Performance expectationAnalyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to Earth’s systems.
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.
Every item written to HS-ESS2-2 has to assess all three dimensions together, not the content alone. This is the structural change that made older practice material stop matching the exam.
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Phenomenon stimulus, connected items across the required types, answer key, rubric and figures drawn deterministically from a structured spec — in the format your students will sit.