SCIENCE

GRADES 5-6/STAGES D-F - SCIENCE
(Note: Numbers 1 and 2, below, apply to every grade level through Stage J but with increasing degrees of comprehension)

1. APPLY SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY and SCIENTIFIC HABITS OF MIND

Performance Standard 11A/13A/13 B.E
Students will apply the concepts, principles and processes of scientific inquiry within classroom investigations accordingly:

• Knowledge: Understand the concepts, principles and processes of scientific inquiry.
• Application: Apply the appropriate scientific habits of mind when investigating science concepts.
• Communication: Incorporate scientific technologies and the processes of scientific inquiry into classroom investigations and reports.

Note to teacher: These concepts could be embedded into scientific inquiry investigations. Suggested activities for standards 12 B and E and 13A at stage E, incorporate many of the performance descriptions for Standard 11A.

2. APPLY TECHNOLOGICAL DESIGN and SCIENTIFIC HABITS OF MIND

Performance Standard 11B/13A/13B.E
Students will apply the concepts, principles and processes of technological design within classroom investigations accordingly:

• Knowledge: Understand the concepts, principles and processes of technological design.
• Application: Apply the appropriate scientific habits of mind when investigating science concepts.
• Communication: Incorporate the scientific technologies and processes of technological design into classroom investigations and reports.

Note to teacher: These concepts could be embedded into technological design investigations. Suggested activities for standards 12 A, C, D and F at stage E, incorporate many of the performance descriptions for Standard 11B.

3. WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE THE RESOURCES?

Performance Standard 12E/11A/13 B.D
Students will apply the processes of scientific inquiry to evaluate natural resource supplies accordingly:

• Knowledge: Identify and describe natural resources within a geographic area.
• Application: Mapping the locations of natural resources within a geographic area.
• Communication: Explain how natural resources are distributed unevenly geographically.

4. ILLINOIS WITHOUT THE ICE

Performance Standard 12E/11A.E
Students will apply the processes of scientific inquiry to analyze topographic features accordingly:

• Knowledge: Describe how changes in atmospheric climatic conditions can result in changes in the geological features of Earth over time.
• Application: Analyze historical data and other evidence on glaciation and atmospheric conditions (e.g., patterns of temperature changes and rainfall) and how they have affected the land and water features found in Illinois today.
• Communication: Prepare a report on how atmospheric conditions have affected the land and water features found in Illinois today.

Note to teacher: This activity relates to knowledge associated with standard 12E, while addressing the performance descriptors for stage E within standard 11A. More information about this resource is available through the Illinois State Geologic Survey, on the campus of the University of Illinois, 615 E. Peabody in Champaign, IL 61820. Contact Wayne Frankie of the Illinois State Geological Survey for educational assistance: 217-333-4747. A student resource that focuses directly on the glacial activity that ‘made’Illinois is found at: www.isgs.uiuc.edu/servs/pubs/geobits-pub/geobit2/geobit2.html

5. CHOICES AFFECT THE ENVIRONMENT: I MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Performance Standard 13B/12E.E
Students will apply their understanding of the interactions of societal decisions in science and technology innovations and discoveries accordingly:

• Knowledge: Research how personal and societal choices that humans make affect the
• environment.
• Application: Predict scenarios of positive and negative personal and societal choices on the environment.
• Communication: Explain how choices can have negative or positive effects in the environment.

6. ILLINOIS FOOD WEB PARTNERS

Performance Standard 12B/11A.F
Students will apply the processes of scientific inquiry to study the impact of multiple factors that affect organisms in a habitat accordingly:

• Knowledge: Describe the factors that affect the organisms in an environment in the context of a food web.
• Application: Diagram the inter-relationships within a habitat’s food web of organisms and various abiotic factors.
• Communication: Explain the interactions depicted in their food web and that affect the environment.

7. WORLD’S MOST DYNAMIC FORCE

Performance Standard 12E/11A.F
Students will apply the processes of scientific inquiry to examine the large (and small) scale dynamic forces, events and processes that affect Earth’s land and populations accordingly:

• Knowledge: Distinguish the major types of interactions of Earth’s components, incorporating the differences between short-term interactions (i.e., within a normal human life span) and long-term (within a time span much greater than a normal human life span.)
• Application: Research short-term or long-term interactions for creation of an Earth advertising brochure.
• Communication: Present research findings about these dynamic forces on Earth for impact comparisons.

8. SCIENTIFIC HABITS OF MIND

Performance Standard 13A.F
Students will apply scientific habits of mind to analyze cases of scientific (or pseudo-scientific) studies accordingly:

• Knowledge: Describe the principles which apply to valid scientific studies and the scientists, themselves.
• Application: Analyze research studies or claims to evaluate soundness of their methods and conclusions.
• Communication: Explain the basis of valid and faulty research studies with specific examples.

9. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN SOCIETY

Performance Standard 13B (12A, B, C, D, E, F) .F
Students will research the interactions of scientific technology in societal situations accordingly:

• Knowledge: Identify scientific and/or technological advances in life, physical, environmental, earth and space sciences.
• Application: Analyze how scientific and/or technological advances have affected many different aspects of daily life for individuals and in broad societal examples in historic time periods.
• Communication: Explain the impact of scientific technological innovations and discoveries in communities and countries.

DESCRIPTORS - STAGE D (Only the descriptors that apply to each stage [D-J] are included below; e.g., 12A might be missing if it is not applicable)

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

1. Formulate contextual inquiry questions brainstorming questions, converting questions into hypothesis statements, researching associated scientific knowledge and skills, or identifying simple independent and dependent variables to be investigated.
2. Propose procedural steps to investigate inquiry hypothesis applying logical sequence for investigatory process, constructing applicable data tables, selecting necessary materials and equipment, or identifying appropriate safety measures to follow.
3. Conduct inquiry investigation collecting quantitative and qualitative data from trials, using applicable metric units, observing appropriate and necessary safety precautions, or validating data for accuracy.
4. Construct charts and visualizations to display data choosing appropriate display media for data analysis, or incorporating available/appropriate technology.
5. Analyze data trends summarizing inferences, explaining data points including outliers and discrepancies, or synthesizing collected data as evidence for explanations.
6. Communicate investigation hypothesis, procedure, and explanations, presenting the results of observations and explanations orally and in written format, or generating further questions for investigation to verify or refute hypothesis or explanation.

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

1. Identify a contextual technological design dilemma, brainstorming design questions for consideration (e.g., how pendulums work, how heat is transmitted), researching associated knowledge and skills, or identifying independent and dependent variables.
2. Begin investigations into technological design, identifying design parameters, brainstorming design options and necessary materials, sketching design plans, determining logical sequence for design procedures, generating success criteria indicators, ranges and graphic display options, or identifying appropriate safety measures to follow.
3. Construct design prototype, selecting necessary materials and equipment, or following procedural steps and necessary safety measures.
4. Construct charts and visualizations to display data, selecting appropriate graphic display of data, recording appropriate quantitative and qualitative data from multiple trials, or incorporating technology.
5. Analyze data to evaluate design selection or adaptability, synthesizing collected data, or comparing designs, processes, sources of error and success criteria.
6. Communicate design solution, procedure, and explanations, preparing graphs and charts to report the results, generating future design modifications, or suggesting alternative applications for design.

  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 explore the patterns of change in life cycles of plants and animals, comparing the stages within simple life cycles, examining and comparing microscopic and macroscopic life forms and their structures, or making generalizations of observed patterns.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore the similarities and differences of generations of offspring, comparing and contrasting specific characteristics of offspring with their parents from immaturity to maturity (e.g., teeth, coloration, metamorphosis variations), linking characteristics (e.g., habit of walking, kind of teeth, use of appendages) among animals to changes over time.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine the nature of inheritance in structural and functional features of plants and animals, applying general rules of probability to predict characteristics of offspring from selected parents, or comparing body structures (or functions) from animal fossils that are no longer evident in contemporary animals.
4. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine the nature of learned behavior in animals, distinguishing specific characteristics as learned or inherited in various examples, or
5. conducting simple surveys relating to learned behaviors or attitudes of classmates.

  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 examine relationships among organisms in their environment, diagramming a simple relationship between plants and/or animals (i.e., predator/prey, parasite/host, consumer/producer) commonly found in local habitats, describing simple food chains and webs in various habitats, considering habitat changes due to changes in moisture, temperature, or seasons, or contrasting the behavioral patterns and adaptations of organisms from different ecosystems.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to compare the adaptations of physical features of organisms to their environments, identifying the physical features that help plants or animals survive in their environments, or reporting on a specific plant or animal which has adapted to different environments over time.

  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 Earth's land, water and atmospheric conditions, describing erosion/weathering in terms of impact on features on Earth, diagramming the water cycle to explain changes that occur in the atmosphere during different weather conditions, or predicting atmospheric conditions from cloud, barometric, and other observations.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to analyze the natural weather patterns, describing short- to long-term changes in Earth's climate, suggesting possible causes of climatic changes and effects on biotic communities, or evaluating evidence that human activities have long-term effects on global climate.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to evaluate natural resource supplies, mapping availabilities of these resources, or examining the human causes of diminished supplies of resources.

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

1. Apply the appropriate principles of safety, identifying tools and proper steps for use of scientific equipment, using equipment and materials in a safe and proper manner when conducting inquiry design investigations, caring for classroom animal collections properly, identifying ways and places that chemicals can be properly stored, stating general rules to follow in case dangerous chemicals are ingested or inhaled, predicting potential causes of accidents at school, home, and in the community, or following classroom rules for preparation, procedures and clean-up.
2. Apply scientific habits of mind, recognizing the necessity of controlled variables in inquiry and design investigations, identifying faulty procedural steps which could cause different results, recording observations accurately and honestly, generating questions and strategies to test science concepts using critical and creative thinking, or contrasting hypotheses, predictions, laws, theories and assumptions.

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

1. Apply scientific technologies, incorporating appropriate data collection, storage, retrieval and communication capabilities in classroom investigations, describing how these technologies have enabled scientists to observe phenomenon beyond the capabilities of unaided human senses (radar, microscopy, etc.).
2. Associate the interactions of technology in science and societal situations, comparing and contrasting its impact, risks and benefits in historical and current physical environmental settings, evaluating available data models of this impact, displaying graphically the influences of these interactions in the lives and careers of people, investigating ways that technology has changed local, national or global environments.
3. Associate the interactions of societal decisions in science and technology innovations and discoveries, comparing how personal or community choices affect local, regional and global environments in historic, current or projected future settings, explaining the changes in society brought about by the space program, or role-playing public or personal informed decision-making about energy choices, resource availability, conservation, etc.

DESCRIPTORS - STAGE E

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

1. Construct an inquiry hypothesis that can be investigated researching pertinent context, proposing the logical sequence of steps, securing the appropriate materials and equipment, or determining data-collection strategies and format for approved investigation.
2. Conduct scientific inquiry investigation observing safety precautions and following procedural steps accurately over multiple trials.
3. Collect qualitative and quantitative data from investigation using available technologies, determining the necessary required precision, or validating data for accuracy.
4. Organize and display data determining most appropriate visualization strategies for collected data, or using graphs (i.e., double bar, double line, stem and leaf plots) and technologies.
5. Analyze data to produce reasonable explanations comparing and summarizing data from multiple trials, interpreting trends, evaluating conflicting data, or determining sources of error.
6. Communicate analysis and conclusions from investigation, interpreting graphs and charts, preparing oral, and/or written conclusions for peer review, or generating additional questions that can be tested.

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

1. Identify an innovative technological design from ordinary surroundings or circumstances brainstorming common design questions (e.g., how to squeeze toothpaste better, how to fly a better paper airplane), researching background information, or suggesting the appropriate materials, equipment, data-collection strategies and success factors for approved investigation.
2. Construct selected technological innovation sketching design, proposing the logical sequence of steps for construction, collecting appropriate materials, supplies, and safety equipment, or completing assembly of innovation.
3. Test prototype conducting multiple trials, collecting reliable and precise data, or recording observations.
4. Analyze data comparing and summarizing data, interpreting trends, evaluating conflicting data, or determining sources of error.
5. Communicate design findings selecting graphs and charts that effectively report the data, preparing oral and written investigation conclusions, or generating alternative design modifications which can be tested from original investigated question.

  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 explore the patterns of change and stability at the micro- and macroscopic levels of organisms (including humans), comparing the stages of simple life cycles and energy requirements, or identifying structures and their functions in cells, tissues, organs, systems and organisms (including humans).
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to distinguish the similarities and differences of offspring in organisms (including humans), comparing specific characteristics of offspring with their parents, or predicting possible genetic combinations from selected parental characteristics.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine the nature of inheritance in structural and functional features of organisms (including humans), describing genetic and environmental influences on the features of organisms, distinguishing between inherited and acquired characteristics, or explaining how cells respond to genetic and environmental influences.

  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 categorize organisms (including humans) by their energy relationships in their environments, classifying organisms by their position in a food web, grouping organisms according to their adaptive internal and/or external features, contrasting food webs within and among different biomes, identifying the biotic and abiotic factors associated with specific habitats, or making simple inferences to the closed systems of other planets.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explain competitive, adaptive and survival potential of species in different local or global ecosystems, identifying survival characteristics of organisms, explaining abiotic or biotic factors which threaten health or survival of populations or species (including humans), or identifying theories explaining mass extinctions.

  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 analyze global topographic features modeling the effect of glaciation on a surface with applications to Illinois topography, or using satellite pictures, various topographic and thematic maps to indicate demographic, economic and weather patterns, and/or their interrelationships to each other.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to analyze weather and climatic conditions, comparing historic and current precipitation, barometric, and temperature records, and trends, projecting future trends based on past and current records, or making inferences about cloud formations and weather conditions.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine long-term global, national and local renewable and nonrenewable resource supplies, explaining how historic economic choices have affected resource supplies, or focusing on comparative historic and projected water supplies and demands such as those for the local community, Illinois, the nation, and/or the world.

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

2. Apply scientific habits of mind explaining why similar investigations should but may not produce similar results, identifying circumstances which distort how variables interact, labeling accurate observations fully and carefully, or generating questions and strategies to test science concepts using critical and creative thinking.

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

1. Apply scientific technologies collecting, storing, retrieving, and communicating data in classroom research and investigations, or researching the progression of technological advances in pure and applied scientific investigations and innovations.
2. Investigate the interactions of technology in science and societal situations displaying graphically the improvements and their impact in local and global agriculture, transportation, health, sanitation, engineering, and manufacturing settings over time, or explaining different perceptions about discoveries, innovations, and trends in places, events, and regions.
3. Investigate the interactions of societal decisions in science and technology innovations and discoveries exploring the family, local, national, or global impact of them, examining conceptual, mathematical and policy implications of energy conservation programs for classrooms, schools, homes and communities, or describing the changes in tools, careers, resource use and productivity over the centuries.

DESCRIPTORS - STAGE F

  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.

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

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.

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

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.  

GRADES 6-8/STAGE G - SCIENCE

10. SURVIVAL ADAPTATIONS

Performance Standard 12B/11B.G
Students will apply the processes of technological design to explain interrelationships of adaptations and ecosystem survival accordingly:

• Knowledge: Identify the characteristics that enable a living organism to adapt, compete and/or survive in an environment.
• Application: Design a habitat model which provides the essential components for its organisms.
• Communication: Explain how the characteristics of a habitat relate to the functional and structural characteristics of its organisms.

11. WEATHER PROVERBS

Performance Standard 12E/11A/13A/13B.G
Students will apply the processes of scientific inquiry to investigate large-scale meteorological forces accordingly:

• Knowledge: Describe the scientific basis of meteorological factors as they relate to the historic and cultural basis of understanding weather and to current technologies.
• Application: Design and conduct scientific inquiry investigations that test weather factors.
• Communication: Present explanations which support or refute common weather proverbs and historic, cultural and technologic meteorological inter-relationships.

12. HABITS ARE HARD TO BREAK

Performance Standard 13A/13B.G
Students will compare scientific habits of mind in scientific and non-scientific everyday settings accordingly:

• Knowledge: Understand the foundations of scientific habits of mind (scientific reasoning, insight, skill, creativity, intellectual honesty, tolerance of ambiguity, skepticism, persistence and openness to new ideas).
• Application: Compare how scientists and non-scientists apply scientific habits of mind in everyday settings.
• Communication: Explain the values and applications of the scientific habits of mind in real-world situations.

13. INTERACTIONS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGIES

Performance Standard 13B/11B/12A-F.G
Students will explore the interactions of science and technology in multicultural, societal and economic settings from an historical context in multiple curricular units accordingly:

• Knowledge: Correlate the interactions of pure science concepts in historic technological innovations and their societal implications.
• Application: Research the historical context for a technological innovation and trace its impact through current examples.
• Communication: Present research to analyze how the introduction of a new technology has affected human activities worldwide.

DESCRIPTORS - STAGE G

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

1. Formulate contextual hypotheses generating an if-then, cause- effect premise, differentiating qualitative and quantitative data and their applicability, using conceptual/mathematical/ physical models, or previewing existing research as primary reading sources.
2. Design inquiry investigation which addresses proposed hypothesis, determining choice of variables, preparing data-collecting format, or incorporating all procedural and safety precautions, materials and equipment handling directions.
3. Conduct inquiry investigation choosing applicable metric units of measurement with estimated scale and range of results for student-generated data tables, using direct, indirect, or remote technologies for observing and measuring, conducting sufficient multiple trials, or recording all necessary data and observations objectively.
4. Interpret and represent analysis of results to produce findings, observing trends within data sets, evaluating data sets to explore explanations of outliers or sources of error, or analyzing observations and data which may support or refute inquiry hypothesis,
5. Report and display the process and findings of inquiry investigation, presenting oral or written final report for peer review, generating further questions for alternative investigations or procedural refinements, or evaluating other investigations for consolidation/refinement of procedures or data explanation.

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

1. Identify an important historic innovation or model of a technological design, examining inventions or entrepreneurial events driven by science or engineering principles, searching pertinent historical foundation, or determining the success criteria, design constraints, and testing logistics that were encountered.
2. Construct selected technological innovation model, sketching a progression of design stages and prototypes, proposing the logical sequence of steps in design construction, identifying original and comparable simulation materials for construction, predicting proportional scale for actual parameters and materials, or completing assembly of innovation model.
3. Test prototype predicting proportional scale for actual parameters and materials, conducting multiple trials according to success criteria, scale, and design constraints, or recording reliable and precise data and anecdotal observations.
4. Analyze data to evaluate design, comparing and summarizing data from multiple model trials, or correlating historic conditions and data to model testing.
5. Communicate design evaluation report, presenting oral and written report on historical significance of selected technological design and tested model, its original constraints and conditions, or generating possible alternative designs which could have been considered historically.

  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-to-organism interrelationships, comparing the increasingly complex structure and function of cells, tissues, organs and organ systems, demonstrating the processes for biological classification, analyzing normal and abnormal growth and health in organisms (with a focus on humans), describing how physiological systems carry out vital functions (e.g., respiration, digestion, reproduction, photosynthesis, excretion, and temperature regulation).
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine macro- and micro-evolution in organisms, comparing and assessing changes in the features or forms of organisms over broad time periods to their adaptive functions and competitive advantages, describing how natural selection accounts for diversity of species over many generations.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore the science of genetics, tracing the history of genetics, correlating the principles of genetics to mitotic cell division and simple mathematical probabilities, researching applied genetics in plant and animal breeding, or associating genetic factors for inheritance in humans, including genetic disorders.
4. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine the cellular coordination of responses, describing how the nervous system communicates between cells within the whole organism, tracing stimulus-response paths in various nervous systems, or analyzing the effect of substances (e.g., oxygen, food, blood, hormones, drugs) circulating through the body.

  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 examine the energy requirements of ecosystems, tracing the roles and population ratios of producers, consumers, and decomposers in food chains and webs, or identifying the biomass relationship with the transfer of energy from the sun to final consumers.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to relate the chemical cycles in ecosystems, modeling the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles with local references, or researching groundwater resources and potential sources of contamination with local examples.
   Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore the interactions between an ecosystem's organisms, examining types of interactive relationships (e.g., mutualism, predation, parasitism) with specific examples, or explaining interrelationship of adaptations and ecosystem survival.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to introduce population dynamics in ecosystems, exploring models of population growth rates, determining factors that limit population growth, or researching specific instances of population explosions over time.
4. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to model global biomes, identifying the general climate, soil, and inhabitant of the six major land-based biomes, mapping the global biomes, or comparing the graphical meteorological data (temperature, precipitation) of biomes/ecosystems.

  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 design to investigate large-scale dynamic forces that change geologic features, diagramming single global features over time as affected by continental drift, identifying properties and origins of rocks and minerals, or explaining impact of weathering, erosion, and deposition.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to investigate large-scale meteorological forces distinguishing weather from climate, examining global weather data over broad periods of time, or explaining how atmospheric circulation is driven by solar heating.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to investigate large-scale oceanographic forces, mapping ocean motions and life zones, identifying the quantitative proportions of ocean and fresh water.

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

1. Apply appropriate principles of safety, identifying potentially hazardous chemical combinations in the home or classroom, suggesting responses and reactions in home and classroom settings in case of threatening chemical scenarios, following all necessary safety precautions, cleaning and disposal procedures for scientific investigations, demonstrating safe transport, precise use, and appropriate storage for scientific equipment, or providing safe and ethical care for all classroom organism collections.
2. Apply scientific habits of mind, generating questions and strategies to test science concepts using critical and creative thinking, identifying instances of how scientific reasoning, insight, skill, creativity, intellectual honesty, tolerance of ambiguity, skepticism, persistence, and openness to new ideas have been integral to scientific discoveries and technological improvements, or comparing scientist's work and habits of mind to work in other careers.
3. Analyze cases of scientific studies, studying historic examples of valid investigations from curricular life, environmental, physical, earth, and space sciences, finding examples of faulty or biased scientific reasoning which distorted scientific understanding, or citing experimental and observational strategies in direct, indirect, and remote investigations.

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

1. Explore scientific technologies in life, environmental, physical, earth, and space sciences, identifying advances in the past century, describing technologies used by scientists to forecast, explain, or test major events in each of the sciences, or diagramming processes and products from applicable technologies.
2. Explore the interactions of science and technology in multicultural, societal, and economic settings, analyzing how the introduction of a new technology has affected human activities worldwide, or associating personal biographic information about science leaders from around the world.
3. Explore historic, multicultural societal influences on scientific discoveries and technological innovations, comparing the knowledge, skills, and methods of early and modern scientists in the sciences, or finding examples of rejection of scientific or technological advances by cultures based on belief systems.
4. Explore scientific concepts in career and technical knowledge and skills in everyday settings, interviewing adults to identify specific applications of scientific concepts or technological innovations, researching job market trends for anticipated changes in the next ten-year period based on projected technology interventions, resource depletion or access, or economic interactions, or demonstrating relationships between improving technology, all science fields, and educational/training requirements for such careers.

GRADES 7-9/STAGE H - SCIENCE

14. ILLINOIS’ HABITATS HAPPENING

Performance Standard 12B/11A/13B.H
Students will apply the processes of issue investigations as scientific inquiry to analyze Illinois-specific ecosystems and biomes and their local issues of resource acquisition/conservation/management and/or technological development, accordingly:

• Knowledge: Define the optimum and actual biome setting and conditions and change and stability factors within a local habitat.
• Application: Conduct an investigation of a local habitat/ecosystem which is facing an interaction impact dilemma.
• Communication: Report the findings of the issue investigation associated with the interactions within the local habitat from group work and individual reflections.

15. INVESTIGATING THE COMPOST

Performance Standard 12E/11A/11B/13A.H
Students will apply the processes of scientific inquiry or technological design to examine earth’s resources quantitatively accordingly:

• Knowledge: Define biodegradability and the factors which affect is process,
• Application: Conduct an investigation of compost biodegradability using natural materials, and
• Communication: Report the findings of the investigation and generate possible societal applications for these findings.

16. THREATS TO VALIDITY

Performance Standard 13A.H
Students will apply scientific habits of mind to investigations in the sciences, accordingly:

• Knowledge: Define the basis of scientific habits of mind necessary in scientific investigations.
• Application: Identify basic strategies to evaluate evidence, question sources of information and analyze validity of scientific investigations.
• Communication: Correlate how scientific habits of mind validate science and invalidate pseudo-science examples of various media (literature, advertisements, movies, etc.)

17. OUR LANDFILL FUTURE

Performance Standard 13B/12E/11A/13A.H
Students will apply the processes of scientific inquiry to explore natural resource conservation and management programs accordingly:

• Knowledge: Identify the impact of the issues associated with our garbage, landfills and the environment.
• Application: Conduct research about the parameters which influence the existence and future of a landfill.
• Communication: Correlate individual research presentations to final conclusions about local landfill’s future.

DESCRIPTORS - STAGE H

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

1. Formulate issue-specific hypothesis, generating inquiry questions for an issue investigational premise, differentiating qualitative and quantitative data and their applicability, using conceptual/mathematical/physical models, or previewing associated research.
2. Design scientific issue investigation which addresses proposed hypothesis(es), proposing applicable survey instruments, or selecting associated research, analysis, and communication components.
3. Conduct issue investigation, using technologies for data collection and assimilation, following established formats for random sampling, or following all procedural and safety precautions, materials and equipment handling directions.
4. Interpret and represent analysis of results evaluating data sets to explore explanations of unexpected responses and data concurrence, evaluating survey validity and reliability, or analyzing research and data for supporting or refuting the hypothesis.
5. Report, display and defend the process and findings of issue investigation, presenting oral or written final report for action response options for peer review, generating further questions or issues for consideration, or evaluating other resolutions or responses for action for applicable correlations, consolidation or explanations.

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

1. Formulate proposals for design investigation, generating strategies to test or model a scientific concept, suggesting appropriate supplies, materials, resources, and equipment to test concepts.
2. Create and conduct technological design testing objectively, sketching schematic of design or predictions, or incorporating the appropriate safety, available technology and equipment capabilities into construction and testing of design.
3. Collect and record data accurately, using consistent metric measuring and recording techniques with necessary precision, recording data accurately in appropriate format, or graphing data appropriately according to the tested variables.
4. Represent results of analysis to produce findings comparing data sets according to the design criteria, evaluating multiple prototype solutions to the overall design success criteria, or proposing explanations for sources of error in the data set with regards to product design flaws, or model limitations.
5. Report the process and results of a design investigation, selecting graphs and charts that effectively report the design data, making oral and/or written presentations, proposing logical explanations of success or errors, 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 explain the chemical nature of biological processes, describing photosynthesis in terms of basic requirements and products, correlating respiration, or diagramming the nitrogen, water, oxygen, and carbon cycles with reference to ecosystem-to-molecular levels.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to correlate the basis of cellular and organism reproductive processes, correlating possible genetic combinations to the type of reproductive process, diagramming and comparing mitotic and meiotic cell division, or distinguishing asexual and sexual (egg, sperm and zygote formation) reproduction with examples.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to compare evolutionary trends between kingdoms and phyla, exploring natural and applied hybridization, explaining the increasing sophistication of body systems correlating embryological, structural, and functional development, or exploring the impact of environmental factors on these trends.
4. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore social and environmental responses of organisms, describing learned and inherited behaviors and responses across kingdoms and between/among phyla, explaining cyclic behaviors and responses in various species, or examining social behaviors of insects and vertebrates.

  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 explore the implications of change and stability in ecosystems, identifying evolutionary adaptations brought on by environmental changes, analyzing factors that influence the size and stability of populations (e.g., temperature, climate, soil conditions, predation, habitat), or contrasting energy use by organisms.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological design to examine species' demise or success within ecosystems identifying problems for species conservation and extinction, projecting population changes when habitats are altered or destroyed (deforestation, desertification, wetlands destruction, introduction of exotic species),or researching economic and scientific value implications for changes to genetic diversity.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological design to study biogeography, researching global biomes, locating hemispheric, continental, and regional examples of each biome, or graphing associated mathematical comparison factors.
4. Apply scientific inquiries or technological design to analyze Illinois-specific ecosystems and biomes, modeling topographic features, population data, plant diversity and distribution from historic records, collecting scientific seasonal/annual local ecosystem data for direct connection to change and stability factors, or projecting scenarios of changes to local ecosystem for near- and long-term future contingencies.

  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 investigate the explanations of the geologic features and structures, diagramming the established geologic eras, periods, and epochs, describing the geological events that led to the formation of the Great Lakes and Illinois, or relating physical and chemical properties of minerals.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine meteorological phenomena, describing large-scale and local weather systems, interpreting weather maps, describing the composition, properties, range of temperatures, and/or pressures in various layers of the atmosphere, describing relationships between the sun and the earth's climate, seasons and weather.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine Earth's resources quantitatively, demonstrating biodegradation of various substances, explaining specific examples of mining, or comparing renewability or availability of earth resources, including freshwater reserves.

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

1. Apply appropriate principles of safety within and beyond the science classroom, communicating and following clear instructions, mapping classrooms for safe egress and distances/times to access safety treatment features, demonstrating safety practices and emergency procedures pertaining to laboratory and field work, or explaining the basis of safety practices and procedures.
2. Apply scientific habits of mind to curricular investigations in life, environmental, physical, earth, and space sciences, evaluating evidence, inferring statements based on data, questioning sources of information, explaining necessity of manipulating only one variable at a time, or retrieving mathematical data accurately for scientific analysis.
3. Analyze scientific studies referenced in curricular investigations in life, environmental, physical, earth, and space sciences, reviewing experimental procedures or explanations for possible faulty reasoning or unproven statements (e.g., power line magnetic fields, abiogenesis models), distinguishing relationships of scientific theories, models, hypotheses, experiments, and methodologies, or distinguishing fact from opinion and science from pseudoscience.

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

1. Explore interaction of resource acquisition, technological development, and ecosystem impact, documenting actual local, regional, national, or global examples, proposing alternative solutions to interaction impact, or estimating costs of such interactions.
2. Explore natural resource conservation and management programs, calculating home/school electric or water usage, etc., to propose plans for increased efficiency, evaluating their effect on natural resources and the local economy, researching the past, current, and future local landfill plans, or examining state wildlife programs for controlled breeding or population maintenance.
3. Explore policies which affect local science or technology issues, researching applicable issue of local concern (e.g., subdivision development, groundwater contamination), developing classroom criteria to measure effectiveness of policies, developing survey instruments to assess depths of informed opinions on issues, collecting pertinent data from expert local sources, or analyzing data and policy correlation.

GRADES 8-10/STAGE I - SCIENCE

18. POPULATION DYNAMICS

Performance Standard 12 B/11A/13B.I
Students will apply the processes of scientific inquiry to explain population model studies to determine limiting factors and mathematical patterns of population growth in

real-world situations accordingly:

• Knowledge: Understand the basis of population models, databases and foundations.
• Application: Graphically represent and analyze Humboldt penguin population using age-gender population pyramids.
• Communication: Apply measures of change to make predictions about captive populations.

19. HISTORIC EARTH SCIENCE INNOVATIONS

Performance Standard 12E/11B/13A/13B.I
Students will apply the processes of technological design to research the engineering feats, innovations or models of earth sciences accordingly:

• Knowledge: Understand the scientific concepts, societal demands and technological design considerations faced by earth scientists historically.
• Application: Construct a model which replicates the engineering processes associated with the development of an earth science feat or innovation.
• Communication: Report the findings of the investigation and generate societal impact statements associated with the success (or failure) of the selected earth science innovation or feat.

20.SCIENCE AND CAREERS

Performance Standard 13B/12A-F/13A.I
Students will apply the interactions of the concepts, principles and interconnections of the life, physical and earth/space sciences to analyze career and occupational decisions accordingly:

• Knowledge: Identify and describe the interconnections of science associated with occupational skills.
• Application: Examine how scientific concepts influence specific career and occupation decisions.
• Communication: Present foundational scientific concepts and applications in specific on-the-job processes.

DESCRIPTORS - STAGE I

  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, or brainstorming 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.
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.

  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. .

  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.

GRADES 11-12/STAGE J - SCIENCE

21. GROUNDWATER REALITIES

Performance Standard 12B/13B/11A.J
Students will apply the processes of scientific inquiry to research the sustainability of water resources through an environmental impact study accordingly:

• Knowledge: Describe the impacts of human activity in a real-world ecosystem.
• Application: Analyze an environmental impact study.
• Communication: Role-play the circumstances and deliberations of an actual groundwater impact study.

22. ANALYZING THE RESEARCH OF THE EARTH

Performance Standard 12E/11B/13B.J
Students will apply the processes of technological design in historic, current and potential earth science research technology settings accordingly:

• Knowledge: Describe the technologies used in meteorological, geological, and oceanographic research and societal implications within and between earth sciences and the natural sciences as a whole.
• Application: Research specific earth science technologies from historic foundations and purposes to current applications and future demands and societal expectations.
• Communication: Report findings of earth science technology research and analysis of societal connections to these research settings.

23. HOW THE SCIENTISTS REALLY WORK

Performance Standard 13A/12A-F/13B.J
Students will question the accepted practices of science by scientists and their interactions with technology and society accordingly:

• Knowledge: Define the applicable scientific habits of mind and conditions for work facing scientists as they do their research.
• Application: Devise and conduct appropriate interview procedures for scientists to question their understanding and application of scientific habits of mind and conditions for research work.
• Communication: Present findings of interviews with scientists to correlate, confirm, contrast and generalize the common and unique habits of mind necessary in the work of scientists.

DESCRIPTORS - STAGE J

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

1. Formulate issue- hypothesis, reviewing literature as primary reading sources, differentiating between subjective/objective data and their usefulness to the issue, or examining applicable existent surveys, impact studies, or models.
2. Design an issue investigation, proposing applicable survey and interview instruments and methodologies, selecting appropriate simulations, or projecting possible viewpoints, variables, applicable data sets and formats for consideration.
3. Conduct issue investigation (following all procedural and safety precautions), using appropriate technologies, interviewing associated entities or experts, testing applicable simulation models, or completing all data collection requirements.
4. Interpret and analyze results to produce findings and issue resolution options, evaluating data sets and trends to explore unexpected responses and data distracters, evaluating validity and reliability, or substantiating basis of inferences, deductions, and perceptions.
5. Report, display and defend the process and findings of issue investigation, critiquing findings by self and peer review, generating further questions or issues for consideration, evaluating comparable issue resolutions or responses for action, or generalizing public opinion responses.

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

1. Formulate proposals for innovative technological design, generating ideas for innovations and variables, identifying design constraints due to access to tools, materials, and time, or researching applicable scientific principles or concepts.
2. Design and conduct technological innovation testing, developing the sequence of the design with visualizations, incorporating the appropriate safety, available technology and equipment capabilities into construction of design, or repeating procedural steps for multiple trials.
3. Collect and record data accurately, using consistent metric measuring and recording techniques and media with necessary precision, documenting data from instruments accurately in selected format, or graphing data appropriately to show relation to variables in design solution proposal.
4. Interpret and represent results of analysis to produce findings, comparing data sets to design criteria for suitability, acceptability, benefits, or proposing explanations for sources of error in the data set for process or product design flaws.
5. Report the process and results of a design investigation, explaining application to appropriate scientific principle or concept, communicating anecdotal and quantitative observations, analyzing a logical explanation of success or errors, 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

5. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explain disease from the organelle-to-population levels, explaining body defenses to infectious disease in various organisms, or researching historic and on-going efforts to prevent, cure or treat diseases.

  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 research the sustainability of water resources, sketching and quantifying the hydrologic cycle locally and globally, describing the role of oceans on climatic systems, describing the impact of invasive organisms, alterations of chemical and microbial concentrations (pollutants, salinity), global and site average temperatures, simulating water supply recharge/deficit/surplus and groundwater infiltration, modeling effects of point source and non-point source pollution, or explaining water and sewage treatment.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to research the sustainability of land resources, studying the role of biotic and abiotic soil components in decomposition and nutrient cycling, collecting data on soil composition, porosity, permeability, fertility etc., or quantifying the impact of topsoil and mineral preservation, erosion, and reclamation.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to research the sustainability of air resources, modeling the atmospheric layers with their currents and temperature inversions, or explaining the percentage chemical compositions and conversions at varying levels as associated with the greenhouse effect and ozone depletion or acid-rain concentrations.
4. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to research the sustainability of energy sources, comparing alternative natural sources of energy to fossil energy sources in terms of risks, costs, benefits, supplies, efficiencies, storage, and renewability, or analyzing impacts of conservation measures and recycling on energy consumption.

  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 analyze meteorological research, defining and quantifying factors which affect local and global weather and climate, relating earth-to-solar interrelationships, or applying local or global topographic features to weather and climate.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to analyze geological research, modeling the formation of volcanoes, earthquakes, ocean floor spreading, and tectonic plates with quantitative data, explaining technologies which determine relative and absolute age, or documenting effect of natural and human-influenced erosion and deposition that have changed the Earth's surface.

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

1. Apply appropriate principles of safety in pure and applied research studies, examining animal care precautions for adherence to safety standards, referencing applicable chemical storage, handling, and disposal procedure regulations, researching procedures and policies to eliminate or reduce risk in potentially hazardous activities, or citing federal or state agency requirements for employees for safety regulations in science research settings.
2. Apply scientific habits of mind to current pure and applied research studies in life, environmental, physical, earth, and space sciences, interviewing scientists about how they address validity of scientific claims and theories and/or their understanding of scientific habits of mind (including sheer luck) and how they have been integral to their own research, recognizing limitations of investigation methods, sample sets, technologies, or procedures, questioning sources of information and representation of data, recognizing selective or distorted use of data, discrepancies and poor argument, distinguishing opinion from supported theory, tracing citations from research studies for validity and reliability, or reporting on peer review and juried panel review in research approval and scientific community acceptance.

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

1. Analyze challenges created by international cooperation and competition in scientific knowledge and technological advances, explaining multinational corporations' challenges or impact for resource acquisition, or researching the cooperative efforts and dilemmas associated with global partnerships
2. Analyze scientific breakthroughs in terms of societal and technological effects, citing how beliefs and attitudes influence advances, examining global distribution of energy, natural or fiscal resources, or evaluating how scientific advances from different cultures are received.
3. Analyze environmental impact studies, describing the design and procedures, synthesizing the findings and justifying the recommendations, or comparing methods for minimizing pollution or procedures for monitoring environmental quality.
4. Analyze local, state, national, global scientific policies in terms of costs, benefits, and effects, identifying policies which have affected local needs, costs, or products, assessing national or global costs of policies from American or non-American perspectives, or evaluating data used in media explanations of resource, technology, or policy impact.
5. Analyze how scientific and technological progress have affected job markets and everyday life, investigating projected trends over 2-3 decades, or assessing costs for technological progress on personal, governmental, economic and ecosystem impact in the sciences.