of recombinant DNA research, describing the role of chromosomes in the normal and aberrant display of hereditary traits, mutations and disease.
4. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to compare taxonomic criteria among organisms, examining unicellular, colonial, and multi-cellular organisms for common and differing characteristics.
5. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explain tests of evolutionary evidence, analyzing acceptance of geologic and fossil records, researching comparative anatomy, embryology, biochemistry and cytology studies of analogous and homologous structures.

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 design to explain population growth, density factors in ecosystem change and stability and biodiversity: researching population model studies to determine limiting factors and mathematical patterns of population growth in real-world situations, investigating biotic and abiotic factors of ecosystems, or identifying the roles and relationships of organisms in their community in terms of impact on populations and the ecosystem.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explain the environment- energy interactions comparing the biomass involved in energy transfer by organisms at different tropic levels, relating biome productivity to carbon-fixing and energy storage by producers, correlating major chemical cycles (nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water) to other chemical cycles in nature (e.g., phosphorus, sulfur, strontium), or relating the laws of thermodynamics to environmental-energy transfer efficiency.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to research global biomes, identifying the latitude, altitude, soil, temperature and precipitation ranges, and inhabitants of the six major land-based biomes, comparing the salinity, light penetration, nutrients, and inhabitants of aquatic biomes, identifying feeding relationships within biomes, or comparing climatographs of biomes or carbon-fixing/storage productivity estimations.

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 investigate the energies of the electromagnetic spectrum, describing the nature/ characteristics/types/speed/ interactions of waves, contrasting the spectral bands of energy, their detection and applications, or modeling rays, reflection, refraction, diffraction and polarization of waves.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to investigate heat and sound energy mechanics, contrasting the production and conversions of heat and sound from the atomic to industrial levels, diagramming and modeling the processes or systems associated with large- and small-scale production, transmission and uses of heat and sound (e.g., heat engines, cooling systems, musical instruments).
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to investigate the atomic and nuclear structure of matter, examining historical atomic theories and quantum theory, modeling nuclear and electron configurations and their reactions, or predicting bonding and molecular structure.
4. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explain how physical and chemical structures of matter affect its properties, relating bonding types and shapes of molecules to organic and inorganic compounds, or examining the colligative properties of solutes on the properties of solutions/mixtures.
5. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to investigate kinetic theory and laws of thermodynamics, describing the ideal gases, analyzing the gas laws, or explaining entropy/ enthalpy, exothermic/endothermic reactions, and/or Hess's law.

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 investigate motion relationships in natural and forced settings, calculating the kinematics of rectilinear, free fall, projectile, rotational, and circular motion in commonly experienced problem settings, explaining torque and center of mass in relation to the conditions of equilibrium, explaining the Doppler effect, or calculating forces in elastic and inelastic collisions.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to investigate motion and pressure common examples in nature, defining the factors of pressure and its equilibrium, identifying how particles in a fluid can exert pressure as related to altitude and depth, explaining buoyancy and hydraulics in terms of comparative densities, addressing Bernoulli's principles to flight, or relating pressure and gravity to common engineering settings.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore atomic and nuclear physical systems, describing historic, current, and proposed research to explain purposes and impact of discoveries, or explaining radioactivity in terms of atomic decay, nuclear reactions, and emissions.
4. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explain harmonic motion, describing the scope of vibrational motion, calculating harmonic periods variations, constructing variations to linear and angular simple harmonic motion and elastic constants, or exploring historic studies which established applicable constants, laws and theories.
5. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to investigate electricity and magnetism, comparing, flow, units, and charges in magnetic and electric fields and circuits, measuring electromagnetic conversions and induction, examining applicable historic discoveries, explanations and laws, explaining static electricity, or explaining the schematic designs and flow models for electromagnetic devices.

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 and technological designs to examine Earth's atmosphere and its changes, observing local weather factors over time, comparing current and past climate, or analyzing weather conditions in terms of Earth's inclination and solar fluctuations.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine Earth's hydrosphere and its changes, documenting impact of large-scale weather systems from short- and long-term weather reports, or predicting climatic conditions for geographic settings.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine Earth's lithosphere and its changes, using earth rock cycle remnants, soil formation, and tectonic movements, and fossil records, constructing models of tectonic plates and their impact on large-scale structures, or constructing local topographic maps.
4. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine earth's interior and its changes, explaining the distribution and causes of natural events such as earthquakes and volcanoes, or explaining the indirect methods to determine the Earth's inner structure and its effects on the surface features.
5. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine the changing perspective of the Earth in space, documenting the changes in public perception of the Earth since the space program began, or researching the technologies which have broadened the information known about the earth and its resources.

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 examine Earth's place in the solar system, calculating distances between planetary bodies, orbital paths, trajectories and collision potential with asteroids, etc., explaining lunar and solar eclipses, or graphing meteor impact craters to geologic time periods and mass extinctions.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine the Sun's place in the solar system, explaining the energy of the sun in relation to the full electromagnetic spectrum, correlating sunspot activity and cycles to earth events and phenomena, or describing the solar atmosphere, inner layers, nuclear reactions, and temperatures.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine the solar system's place in the universe, analyzing the life cycles of stars of different masses, explaining the flow of energy within stars to the formation of the chemical elements, or relating nebulae, dust clouds, stars, pulsars, black holes, etc.
4. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine the similarities found throughout the universe, comparing bright line spectra of different elements in different stars, using proportional relationships of reference stars to estimate magnitude of unknown stars, or demonstrating models of the expanding universe concepts.

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

1. Apply appropriate principles of safety, following established procedures to maintain both personal & environmental safety when handling & disposing of chemicals, estimating risks/benefits to alternative procedures, mapping classroom laboratory facilities for safe egress & distances/times to access safety treatment features, manipulating, reading and troubleshooting scientific equipment safely, communicating school science storage and disposal policies for classroom investigations, demonstrating safety practices and emergency procedures pertaining to laboratory and field work, researching community disposal procedures (e.g., mercury thermometers or lead batteries), or participating in household waste and hazardous waste pickup programs in Illinois.
2. Apply scientific habits of mind to curricular investigations in life, environmental, physical, earth, and space sciences, identifying instances of how scientific reasoning, insight, creativity, skill, intellectual honesty, tolerance of ambiguity, skepticism, persistence, openness to new ideas, and sheer luck have been integral to discoveries, identifying specific studies which demonstrate how scientific conclusions are open to modification as new data are collected, or researching classroom and real-world standards for peer review.

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

1. Analyze the pure and applied research nature of science, evaluating public perceptions of value of scientific research, or assessing short- and long-term risks/benefits of specific pure research which directly led, or may lead, to direct applications.
2. Analyze career and occupational decisions that are affected by a knowledge of science, associating scientific concepts considered in career-specific decisions (e.g., use of pesticides by farmers, choosing ink for printing), or explaining chemical/physical interactions in occupational settings (e.g., insect abatement programs, waste water treatment).
3. Analyze how resource management and technologies accommodate population trends, explaining factors needed to sustain and enhance the quality of Earth's water, quantifying benefits, costs, limitations and consequences involved in using scientific technologies or resources, or assessing global consequences of ecosystem modifications.
4. Analyze claims used in advertising and marketing strategies for scientific validity, collecting statements of purported scientific studies to evaluate mathematical validity, or researching scientific foundations use (or manipulation) in marketing and advertising strategies for target populations.

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