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Middle School

Earth's Place in the Universe

 

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

Performance Expectations
 

 

Analyze and interpret data to determine scale properties of objects in the solar system. MS-ESS1-3

Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the analysis of data from Earth-based instruments, space-based telescopes, and spacecraft to determine similarities and differences among solar system objects. Examples of scale properties include the sizes of an object’s layers (such as crust and atmosphere), surface features (such as volcanoes), and orbital radius. Examples of data include statistical information, drawings and photographs, and models.

Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include recalling facts about properties of the planets and other solar system bodies.

Science and Engineering Practices

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Analyzing data in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to extending quantitative analysis to investigations, distinguishing between correlation and causation, and basic statistical techniques of data and error analysis.

Analyze and interpret data to determine similarities and differences in findings. (MS-ESS1-3)

Disciplinary Core Ideas

ESS1.B:  Earth and the Solar System

The solar system consists of the sun and a collection of objects, including planets, their moons, and asteroids that are held in orbit around the sun by its gravitational pull on them. (MS-ESS1-3)

Crosscutting Concepts

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

Time, space, and energy phenomena can be observed at various scales using models to study systems that are too large or too small. (MS-ESS1-3)

Common Core State Standards Connections

ELA/Literacy
  • RST.6-8.1 - Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts. (MS-ESS1-3)
  • RST.6-8.7 - Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table). (MS-ESS1-3)
Mathematics
  • 6.RP.A.1 - Understand the concept of a ratio and use ratio language to describe a ratio relationship between two quantities. (MS-ESS1-3)
  • 7.RP.A.2 - Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities. (MS-ESS1-3)
  • MP.2 - Reason abstractly and quantitatively. (MS-ESS1-3)