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High School

Earth and Human Activity

 

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

Performance Expectations
 

 

Create a computational simulation to illustrate the relationships among management of natural resources, the sustainability of human populations, and biodiversity. HS-ESS3-3

Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

Clarification Statement: Examples of factors that affect the management of natural resources include costs of resource extraction and waste management, per-capita consumption, and the development of new technologies. Examples of factors that affect human sustainability include agricultural efficiency, levels of conservation, and urban planning.

Assessment Boundary: Assessment for computational simulations is limited to using provided multi-parameter programs or constructing simplified spreadsheet calculations.

Science and Engineering Practices

Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking

Mathematical and computational thinking in 9–12 builds on K–8 experiences and progresses to using algebraic thinking and analysis, a range of linear and nonlinear functions including trigonometric functions, exponentials and logarithms, and computational tools for statistical analysis to analyze, represent, and model data. Simple computational simulations are created and used based on mathematical models of basic assumptions.

Create a computational model or simulation of a phenomenon, designed device, process, or system. (HS-ESS3-3)

Disciplinary Core Ideas

ESS3.C:  Human Impacts on Earth Systems

The sustainability of human societies and the biodiversity that supports them requires responsible management of natural resources. (HS-ESS3-3)

Crosscutting Concepts

Stability and Change

Change and rates of change can be quantified and modeled over very short or very long periods of time. Some system changes are irreversible. (HS-ESS3-3)

Connections to Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science

Influence of Science, Engineering, and Technology on Society and the Natural World

Modern civilization depends on major technological systems. (HS-ESS3-3)

New technologies can have deep impacts on society and the environment, including some that were not anticipated. (HS-ESS3-3)

Connections to Nature of Science

Science Is a Human Endeavor

Science is a result of human endeavors, imagination, and creativity. (HS-ESS3-3)

Common Core State Standards Connections

Mathematics
  • MP.2 - Reason abstractly and quantitatively. (HS-ESS3-3)
  • MP.4 - Model with mathematics. (HS-ESS3-3)