Clarification Statement: Examples of data include similarities of rock and fossil types on different continents, the shapes of the continents (including continental shelves), and the locations of ocean structures (such as ridges, fracture zones, and trenches).
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth Tectonic processes continually generate new ocean sea floor at ridges and destroy old sea floor at trenches (secondary).
ESS2.B: Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions Maps of ancient land and water patterns, based on investigations of rocks and fossils, make clear how Earth’s plates have moved great distances, collided, and spread apart

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Student Learning Targets:

Knowledge Targets

• I can identify and describe the compositional and structural (physical) layers of the Earth.
  
• I can identify the three forces that cause tectonic plate movement (i.e. convection, slab pull, ridge push).
• I can identify the three types of plate boundaries and describe the plate movement associated with each.
• I can provide evidence that supports the theory of continental drift.

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Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the ways water changes its state as it moves through the multiple pathways of the hydrologic cycle. Examples of models can be conceptual or physical.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earth's Surface Processes Water continually cycles among land, ocean, and atmosphere via transpiration, evaporation, condensation and crystallization, and precipitation, as well as downhill flows on land. Global movements of water and its changes in form are propelled by sunlight and gravity.

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Student Learning Targets:

Knowledge Targets

• I can label the seven steps of the water cycle (i.e. evaporation, precipitation, condensation, runoff, percolation, infiltration, and transpiration).
  
• I can label the state of water throughout each step of the water cycle.
• I can accurately label a diagram of the three ways heat is transferred.

Reasoning Targets

• I can apply the three types of heat transfer to a real life scenario.
  
• I can apply the processes of the water cycle to a real life scenario.

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Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on how air masses flow from regions of high pressure to low pressure, causing weather (defined by temperature, pressure, humidity, precipitation, and wind) at a fixed location to change over time, and how sudden changes in weather can result when different air masses collide. Emphasis is on how weather can be predicted within probabilistic ranges. Examples of data can be provided to students (such as weather maps, diagrams, and visualizations) or obtained through laboratory experiments (e.g.; condensation).
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earth's Surface Processes The complex patterns of the changes and the movement of water in the atmosphere, determined by winds, landforms, and ocean temperatures and currents, are major determinants of local weather patterns.
ESS2.D: Weather and Climate Because these patterns are so complex, weather can only be predicted probabilistically.

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Student Learning Targets:

Knowledge Targets

• I can identify the characteristics that define air masses.
  
• I can describe the interactions between a warm air mass and a cold air mass along a warm/cold font (include precipitation).
• I can describe the four factors necessary for cloud formation.

Reasoning Targets

• I can predict the weather conditions before and after a warm front and a cold front.

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Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on how patterns vary by latitude, altitude, and geographic land distribution. Emphasis of atmospheric circulation is on the sunlight-driven latitudinal banding, the Coriolis effect, and resulting prevailing winds; emphasis of ocean circulation is on the transfer of heat by the global ocean convection cycle, which is constrained by the Coriolis effect and the outlines of continents. Examples of models can be diagrams, maps and globes, or digital representations.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earth's Surface Processes Variations in density due to variations in temperature and salinity drive a global pattern of interconnected ocean currents.
ESS2.D: Weather and Climate Weather and climate are influenced by interactions involving sunlight, the ocean, the atmosphere, ice, landforms, and living things. These interactions vary with latitude, altitude, and local and regional geography, all of which can affect oceanic and atmospheric flow patterns.

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Student Learning Targets:

Knowledge Targets

• I can label the relative pressure, latitudes, pressure belts, direction, and the name of the global winds.
  
• I can draw and label local winds (i.e. land breeze and sea breeze).

Reasoning Targets

• I can explain why a land breeze occurs at night and sea breeze occurs during the day.
  
• I can explain why there is little or no wind at the pressure belts.

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Performance Expectations

ESS3 help students formulate an answer to questions such as:

• How is the availability of needed natural resources related to naturally occurring processes?
• How can natural hazards be predicted?
• How do human activities affect Earth systems?
• How do we know our global climate is changing?

The ESS3 Disciplinary Core Idea is broken down into four sub - ideas: natural resources, natural hazards, human impact on Earth systems, and global climate change. Students understand the ways that human activities impacts Earth’s other systems. Students use many different practices to understand the significant and complex issues surrounding human uses of land, energy, mineral, and water resources and the resulting impacts of their development.
In the ESS 3 performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in asking questions, developing and using models, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations and designing solutions and engaging in argument ; and to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas.

Calculation Method for DCI

Disciplinary Core Ideas are larger groups of related Performance Expectations. So the Disciplinary Core Idea Grade is a calculation of all the related Performance Expectations. So click on the Performance Expectation name below each Disciplinary Core Idea to access the learning targets and proficiency scales for each Disciplinary Core Idea's related Performance Expectations.

Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on how these resources are limited and typically non-renewable, and how their distributions are significantly changing as a result of removal by humans. Examples of uneven distributions of resources as a result of past processes include but are not limited to petroleum (locations of the burial of organic marine sediments and subsequent geologic traps), metal ores (locations of past volcanic and hydrothermal activity associated with subduction zones), and soil (locations of active weathering and/or deposition of rock).
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS3.A: Natural Resources Humans depend on Earth’s land, ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere for many different resources. Minerals, fresh water, and biosphere resources are limited, and many are not renewable or replaceable over human lifetimes. These resources are distributed unevenly around the planet as a result of past geologic processes.

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Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on how some natural hazards, such as volcanic eruptions and severe weather, are preceded by phenomena that allow for reliable predictions, but others, such as earthquakes, occur suddenly and with no notice, and thus are not yet predictable. Examples of natural hazards can be taken from interior processes (such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions), surface processes (such as mass wasting and tsunamis), or severe weather events (such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods). Examples of data can include the locations, magnitudes, and frequencies of the natural hazards. Examples of technologies can be global (such as satellite systems to monitor hurricanes or forest fires) or local (such as building basements in tornado-prone regions or reservoirs to mitigate droughts).
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS3.B: Natural Hazards Mapping the history of natural hazards in a region, combined with an understanding of related geologic forces can help forecast the locations and likelihoods of future events.

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Student Learning Targets:

Knowledge Targets

• I can identify the three types of faults and state the strength of the earthquake produced. (Earthquakes)
  
• I can differentiate between a p-wave and a s-wave. (Earthquakes)
• I can identify the three different types of volcanoes based on the type of eruption. (Volcanoes)
• I can identify different methods of predicting volcanic eruptions. (Volcanoes)
• I can explain the the tectonic activity present at the Ring of Fire and Mid-Atlantic Ridge. (Volcanoes)

Reasoning Targets

• I can explain how energy is stored and then later released during an earthquake. (Earthquakes)
  
• I can explain how scientists use the gap hypothesis to predict the location and strength of future earthquakes. (Earthquakes)
• I can explain how the composition of magma (silica content, ability to trap gases) influences the type of eruption. (Volcanoes)
• Skills (Performance) Targets
• I can use a seismogram and the S-P time method to determine the distance from the epicenter. (Earthquakes)

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Clarification Statement: Examples of the design process include examining human environmental impacts, assessing the kinds of solutions that are feasible, and designing and evaluating solutions that could reduce that impact. Examples of human impacts can include water usage (such as the withdrawal of water from streams and aquifers or the construction of dams and levees), land usage (such as urban development, agriculture, or the removal of wetlands), and pollution (such as of the air, water, or land).
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems Human activities have significantly altered the biosphere, sometimes damaging or destroying natural habitats and causing the extinction of other species. But changes to Earth’s environments can have different impacts (negative and positive) for different living things. Typically, as human populations and per-capita consumption of natural resources increase, so do the negative impacts on Earth unless the activities and technologies involved are engineered otherwise

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Clarification Statement: Examples of evidence include grade-appropriate databases on human populations and the rates of consumption of food and natural resources (such as freshwater, mineral, and energy). Examples of impacts can include changes to the appearance, composition, and structure of Earth’s systems as well as the rates at which they change. The consequences of increases in human populations and consumption of natural resources are described by science, but science does not make the decisions for the actions society takes.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems Typically, as human populations and per capita consumption of natural resources increase, so do the negative impacts on Earth unless the activities and technologies involved are engineered otherwise.

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Clarification Statement: Examples of factors include natural processes (such as changes in incoming solar radiation or volcanic activity) and human activities (such as fossil fuel combustion, cement production, and agricultural activity). Examples of evidence can include tables, graphs, and maps of global and regional temperatures, atmospheric levels of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, and the rates of human activities.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS3.D: Global Climate Change Human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming). Reducing the level of climate change and reducing human vulnerability to whatever climate changes do occur depend on the understanding of climate science, engineering capabilities, and other kinds of knowledge, such as understanding of human behavior and on applying that knowledge wisely in decisions and activities

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