Connections to Other Performance Expectations

MS-LS4-6. Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over time. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on using mathematical models, probability statements, and proportional reasoning to support explanations of trends in changes to populations over time.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include Hardy Weinberg calculations.]

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    Science and Engineering Practices

    As with all Amplify Science units, the Light Waves unit provides students with exposure to all the science and engineering practices described in the Next Generation Science Standards. This unit emphasizes all eight practices:

     

    • Practice 1: Asking Questions. As students investigate the surprising launch results, their inquiry is guided by a series of strategic questions. They also have many opportunities to pose their own questions. In particular, the Active Reading approach, an approach to reading based on curiosity and inquiry, supports students in asking thoughtful questions as they read science articles.

     

    • Practice 2: Developing and Using Models. Students complete visual representations to demonstrate their understanding of key concepts throughout the unit. Students also interpret visual models to predict the behavior of magnets and explore the digital simulation (a type of model) to learn important ideas about magnetic fields, magnetic forces, and energy.

     

    • Practice 3: Planning and Carrying Out Investigations. To gather evidence, students plan tests and experiments that they then conduct by using hands-on materials and by using the digital simulation. They also evaluate the quality of experiments in terms of how they were set up to isolate variables and discuss how to improve them.

     

    • Practice 4: Analyzing and Interpreting Data. Students examine sets of data from outside sources and their own investigations to evaluate claims. Students draw conclusions about unit claims and smaller investigation claims by determining patterns and correlations within sets of data.

     

    • Practice 5: Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking.Throughout the unit, students create histograms to communicate how they think the distribution of traits in a given population will change under given circumstances. Students apply the unit content to make a prediction and then create a series of histograms at different time points to explain their thinking.

     

    • Practice 6: Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions. To answer Investigation Questions, students are prompted to explain evidence they gather through hands-on investigations, exploring the digital simulation, and reading. They also construct explanations at the end of each chapter about why the spacecraft was so much faster than expected.

     

    • Practice 7: Engaging in Argument from Evidence. Students evaluate claims regarding the possible reasons why the magnetic spacecraft traveled so much faster in the September launch. Using evidence from the Universal Space Agency, students engage in scientific reasoning to produce written arguments. In the Science Seminar, students practice both oral and written argumentation to explain which roller coaster launcher design will be the most effective.

     

    • Practice 8: Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information. Students are introduced to Active Reading—an approach to obtaining information from science texts—and have multiple opportunities to engage in this practice. Students also evaluate evidence to determine its quality.

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  Focal Disciplinary Core Ideas

  This unit addresses the following core ideas:

   

  LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity:

   

  • The collection of fossils and their placement in chronological order (e.g., through the location of the sedimentary layers in which they are found or through radioactive dating) is known as the fossil record. It documents the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of many life forms throughout the history of life on Earth. (MS-LS4-1)

   

  • Anatomical similarities and differences between various organisms living today and between them and organisms in the fossil record, enable the reconstruction of evolutionary history and the inference of lines of evolutionary descent. (MS-LS4-2)

   

  • Comparison of the embryological development of different species also reveals similarities that show relationships not evident in the fully-formed anatomy. (MS-LS4-3)

   

  ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth:

   

  • The geologic time scale interpreted from rock strata provides a way to organize Earth’s history. Analyses of rock strata and the fossil record provide only relative dates, not an absolute scale. (MS-ESS1- 4)

   

  Connections to Other Disciplinary Core Ideas

  This unit provides opportunities to make connections to this additional core idea, which is also addressed in other Amplify Science units.

   

  LS4.C: Adaptation:

   

  • Adaptation by natural selection acting over generations is one important process by which species change over time in response to changes in environmental conditions. Traits that support successful survival and reproduction in the new environment become more common; those that do not become less common. Thus, the distribution of traits in a population changes. (MS-LS4-6)

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