High School - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for High School meet expectations that materials provide opportunities for students to fully learn and develop all claimed grade-band Disciplinary Core Ideas.

Across the program, the materials claim 1/38 physical science DCIs, 29/29 life science DCIs, 3/27 earth and space science DCIs, and 2/5 engineering (ETS) DCIs. There is a mix of full and limited claims, indicated in the materials with strikethroughs in the element language. The Elements of the NGSS Dimensions document, provided for each unit, contains the location of each element by lesson, the language of the element, and rationale which includes a description of either how the publisher intends for students to engage with the element or a description of the limited claim. Another location to find element claims is within the objectives provided in the What Students Will Do section of each lesson-level teacher guide in the form of color coded statements and corresponding element codes. Overall, students usually have more than one opportunity to engage with the DCI elements, and elements are mostly claimed either within one unit or across different units. Students have opportunities to engage with nearly all of the claimed elements from the life science DCIs, as well as all of the claimed engineering and earth and space science DCIs.

Examples of claimed grade-band DCI elements present in the materials:

• PS3.D-H2: In Unit B.2, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 4: How did so much plant energy and matter get into the peat in the zombie fire system?, students explore how light energy transforms water and carbon dioxide to glucose through photosynthesis. They analyze data on carbon capture, making connections between movement of matter through photosynthesis and carbon capture to peat in the permafrost.

• LS1.B-H1: In Unit B.3, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 7: What is the genetic basis of cancer?, students review their notes from lessons 1-6 to understand how cells normally grow and how mitosis is part of the cell cycle. After reviewing, students update their class consensus models to demonstrate their understanding of cell division and how genetic material is passed on from parent to offspring. In Lesson Set 3, Lesson 11: How do cancer treatments work?, students read about cancer treatments, and how they do not just affect the cells but the whole person/organism and their system overall. 

• LS2.B-H3: In Unit B.2, Lesson Set 2, Lesson 9: What are the global effects of increased carbon dioxide from fires?, students learn how photosynthesis and cellular respiration are important components of the carbon cycle by playing a game that traces carbon atoms through the ecosystem. They discuss their findings and the implications of how carbon is formed during the fires, uncovering increasing levels of carbon dioxide due to burning.

• LS3.B-H2: In Unit B.3, Lesson Set 2, Lesson 9: How do genes interact with the environment to affect who gets cancer?, students investigate how the environment can cause cancer due to changes in the DNA sequence. They study the relationship between skin color and skin cancer based on location and then work as a class to create an investigation using UV sensitive yeast cells. In a discussion, students communicate whether UV radiation affects DNA as well as the function of the p53 protein and the role of melanin.

• LS4.D-H1: In Unit B.5, Lesson Set 2, Lesson 7: How do past patterns of extinction help us understand possible consequences of extinctions now and in the future?, students analyze food webs and predict what may happen if polar bears go extinct. They conduct a visual inquiry to investigate the five mass extinction events in Earth’s history, looking for patterns in the evidence that link causes to the effects of mass extinctions. The visual inquiry is posters around the room. Students use them to record information on a graphic organizer. Students discuss extinction of other organisms and explore global extinction data and how it impacts biodiversity. 

• ESS2.E-H1: In Unit B.5, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 4: How did polar and brown bears become different species?, students analyze historic maps of where the bear species lived and analyze data on how environmental changes over time resulted in selective pressures on the bears that impacted their populations.

• ETS1.C-H1: In Unit B.2, Lesson Set 2, Lesson 11: What decisions can we make to help manage fire in communities we care about?, students brainstorm fire management systems and identify ecological priorities and trade offs. They create a fire management system product and articulate how it will prevent fires and promote safety in the community.

Claimed grade-band DCI elements partially present in the materials:

• LS3.A-H1: In Unit B.3, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 6: How do we make p53, and why is it different sometimes?, students participate in a protein simulation where they address key terms in discussions and read information that contains data about DNA. Students do not have the opportunity to engage with the idea that DNA in cells have the same content or that not all DNA codes for a protein.

Claimed grade-band DCI elements not present in the materials:

• LS2.B-H1: Photosynthesis and cellular respiration (including anaerobic processes) provide most of the energy for life processes.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School meet expectations that materials provide opportunities for students to fully learn and develop all claimed grade-band Science and Engineering Practices.

Across the program, the materials claim 30/49 SEP elements from the high school grade band, including at least one element from each practice. For each practice, students have multiple opportunities to engage with the elements, oftentimes across units, as appropriate. The most common SEPs present in the materials are Developing and Using Models and Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information. Less common SEPs include Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking. Additionally, connections to components of the Nature of Science associated with the SEPs are noted in the teacher guide for each unit. There is a section titled Connections to the Nature of Science (NOS) and Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science (ETS) that contains a table for each category. The tables include information about which elements are developed in the unit and how they are developed.

Examples of claimed grade-band SEP elements present in the materials:

• AQDP-H1: In Unit B.3, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 1: Who gets cancer and why?, students ask questions about cancer. Questions are asked to seek additional information and clarify misconceptions.

• MOD-H3: In Unit B.1, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 4: How is food driving the wildebeest migration?, students engage in a class consensus discussion for a model they have been developing and revising to communicate the interactions in the Serengeti National Park. The model illustrates the interactions in the ecosystem, the challenges facing inhabitants, and the impacts of conservation efforts. Students use evidence from multiple sources including videos, maps, research, articles, and peers to revise their models, resulting in the class consensus model.

• INV-H4: In Unit B.2, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 2: What is peat and why does it burn so much?, students select tools to collect, record, analyze, and evaluate the data they get from using bromothymol blue to detect the presence of carbon dioxide.

• DATA-H1: In Unit B.1, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 4: How is food driving the wildebeest migration?, students build a graph with the CODAP tool. They analyze data involving rainfall and determine neutral, positive, or negative relationships in the data. Students then use their data to update the consensus model.

• MATH-H2: In Unit B.1, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 5: How does food affect the population size?, students create a mathematical algorithm based on the simulation where students experimented with how grass is a limiting factor that affects carrying capacity of wildebeest populations within the conditions of the Serengeti ecosystem. Students develop an algorithm to describe what happens to the wildebeest population from year to year based on changing conditions. They use a kinesthetic model and graph models to develop explanations for the data on wildebeest populations. 

• CEDS-H4: In Unit B.2, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 5: Could changes in the Earth's tilt cause more energy and matter to be stored in plants?, students apply scientific reasoning to link evidence from an investigation with elodea to claims that increased energy from the sun causes matter and energy to be stored as hydrocarbons in the peat at a high rate in the zombie fire system.

• ARG-H5: In Unit B.5, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 2: How and why are bear species interacting and why might brown bears dominate?, with a partner, students make an initial claim about how and why polar bears and brown bears interact in the Arctic as the environment changes. They then evaluate data about polar bear and brown bear interactions and use it to add evidence to their claim.

• INFO-H3: In Unit B.5, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 1: How do changes in climate affect bear species coming together for the first time in the Arctic?, students read, gather visual information, data information, and traditional cultural information and evaluate the importance of each source. Students consider what is missing or needed to help them work toward an understanding of the relationship between changing Arctic sea ice conditions and the stability of polar bear populations, including what will happen to the arctic bear populations over time.

Claimed grade-band SEP elements partially present in the materials:

• AQDP-H8: In Unit B.2, Lesson Set 3, Lesson 10: How can we help manage the matter and energy in fire systems?, students work together to explore different types of fire management and brainstorm creating a plan to reduce the risk of wildfire in a community of concern. In this work, students are provided a problem and do not have the opportunity to define a design problem themselves.

• CEDS-H1: In Unit B.1, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 4: How is food driving the wildebeest migration?, students choose a potential claim to investigate that evaluates an independent and dependent variable in the permafrost ecosystem. Though students engage in evaluating a claim regarding the relationship between dependent and independent variables, they do not have the opportunity to make their own claim.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School meet expectations that materials provide opportunities for students to fully learn and develop all claimed grade-band Crosscutting Concepts.

Across the program, the materials claim 19/29 CCC elements from the high school grade band, including at least one element from each CCC. For each concept, students have multiple opportunities to engage with the elements, oftentimes across units, as appropriate. Elements from Cause and Effect occur most often across the program. Additionally, connections to components of the Nature of Science associated with the CCCs are noted in the teacher guide for each unit. There is a section titled Connections to the Nature of Science (NOS) and Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science (ETS) that contains a table for each category. The tables include information about which elements are developed in the unit and how they are developed.

Examples of claimed grade-band CCC elements present in the materials:

• PAT-H1: In Unit B.3, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 2: What is cancer?, students analyze different cell types and levels of organization of cells to identify patterns of similarity and difference at multiple scales as they begin to explore what may be potential causes of cancer.

• CE-H1: In Unit B.4, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 4: What causes populations of city juncos to be bolder than mountain juncos?, students explore the correlations between the bird environment, location, level of urbanization, and the difference in traits of boldness through data and evidence. Students learn that the genetic causation of bold behavior is governed by genetic factors that determine the level of cortisol in birds. Students explore how elevated cortisol levels are associated with increased boldness behaviors in birds like juncos. 

• SPQ-H1: In Unit B.5, Lesson Set 5, Lesson 5: What will happen to Arctic bear populations as their environment changes?, students analyze how the three bear populations have evolved over time, historically, on a large scale and use that information to predict what will happen on a shorter scale given data and models around rapid warming in the Arctic. 

• SYS-H3: In Unit B.2, Lesson Set 2, Lesson 9: “What are the global effects of increased carbon dioxide from fires?”, students use a dice game to model the carbon cycle to understand how a carbon atom moves between systems as well as how energy flows between different ecological spheres.

• EM-H4: In Unit B.2, Lesson Set 2, Lesson 9: “What are the global effects of increased carbon dioxide from fires?”, students play a simulation game of the carbon cycle in which they see how carbon energy flow drives the movement of carbon through the system in the game.  

• SF-H2: In Unit B.3, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 6: “How do we make p53 and why is it different sometimes?”, students use a designed model of a DNA strand and decode one strand of DNA to visually see how transcription and translation occur. By viewing the entire process on one strand, students are able to see and understand how cells use DNA to make proteins through gene expression and how that works in the natural world. 

• SC-H1: In Unit B.1, Lesson 2: What can other cases of conservation help us understand about ecosystems and conservation?, SC-H1 is fully met as students research the Serengeti National Park using maps, video, and readings that explain current and former status. Students discuss information from a scavenger hunt that describes how change allowed the Serengeti to remain stable. The conservation discussion facilitates students to determine how conservation can make a system have greater or less stability.

Claimed grade-band CCC elements partially present in the materials:

• SC-H2: In Unit B.1, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 5: How does food affect the population size?, students quantify the rate of change in the ecosystem using a mathematical model and analysis of data such as wildebeest population data. They do not have the opportunity to engage with the idea that some system changes are irreversible, which is an aspect of this CCC.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School meet expectations that materials present Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs), and Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) in a way that is scientifically accurate. Across the course, the teacher materials, student materials, and assessments accurately represent the three dimensions and are free from scientific inaccuracies.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School meet expectations that they do not inappropriately include scientific content and ideas outside of the grade-band disciplinary core ideas (DCIs). Across the course, the materials consistently incorporate student learning opportunities to learn and use the DCIs appropriate to the HS grade-band.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School meet expectations that materials are designed for student tasks related to explaining phenomena and/or solving problems to increase in sophistication.

Across the program, student tasks related to explaining phenomena and solving problems consistently increase in sophistication. In some cases, tasks increase in complexity and in other cases, student responsibility increases. The way tasks increase in sophistication varies but often there is a rubric or specific approach that students are given explicitly in early units and then those pieces of guidance are gradually removed as students progress through the program. Notably, tasks related to the SEP of Developing and Using Models increased in sophistication whereas tasks related to the SEP of Planning and Carrying Out Investigations and Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information showed little to no change in terms of increasing sophistication across the program.

Examples where student tasks related to explaining phenomena and/or solving problems increase in sophistication across the course:

• Across the program, the materials consistently engage students in developing and using models. While a pattern of model development is present across the units, from initial models, to cycles of model revision, to cycles of class consensus, to application of models, the pattern of scaffolds is reduced as the program progresses from Unit B.1 to Unit B.5. Tasks increase in sophistication with respect to the types of models students develop and use as well as the level of student independence in creating and applying models. For instance, in Unit B.1, based on observations from the phenomenon introduction, students develop simple initial models of interactions in the Serengeti ecosystem utilizing scaffolds to guide the model development. Then in Unit B.4, students utilize multiple sources of information and observations, with fewer scaffolds, to develop an initial model of how human population growth and urbanization impacts non-human populations. Students then revise their model based on an outdoor investigation and a case studies reading. Students apply the model to select which case study best fits their initial model.

• Across the program, the materials consistently engage students in analyzing data. As students work with this practice, there is an increased exposure and expectation to include more sophisticated mathematical aspects in the data analysis. For instance, in Unit B.1 students use the scaffold of the CODAP tool to analyze rainfall data. In Unit B.4, students collaboratively analyze data sets on CORT levels over time from two locations, as well as data on the boldness and CORT levels in populations of birds to explore correlation and consistency of meaning in the results. Students are not provided with scaffolds to perform this data analysis. Later in Unit B.4, students learn about the R2 value and what patterns in slope data constitute a positive relationship between variables, no relationship between variables, and a negative relationship between variables to help determine how the solution of corridors and fish ladders impact natural selection. Students then use this analysis to begin to devise a solution to address negative impacts of urbanization on the native species in particular locations. 

• Across the program, the materials consistently engage students in using mathematics and computational thinking. Students begin working in groups to collaboratively engage with the practice, then create their own algorithms and mathematically based data, experiencing more independence in working with aspects of problem solving as they progress through the course. For instance, in Unit B.1 students use data derived from a mathematical algorithm based on a simulation to update their class consensus model to strengthen how factors such as rainfall, food availability, and disease impact the wildebeest population. At the end of the unit, students apply their use of mathematical and computational models, increasing the sophistication through application, to identify and communicate the relationships between interactions from their consensus model of the Serengeti and to evaluate the conservation plan in the Serengeti and its impacts including the human interest stakeholders. In Unit B.2, students use a more complex quantitative model to simulate how carbon and energy flow through Earth’s systems and use this model to predict whether carbon dioxide levels and temperature will continue to grow over time. In Unit B.4, students demonstrate more independence with the practice as they individually create a mathematical model of their simulation data and use this to construct an explanation of how both random chance and selective pressures associated with fragmentation impact the gene pool and fitness over time.