Earth Science Assessment Answers
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- Consistency of performance is also established through repeated observations. Data-collection methods can take many forms. Each has advantages and disadvantages. The choice among them is usually The choice of assessment form should be consistent with what one wants to measure and to infer. However, to serve the intended purpose, the choice of assessment form should be consistent with what one wants to measure and to infer. It is critical that the data and their method of collection yield information with confidence levels consistent with the consequences of its use. Public confidence in educational data and their use is related to technical quality. This public confidence is influenced by the extent to which technical quality has been considered by educators and policy makers and the skill with which they communicate with the public about it. Assessment Standard D Assessment practices must be fair.
- Assessment tasks must be reviewed for the use of stereotypes, for assumptions that reflect the perspectives or experiences of a particular group, for language that might be offensive to a particular group, and for other features that might distract students from the intended task. Large-scale assessments must use statistical techniques to identify potential bias among subgroups. Assessment tasks must be appropriately modified to accommodate the needs of students with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, or limited English proficiency. Assessment tasks must be set in a variety of contexts, be engaging to students with different interests and experiences, and must not assume the perspective or experience of a particular gender, racial, or ethnic group. It follows that the processes used to assess student achievement must be fair to all students.
- This is not only an ethical requirement but also a measurement requirement. If assessment results are more closely related to gender or ethnicity than to the preparation received or the science understanding and ability being assessed, the validity of the assessment process is questionable. Those who plan and implement science assessments must pay deliberate attention to issues of fairness.
- National Science Education Standards. Statistical techniques require that both sexes and different racial and ethnic backgrounds be included in the development of large-scale assessments. Bias can be determined with some certainty through the combination of statistical evidence and expert judgment. For instance, if an exercise to assess understanding of inertia using a flywheel results in differential performance between females and males, a judgment that the exercise is biased might be plausible based on the assumption that males and females have different experiences with flywheels. Whether assessments are large scale or teacher conducted, the principle of fairness requires that data-collection methods allow students with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, or limited English proficiency to demonstrate the full extent of their science knowledge and skills. The requirement that assessment exercises be authentic and thus in context increases the likelihood that all tasks have some degree of bias for some population of students.
- Some contexts will have more appeal to males and others to females. If, however, assessments employ a variety of tasks, the collection will be "equally unfair" to all. This is one way in which the deleterious effects of bias can be avoided. Assessment Standard E The inferences made from assessments about student achievement and opportunity to learn must be sound. When making inferences from assessment data about student achievement and opportunity to learn science, explicit reference needs to be made to the assumptions on which the inferences are based. Even when assessments are well planned and the quality of the resulting data high, the interpretations of the empirical evidence can result in quite different conclusions. Making inferences involves looking at empirical data through the lenses of theory, personal beliefs, and personal experience.
- Making objective inferences is extremely difficult, partly because individuals are not always aware of their assumptions. Consequently, confidence in the validity of inferences requires explicit reference to the assumptions on which those inferences are based. For example, if the science achievement on a large-scale assessment of a sample of students from a certain population is high, several conclusions are possible. Little confidence can be placed in any of these conclusions without clear statements about the assumptions and a developed line of reasoning from the evidence to the conclusion. The level of confidence in conclusions is raised when those conducting assessments have been well trained in the process of making inferences from educational assessment data.
- Even then, the general public, as well as professionals, should demand open and understandable descriptions of how the inferences were made. Assessments Conducted by Classroom Teachers Teachers are in the best position to put assessment data to powerful use. In the vision of science education described by the Standards, teachers use the assessment data in many ways.
- Some of the ways teachers might use these data are presented in this section. Improving Classroom Practice [See Teaching Standard C] Teachers collect information about students' understanding almost continuously and make adjustments to their teaching on the basis of their interpretation of that information. They observe critical incidents in the classroom, formulate hypotheses about the causes of those incidents, question students to test their hypotheses, interpret student's responses, and adjust their teaching plans. Planning Curricula Teachers use assessment data to plan curricula. Some data teachers have collected themselves; other data come from external sources. The data are used to select content, activities, and examples that will be incorporated into a course of study, a module, a unit, or a lesson. Teachers use the assessment data to make judgments about The developmental appropriateness of the science content.
- Student interest in the content. The effectiveness of activities in producing the desired learning outcomes. The effectiveness of the selected examples. The understanding and abilities students must have to benefit from the selected activities and examples. Planning for assessment is integral to instruction. Assessments embedded in the curriculum serve at least three purposes: to determine the students' initial understandings and abilities, to monitor student progress, and to collect information to grade student achievement. Assessment tasks used for those purposes reflect what students are expected to learn; elicit the full extent of students' understanding; are set in a variety of contexts; have practical, aesthetic, and heuristic value; and have meaning outside the classroom. Before students can do this, they need to understand the goals for learning science. The ability to self-assess understanding is an essential tool for self-directed learning.
- Through self-reflection, students clarify ideas of what they are supposed to learn. They When teachers treat students as serious learners and serve as coaches rather than judges, students come to understand and apply standards of good scientific practice. Developing self-assessment skills is an ongoing process throughout a student's school career, becoming increasingly more sophisticated and self-initiated as a student progresses. Conversations among a teacher and students about assessment tasks and the teacher's evaluation of performance provide students with necessary information to assess their own work. In concert with opportunities to apply it to individual work and to the work of peers, that information contributes to the development of students' self-assessment skills. By developing these skills, students become able to take responsibility for their own learning. Teachers have communicated their assessment practices, their standards for performance, and criteria for evaluation to students when students are able to Select a piece of their own work to provide evidence of understanding of a scientific concept, principle, or law—or their ability to conduct scientific inquiry.
- Explain orally, in writing, or through illustration how a work sample provides evidence of understanding. Critique a sample of their own work using the teacher's standards and criteria for quality. Critique the work of other students in constructive ways. Involving students in the assessment process increases the responsibilities of the teacher. Teachers of science are the representatives of the scientific community in their classrooms; they represent a culture and a way of thinking that might be quite unfamiliar to students. As representatives, teachers are expected to model reflection, fostering a learning environment where students review each others' work, offer suggestions, and challenge mistakes in investigative processes, faulty reasoning, or poorly supported conclusions. A teacher's formal and informal evaluations of student work should exemplify scientific practice in making judgments.
- The standards for judging the significance, soundness, and creativity of work in professional scientific work are complex, but they are not arbitrary. In the work of classroom learning and investigation, teachers represent the standards of practice of the scientific community. When teachers treat students as serious learners and serve as coaches rather than judges, students come to understand and apply standards of good scientific practice. Reporting Student Progress.
- Weather forecasting has set in place the clearest and most effective example of the operational structure required, but future progress depends on a renewed emphasis on innovation and strategic investment in weather forecasting in its broader context. The United States has lost leadership to the Europeans in the international arena in an array of pivotal capabilities, such as medium-range weather forecasting. Without leadership in these and other forecasting capabilities, the United States stands to lose economic competitiveness. Protecting Against Solid-Earth Hazards Whether hazards such as earthquakes and tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and landslides have consequences that are serious or are truly catastrophic depends on whether they have been anticipated and whether preparations have been made to mitigate their effects. Mitigation is expensive, available resources are limited, and decisions must be made about how to set priorities among these expenditures.
- At present, the solid-Earth science required for decision making is hampered by a lack of data—a situation perhaps analogous to trying to make reliable weather forecasts before global observations were available. Scientists know the total rates of deformation across fault systems but lack the information to determine reliably which faults are most likely to rupture, let alone when these ruptures will occur. Volcanic eruptions and landslides often have precursors, but the ability to detect and interpret these precursors is severely limited by a lack of observations. Yet the ability to obtain key observations, to test forecasts of intermediate and long-term change, and to establish a coherent protocol for adaptation to large variations that are intrinsic to the hydrologic cycle is inadequate. The western United States is the most rapidly developing region of the country and is also the most vulnerable in terms of water supply. In addition, in early , Lake Powell was at its lowest level since the reservoir was constructed in the s.
- Why the drought has occurred, how long it will continue, and how future droughts might be affected by a warming climate are questions whose answers will have profound implications for both the United States and the world. Maintaining Healthy and Productive Oceans A warming ocean raises sea level, alters precipitation patterns, may cause stronger storms, and may accelerate the melting of sea ice and glaciers. These changes will be critical for all, but for none more than those living in coastal regions. Over the last few decades a concerted effort to develop satellite measurements of the ocean has revolutionized understanding of ocean circulation, air-sea interaction, and ocean productivity. Future climate changes may be much more dramatic and dangerous. For example, rising sea levels will increase coastal flooding during storms, which may become more intense.
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Effective mitigation of dangerous future climate change and adaptation to changes that are certain to occur even with mitigation efforts require knowledge of how the climate is changing and why. But there is no well-developed climate-monitoring system, and fundamental changes are needed in the U. The United States does not have, nor are there clear plans to develop, a long-term global benchmark record of critical climate variables that are accurate over very long time periods, can be tested for systematic errors by future generations, are unaffected by interruption, and are pinned to international standards. Difficult climate research questions also remain, for example, the cloud-water feedback in climate models. Another example concerns the geographic distribution of the land and ocean sources and sinks of carbon dioxide, which do not simply map with geography, but rather display complex patterns and interactions.Water Cycle & Earth's Systems Assessment For 4th And 5th Grade Science
As nations seek to develop strategies to manage their carbon emissions and sequestration, the capacity to quantify the present-day regional carbon sources and sinks does not exist. Protecting Ecosystems Nearly half of the land surface has been transformed by direct human action, with significant consequences for biodiversity, nutrient cycling, soil structure and biology, and climate. The beneficial effects of these transformations—additions to the food supply, improved quality of human habitat and in some cases ecosystem management, large-scale transportation networks, and increases in the efficiency of movement of goods and services—have also been accompanied by deleterious effects.- More nitrogen is now fixed synthetically and applied as fertilizers in agriculture than is fixed naturally in all terrestrial ecosystems, and far too much of this nitrogen runs off the ground and ends up in the coastal zone. Improving Human Health Environmental factors have strong influences on a broad array of human health effects,including infectious diseases, skin cancers, or chronic and acute illnesses resulting from contamination of air, food, and water. Public health decision making has benefited from the continued availability of satellite-derived data on land use, land cover, oceans, weather, climate, and atmospheric pollutants. However, the stresses of global environmental change and growing rates of resource consumption now spur greater demands for collection and analyses of data that describe how environmental factors are related to patterns of morbidity and mortality.
- Further improvements in the application of remote sensing technologies will allow better understanding of disease risk and prediction of disease outbreaks, more rapid detection of environmental changes that affect human health, identification of spatial variability in environmental health risk, targeted interventions to reduce vulnerability to health risks, and enhanced knowledge of human health-environment interactions.
- Fire Island has been studied since the s, and using ariel photos and historical maps, the United States Geological Survey has been tracking both long-term and short-term changes to the island. This map is focused on long-term changes and identifies coastal shoreline changes from to Using the legend and provided map describe a pattern that can be identified. The island is becoming more narrow over time. The island has had no changes over the years. The island has become shorter over the years. The island is becoming wider over time. Correct answer: The island is becoming more narrow over time. Explanation: This ariel photo shows Fire Island, and each colored line shows how the shore has been changed over time. One noticeable pattern is that the shoreline became more narrow over time. When looking at the legend, the red lines represent , and the blue line represents It can be seen that over time the lines are pushing closer and closer to the shoreline, and by the line is midway on the existing island.
- Based on the map provided, what pattern can be identified with the location of the volcanoes? Possible Answers: The most hazardous volcanoes are located in the southern part of the state. The most hazardous volcanoes are located in the western part of the state. The most hazardous volcanoes are located in the northern part of the state. There are no identifiable patterns on this map. Correct answer: The most hazardous volcanoes are located in the northern part of the state.
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Explanation: Maps are a tool used to not only find locations and directions to a specific place but also a way to find patterns about Earth's landforms. When looking at this legend, we can see that the red triangles represent the most hazardous volcanoes in the state. Most of the high to very high hazard level volcanoes are located in Northern California. This pattern can be recognized based on the information from this map. Is there a pattern related to volcanoes that produce ash in amounts of two inches or higher? If so, what is the trend? Possible Answers: Volcanoes with a higher hazard rating are less likely to produce ash in amounts of two inches or higher. Volcanoes with a lower hazard rating are more likely to produce ash in amounts of two inches or higher.- There is no identifiable pattern within this map. Volcanoes with a higher hazard rating are more likely to produce ash in amounts of two inches or higher. Correct answer: Volcanoes with a higher hazard rating are more likely to produce ash in amounts of two inches or higher. Explanation: Maps are an excellent tool for finding your way when lost but also for finding patterns. Many times certain areas have similar characteristics or landforms, and a map provides a visual representation of these patterns.
- The map provided shows the location of volcanoes in California, their hazard level, and what the areas around them may experience. A trend that emerges when looking at this map is that volcanoes with a higher hazard rating are more likely to produce ash in amounts of two inches or higher. Of the four volcanoes circled, three of them are high to very high hazard levels. This indicates a pattern. Crews have been working to restore part of the island, use the island as a barrier to protect landforms behind it, and create safe conditions for tourists. Possible Answers: The island has become longer over the decades.
- The island has become shorter over the decades. The island has become broader over the decades. There is no identifiable pattern in this map. Correct answer: The island has become longer over the decades. Explanation: Maps are an excellent tool for identifying patterns in Earth's landforms. This map uses colored lines to show how the coast has changed on Fire Island over time. Starting with the red line, which represents , the island was very short; it is extended in , again in , and so on. In the blue line showed how much longer the shoreline has become over the years. Scientists and environmental groups have been working to restore Fire Island and extend the shore for years. By dredging and redepositing the sand as well as building barriers and drainage, they have been able to extend Fire Island and help protect it.
- The maps are models to show what would happen if the island faces less frequent and less intense tropical storms, moderate frequency and moderate-intensity storms, and more frequent and more intense storms. What pattern can be described after viewing these maps? Less frequent and less intense storms Moderate frequency and moderate-intensity storms More frequent and more intense storms Possible Answers: More island is eroded as storms become less frequent and intense. Less island is eroded as storms become more frequent and intense. There are no identifiable patterns within these maps. More island is eroded as storms become more frequent and intense. Correct answer: More island is eroded as storms become more frequent and intense. Explanation: These maps are a great visual representation of what storms do to our barrier islands.
- Dauphin island is slowly being eroded daily by wind and waves, but intense tropical storms accelerate that damage. From the first map to the third map, a pattern can be identified. The island is eroded when faced with tropical storms. As the storms become more frequent and intense erosion is accelerated, and large pieces of the island are gone. The overall depth of the landform is also reduced due to severe, frequent storms. This map indicates the location of these volcanoes using multi-colored triangles. The different colors indicate levels of concern based on data from scientists observing them. Based on the map, what pattern can be determined about the volcanoes' location?
- This testing is the key to science. In fact, one philosopher of science insisted that to be genuinely scientific, a statement must be susceptible to testing that could potentially show it to be false Popper, In practice, contemporary scientists usually submit their research findings to the scrutiny of their peers, which includes disclosing the methods that they use, so their results can be checked through replication by other scientists. The insights and research results of individual scientists, even scientists of unquestioned genius, are thus confirmed or rejected in the peer-reviewed literature by the combined efforts of many other scientists. It is not the belief or opinion of the scientists that is important, but rather the results of this testing. Thus science is inherently self-correcting; incorrect or incomplete scientific concepts ultimately do not survive repeated testing against observations of nature.
- Scientific theories are ways of explaining phenomena and providing insights that can be evaluated by comparison with physical reality. Each successful prediction adds to the weight of evidence supporting the theory, and any unsuccessful prediction demonstrates that the underlying theory is imperfect and requires improvement or abandonment.
- Sometimes, only certain kinds of questions tend to be asked about a scientific phenomenon until contradictions build to a point where a sudden change of paradigm takes place Kuhn, At that point, an entire field can be rapidly reconstructed under the new paradigm. Despite occasional major paradigm shifts, the majority of scientific insights, even unexpected insights, tend to emerge incrementally as a result of repeated attempts to test hypotheses as thoroughly as possible. Therefore, because almost every new advance is based on the research and understanding that has gone before, science is cumulative, with useful features retained and non-useful features abandoned. Active research scientists, throughout their careers, typically spend large fractions of their working time studying in depth what other scientists have done. Working scientists know that a day in the library can save a year in the laboratory.
- Intellectual honesty and professional ethics call for scientists to acknowledge the work of predecessors and colleagues. The attributes of science briefly described here can be used in assessing competing assertions about climate change. Can the statement under consideration, in principle, be proven false? Has it been rigorously tested? Did it appear in the peer-reviewed literature?
- Did it build on the existing research record where appropriate? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then less credence should be given to the assertion until it is tested and independently verified. The IPCC assesses the scientific literature to create a report based on the best available science Section 1. It must be acknowledged, however, that the IPCC also contributes to science by identifying the key uncertainties and by stimulating and coordinating targeted research to answer important climate change questions. A characteristic of Earth sciences is that Earth scientists are unable to perform controlled experiments on the planet as a whole and then observe the results. In this sense, Earth science is similar to the disciplines of astronomy and cosmology that cannot conduct experiments on galaxies or the cosmos. This is an important consideration, because it is precisely such whole-Earth, system-scale experiments, incorporating the full complexity of interacting processes and feedbacks, that might ideally be required to fully verify or falsify climate change hypotheses Schellnhuber et al.
- Nevertheless, countless empirical tests of numerous different hypotheses have built up a massive body of Earth science knowledge. This repeated testing has refined the understanding of numerous aspects of the climate system, from deep oceanic circulation to stratospheric chemistry. Sometimes a combination of observations and models can be used to test planetary-scale hypotheses. For example, the global cooling and drying of the atmosphere observed after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo Section 8. Another example is provided by past IPCC projections of future climate change compared to current observations. Figure 1. Subsequent observations Section 3. Yearly global average surface temperature Brohan et al. Annual mean observations Section 3. In the mids, several articles about possible global cooling appeared in the popular press, primarily motivated by analyses indicating that Northern Hemisphere NH temperatures had decreased during the previous three decades e.
- In the peer-reviewed literature, a paper by Bryson and Dittberner reported that increases in carbon dioxide CO2 should be associated with a decrease in global temperatures. When challenged by Woronko , Bryson and Dittberner explained that the cooling projected by their model was due to aerosols small particles in the atmosphere produced by the same combustion that caused the increase in CO2. However, because aerosols remain in the atmosphere only a short time compared to CO2, the results were not applicable for long-term climate change projections. This example of a prediction of global cooling is a classic illustration of the self-correcting nature of Earth science.
- The scientists involved were reputable researchers who followed the accepted paradigm of publishing in scientific journals, submitting their methods and results to the scrutiny of their peers although the peer-review did not catch this problem , and responding to legitimate criticism. A recurring theme throughout this chapter is that climate science in recent decades has been characterised by the increasing rate of advancement of research in the field and by the notable evolution of scientific methodology and tools, including the models and observations that support and enable the research.
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