Bring Science Alive! Weather and Climate U1 Performance Assessment

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T H E AT M O S P H E R E A N D E N E R G Y PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT

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Surviving Extreme Temperatures

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The Extreme Adventures Company wants you and your team to present your plan for developing a cooler or solar cooker for use in places that have extremely hot or cold temperatures. Based on what you learned in the Engineering Challenge, you must come up with a plan for developing your device so that it is ready to use in extreme environments like those that adventurers will encounter in places like California’s Death Valley or the mountains of Antarctica.

Once your plan is created, your team will present it to the Extreme Adventures Company Product Approval Board and answer questions about how it will work. You will also suggest further experiments that could be conducted to make an even better device.

Performance Assessment Requirements The best presentations will be ones that include: • clear explanations of how the device works.

• reasons why the various materials were chosen for making the device.

• descriptions of how the design of the device helps adventurers cope with extreme temperatures.

• descriptions of how the extreme temperature (hot or cold) affected the design of the device.

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_____ Step 1: Assign Roles In the space below, list who will play the following roles.

Role

Description

Graphic Designer

Make sure illustrations, tables, and other graphics clearly and accurately describe the design of your proposed device

Presenter

Present the product proposal to the Product Approval Board, and be ready to explain the scientific reasoning behind the proposal.

Editor

Team Member

Guide the team in developing the proposal and make sure that all team members are included in its development.

Engineer

Make sure the proposed device is practical and uses appropriate materials.

Scientist

Make sure the presentation includes all the key scientific concepts and coach the presenter to be ready to explain the scientific reasoning behind the proposal.

_____ Step 2: Review and Improve Your Design Use the table to answer the question: What other criteria and constraints can you add to your plan in order to create an optimal design?

Criteria

Constraints

Original

Revised

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Use the table below to answer the following questions: • How well did the materials perform?

• Are there other materials that were not available at the time that may work better?

Material

Reason for Adding/Keeping

How can the device be made more lightweight?

What additional kinds of tests can be performed to improve the design?

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Based on your discussion, come up with a proposal for a new design. Your proposal should include the following: • original criteria and constraints • revised criteria and constraints • new materials to address revised criteria

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Your proposal should also include a revised plan for testing the proposed device. Use the table below to create an investigation plan.

Investigation Plan for Optimal Design

Independent variables

Dependent variables

How measurements will be recorded

Types and amounts of data required

Claim about optimal design

Revised procedure for optimizing design, including a plan for iterative testing to prove the effectiveness of the proposed device

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_____ Step 3: Someone to the Board Nominate one member of your team (other than the Presenter) to act as a member of the Product Approval Board for other team’s presentations. The Product Approval Board member should be familiar with the key scientific concepts and be ready to ask critical questions of the presenters based on the Performance Assessment Rubric.

_____ Step 4: Present Your Proposed Device The Presenter makes an oral presentation of your proposed device to the Product Approval Board, leaving time at the end of the presentation to answer any questions the board members may have.

Members of the Product Approval Board will meet briefly to develop criteria to judge each project proposal. The board should consider the following questions as they develop their criteria: • How well does the proposed design meet the new criteria and constraints?

• Were scientific principles applied to form the proposed design?

• Did the oral arguments use evidence to support the claim about the proposed design?

After each presentation, board members ask questions of the Presenter and then take a vote to decide whether to approve or disapprove the proposed design.

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Performance Assessment Rubric Use the rubric to evaluate your work on this Performance Assessment.

Achievement Levels Dimension Science and Engineering Practices Developing and Using Models Develop and/or use a model to generate data to test ideas about phenomena in natural or designed systems, including those representing inputs and outputs, and those at unobservable scales.

Proficient (2 points)

Emergent (1 point)

Not Present (0 points)

Developed a plan to optimize the design solution by defining the design problem, the variables that need to be tracked, and the scientific principles that apply.

Developed a plan to optimize the design solution by defining the design problem, but did not define the variables that need to be tracked, or the scientific principles that apply.

Did not develop a plan to optimize the design solution by defining the design problem, the variables that need to be tracked, and the scientific principles that apply.

Constructed oral arguments to support the optimization plan based on evidence and scientific reasoning.

Constructed oral arguments to support the optimization plan that were not based on evidence or scientific reasoning.

Did not construct oral arguments to support the optimization plan based on evidence or scientific reasoning.

Jointly developed criteria to evaluate competing design solutions and then evaluated the competing design solutions.

Jointly developed criteria to evaluate competing design solutions but did not properly evaluate the competing design solutions.

Did not develop criteria to evaluate competing design solutions and did not properly evaluate the competing design solutions.

Develop and/or use a model to predict and/or describe phenomena.

Score

Planning and Carrying Out Investigations Plan an investigations individually and collaboratively, and in the design: identify independent and dependent variables and controls, what tools are needed to do the gathering, how measurements will be recorded, and how many data are needed to support a claim.

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions Apply scientific ideas or principles to design, construct, and/or test a design of an object, tool, process, or system.

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Analyze and interpret data to determine similarities and differences in findings.

Engaging in Argument from Evidence

Construct, use, and/or present an oral and written argument supported by empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support or refute an explanation or a model for a phenomenon or a solution to a problem.

Evaluate competing design solutions based on jointly developed and agreed-upon design criteria.

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Achievement Levels Dimension Crosscutting Concepts Scale, Proportion, and Quantity Proportional relationships (e.g. speed as the ratio of distance traveled to time taken) among different types of quantities provide information about the magnitude of properties and processes.

Systems and System Models Models can be used to represent systems and their interactions--such as inputs, processes, and outputs--and energy and matter flows within systems.

Proficient (2 points)

Emergent (1 point)

Not Present (0 points)

Developed a plan for prototypes that model the interaction between energy and materials, and included a procedure for tracking the flow of energy.

Developed a plan for prototypes that model the interaction between energy and materials, but did not include a procedure for tracking the flow of energy.

Did not develop a plan for prototypes that model the interaction between energy and materials, nor a procedure for tracking the flow of energy.

Developed a plan to optimize the device by revising criteria and constraints and by revising procedures for iterative testing of the proposed device.

Developed a plan to optimize the device by either revising criteria and constraints or by revising procedures for iterative testing of the proposed device, but not both.

Did not develop a plan to optimize the device by revising criteria and constraints or by revising procedures for iterative testing of the proposed device.

Score

Energy and Matter Energy may take different forms (e.g. energy in fields, thermal energy, energy of motion) The transfer of energy can be tracked as energy flows through a designed or natural system.

Disciplinary Core Ideas ETS1.A: Defining and Delimiting Engineering Problems The more precisely a design task’s criteria and constraints can be defined, the more likely it is that the designed solution will be successful. Specification of constraints includes consideration of scientific principles and other relevant knowledge that is likely to limit possible solutions.

ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions There are systematic processes for evaluating solutions with respect to how well they meet criteria and constraints of a problem.

Sometimes parts of different solutions can be combined to create a solution that is better than any of its predecessors.

Models of all kinds are important for testing solutions.

ETS1.C: Optimizing the Design Solution Although one design may not perform the best across all tests, identifying the characteristics of the design that performed the best in each test can provide useful information for the redesign process--that is, some of the characteristics may be incorporated into the new design.

The iterative process of testing the most promising solutions and modifying what is proposed on the basis of the test results leads to greater refinement and ultimately to an optimal solution.

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Achievement Levels Dimension

Proficient (2 points)

Emergent (1 point)

Not Present (0 points)

PS3.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer

Used accurate understanding of the scientific principles related to temperature and the transfer of energy to develop a revised plan.

Developed a revised plan but did not understood the scientific principles related to temperature and the transfer of energy.

Did not understood the scientific principles related to temperature and the transfer of energy and did not develop a revised plan.

When the motion energy of an object changes, there is inevitably some other change in energy at the same time.

The amount of energy transfer needed to change the temperature of a matter sample by a given amount depends on the nature of the matter, the size of the sample, and the environment.

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Energy is spontaneously transferred out of hotter regions or objects into colder ones.

PS3.A: Definitions of Energy Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of particles of matter. The relationship between the temperature and the total energy of a system depends on the types, state, and amounts of matter present.

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