Performance Expectations

ESS1 helps students formulate an answer to questions such as:

• What is Earth’s place in the universe?
• What makes up our solar system?
• How can the motion of Earth explain seasons and eclipses?
• How do people figure out that the Earth and life on Earth have changed through time?

The ESS1 help students formulate an answer to the question: “What is the universe, and what is Earth’s place in it?” The ESS1 Disciplinary Core Idea from the NRC Framework is broken down into three sub-ideas: the universe and its stars, Earth and the solar system and the history of planet Earth. Students examine the processes governing the formation, evolution, and workings of the solar system and universe. Some concepts studied are fundamental to science, such as understanding how the matter of our world formed during the Big Bang and within the cores of stars. Others concepts are practical, such as understanding how short-term changes in the behavior of our sun directly affect humans. Engineering and technology play a large role here in obtaining and analyzing the data that support the theories of the formation of the solar system and universe. The crosscutting concepts of patterns, scale, proportion, and quantity, energy and matter, and stability and change are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas. In the ESS1 performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in developing and using models, using mathematical and computational thinking, constructing explanations and designing solutions, engaging in argument, and obtaining, evaluating and communicating information; 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: Earth Science: Emphasis is on the energy transfer mechanisms that allow energy from nuclear fusion in the sun’s core to reach Earth. Examples of evidence for the model include observations of the masses and lifetimes of other stars, as well as the ways that the sun’s radiation varies due to sudden solar flares (“space weather”), the 11-year sunspot cycle, and non-cyclic variations over centuries.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS1.A: The Universe and Its Stars -The star called the sun is changing and will burn out over a lifespan of approximately 10 billion years.
PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life -Nuclear fusion processes in the center of the sun release the energy that ultimately reaches Earth as radiation. (secondary)

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Clarification Statement: Earth Science: Emphasis is on the astronomical evidence of the red shift of light from galaxies as an indication that the universe is currently expanding, which led to the formulation of the Big Bang and other theories
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. -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.
PS4.B: Electromagnetic Radiation -Atoms of each element emit and absorb characteristic frequencies of light. These characteristics allow identification of the presence of an element, even in microscopic quantities. (secondary)

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Clarification Statement: Earth Science: 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.
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. -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.

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Clarification Statement: Earth Science/Physics: Emphasis is on Newtonian gravitational laws governing orbital motions, which apply to human-made satellites as well as planets and moons
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. 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

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Clarification Statement: Earth Science/Geology: Emphasis is on the ability of plate tectonics to explain the ages of crustal rocks. Examples include evidence of the ages of oceanic crust increasing with distance from mid-ocean ridges (a result of plate spreading) and the ages of North American continental crust decreasing with distance away from a central ancient core of the continental plate (a result of past plate interactions)
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth -Continental rocks are generally much older than the rocks of the ocean floor.
ESS2.B: Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions -Plate tectonics is the unifying theory that explains the past and current movements of the rocks at Earth’s surface and provides a framework for understanding its geologic history.
PS1.C: Nuclear Processes -Spontaneous radioactive decays follow a characteristic exponential decay law. Nuclear lifetimes allow radiometric dating to be used to determine the ages of rocks and other materials.

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Clarification Statement: Earth Science/Geology: Emphasis is on using available evidence within the solar system to reconstruct the early history of Earth. Examples of evidence include the absolute ages of ancient materials (obtained by radiometric dating of meteorites, moon rocks, and Earth’s oldest minerals), the sizes and compositions of solar system objects, and the impact cratering record of planetary surfaces.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth -Although active geologic processes, such as plate tectonics and erosion, have destroyed or altered most of the very early rock record on Earth, other objects in the solar system, such as lunar rocks, asteroids, and meteorites, have changed little. Studying these objects can provide information about Earth’s formation and early history.
PS1.C: Nuclear Processes -Spontaneous radioactive decays follow a characteristic exponential decay law. Nuclear lifetimes allow radiometric dating to be used to determine the ages of rocks and other materials.

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Performance Expectations

ESS2 help students formulate an answer to the question: “How and why is Earth constantly changing?” The ESS2 Disciplinary Core Idea from the NRC Framework is broken down into five sub-ideas: Earth materials and systems, plate tectonics and large-scale system interactions, the roles of water in Earth’s surface processes, weather and climate, and biogeology. For the purpose of the NGSS, biogeology has been addressed within the life science standards. Students develop models and explanations for the ways that feedbacks between different Earth systems control the appearance of Earth’s surface. Central to this is the tension between internal systems, which are largely responsible for creating land at Earth’s surface, and the sun-driven surface systems that tear down the land through weathering and erosion. Students begin to examine the ways that human activities cause feedbacks that create changes to other systems. Students understand the system interactions that control weather and climate, with a major emphasis on the mechanisms and implications of climate change. Students model the flow of energy between different components of the weather system and how this affects chemical cycles such as the carbon cycle. The crosscutting concepts of cause and effect, energy and matter, structure and function and stability and change are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas. In the ESS2 performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, 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: Earth Science: Emphasis is on how the appearance of land features (such as mountains, valleys, and plateaus) and sea-floor features (such as trenches, ridges, and seamounts) are a result of both constructive forces (such as volcanism, tectonic uplift, and orogeny) and destructive mechanisms (such as weathering, mass wasting, and coastal erosion).
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS2.A: Earth Materials and Systems -Earth’s systems, being dynamic and interacting, cause feedback effects that can increase or decrease the original changes.
ESS2.B: Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions -Plate tectonics is the unifying theory that explains the past and current movements of the rocks at Earth’s surface and provides a framework for understanding its geologic history. Plate movements are responsible for most continental and ocean-floor features and for the distribution of most rocks and minerals within Earth’s crust.

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Clarification Statement: Earth Science/Environmental Science: Examples should include climate feedbacks, such as how an increase in greenhouse gases causes a rise in global temperatures that melts glacial ice, which reduces the amount of sunlight reflected from Earth's surface, increasing surface temperatures and further reducing the amount of ice. Examples could also be taken from other system interactions, such as how the loss of ground vegetation causes an increase in water runoff and soil erosion; how dammed rivers increase groundwater recharge, decrease sediment transport, and increase coastal erosion; or how the loss of wetlands causes a decrease in local humidity that further reduces the wetland extent.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS2.A: Earth Materials and Systems -Earth’s systems, being dynamic and interacting, cause feedback effects that can increase or decrease the original changes.
ESS2.D: Weather and Climate -The foundation for Earth’s global climate systems is the electromagnetic radiation from the sun, as well as its reflection, absorption, storage, and redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and land systems, and this energy’s re-radiation into space

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