Grade 5-8 Performance Task
Contributed by: New York State Education Department (NYSED)
NYS Alternative Assessment in Science Project (1996)
Description:
Students will measure the effect of water temperature
on the rate of a chemical reaction, similar to the interaction
of a weak acid and carbonate rock, using hot water and effervescent
antacid tablets.
This task assesses students' abilities to make simple
observations, design an experiment, collect, record, and represent
data, use mathematics to graph data, make predictions based on
the data, relate data from the model to natural materials on Earth,
and generalize and infer the data by designing a new experiment.
The task is designed to take students approximately
30-40 minutes to complete.
Overall Task Content Area:
Specific Knowledge Areas:
Structure of the Earth System
Performance Expectations:
- conducting investigations
- using equipment
- gathering, organizing, and representing data
- formulating conclusions from investigational data
- applying scientific principles to develop explanations and solve
new problems
National Science Education Standards:
8 ASI 1: Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
1.2 Design and conduct a scientific investigation. Students
should develop general abilities, such as systematic observation,
making accurate measurements, and identifying and controlling variables.
They should also develop the ability to clarify their ideas that
are influencing and guiding the inquiry, and to understand how those
ideas compare with current scientific knowledge. Students can learn
to formulate questions, design investigations, execute investigations,
interpret data, use evidence to generate explanations, propose alternative
explanations, and critique explanations and procedures.
1.3 Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze,
and interpret data. The use of tools and techniques, including mathematics,
will be guided by the question asked and the investigations students
design. The use of computers for the collection, summary, and display
of evidence is part of this standard. Students should be able to
access, gather, store, retrieve, and organize data, using hardware
and software designed for these purposes.
1.4 Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and
models using evidence. Students should base their explanation on
what they observed, and as they develop cognitive skills, they should
be able to differentiate explanation from description — providing
causes for effects and establishing relationships based on evidence
and logical argument. This standards requires a subject knowledge
base so the students can effectively conduct investigations, because
developing explanations establishes connections between the content
of science and the contexts within which students develop new knowledge.
1.8 Use mathematics in all aspects of scientific inquiry.
Mathematics is essential to asking and answering questions about
the natural world. Mathematics can be used to ask questions; to
gather, organize, and present data; and to structure convincing
explanations.
8D ESS 1: Structure of the Earth System
1.3 Land forms are the result of a combination of constructive
and destructive forces. Constructive forces include crustal deformation,
volcanic eruption, and deposition of sediment, while destructive
forces include weathering and erosion.
(Use the "hot" link on the PALS home page
to check the full text of related National Science Education Standards,
if desired.)
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics:
AL1: Understand patterns, relations and
functions:
Grades 6-8 f. represent, analyze, and generalize
a variety of patterns with tables, graphs, words, and, when possible,
symbolic rules
DAP3: Develop and evaluate
inferences and predictions that are based on data:
Grades 6-8 e. use conjectures to formulate new
questions and plan new studies to answer them
PS2: Solve problems that arise in mathematics
and in other contexts:
Grades 6-8
COM1: Organize and consolidate their mathematical thinking
through communication:
Grades 6-8
General Instructions to the Teacher:
This task is designed to take approximately 30-40 minutes to complete.
Students will be working individually during this exercise.
Students should be ready to work as soon as the period begins.
The materials should be set out at each lab station, if possible.
A central supply area, if needed, should be easily accessible. All
supplies should be clearly labeled.
Materials for "Chemical Weathering":
The teacher will need:
- distribution method for hot H20
- cooler for ice
- hot water supply
- waste buckets
At each station students should have:
- 3 clear plastic cups (100 ml line marked)
- 2 Styrofoam cups (approximately 250 ml each) (for transfer of
hot and cold H20)
- 1 thermometer
- 1 timer
- 4 effervescent tablets
- waste bucket
- paper towels
- hot, cold, and room temperature H20.
Preparation:
- Temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius tend to cause the tablet
to dissolve so violently that the beaker will overflow. Also,
such temperatures are unlikely to occur in nature.
- Students should be encouraged to use 1-3 tablets.
- The time when the tablets dissolve should be carefully
observed.
- Teacher needs to mark a 100 ml line on the clear plastic cups.
Safety:
- Students should be cautioned to be careful using the
hot plate and the hot water. Water should not exceed 50 degrees
Celsius.
- Students must not sample the antacid tablets before dissolving
them or the solutions that result after the tablets dissolved.
- Be careful.
- Teachers and students should always exercise appropriate safety
precautions and utilize appropriate laboratory safety procedures
and equipment when working on science performance tasks.
Extensions/Modifications:
- Try experiment with different sized pieces of tablet. They could
vary in rates of weathering.
- To target the specific NCTM standard(s) to be measured, ask
students to use and compare Fahrenheit and Celsius measurements.
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