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High School

Earth's Place in the Universe

 

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

Performance Expectations
 

 

Communicate scientific ideas about the way stars, over their life cycle, produce elements. HS-ESS1-3

Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the way nucleosynthesis, and therefore the different elements created, varies as a function of the mass of a star and the stage of its lifetime.

Assessment Boundary: Details of the many different nucleosynthesis pathways for stars of differing masses are not assessed.

Science and Engineering Practices

Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information in 9–12 builds on K–8 experiences and progresses to evaluating the validity and reliability of the claims, methods, and designs.

Communicate scientific ideas (e.g. about phenomena and/or the process of development and the design and performance of a proposed process or system) in multiple formats (including orally, graphically, textually, and mathematically). (HS-ESS1-3)

Disciplinary Core Ideas

ESS1.A:  The Universe and Its Stars

The study of stars’ light spectra and brightness is used to identify compositional elements of stars, their movements, and their distances from Earth. (HS-ESS1-3)

Other than the hydrogen and helium formed at the time of the Big Bang, nuclear fusion within stars produces all atomic nuclei lighter than and including iron, and the process releases electromagnetic energy. Heavier elements are produced when certain massive stars achieve a supernova stage and explode. (HS-ESS1-3)

Crosscutting Concepts

Energy and Matter

In nuclear processes, atoms are not conserved, but the total number of protons plus neutrons is conserved. (HS-ESS1-3)

Common Core State Standards Connections

ELA/Literacy
  • SL.11-12.4 - Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks. (HS-ESS1-3)
  • WHST.9-12.2 - Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes. (HS-ESS1-3)
Mathematics
  • MP.2 - Reason abstractly and quantitatively. (HS-ESS1-3)