Before using these tasks, consider reviewing the Guidance for Use document, which provides suggestions for the most effective ways the TDSciN Task Library can be used to support high-quality science teaching and learning.

Tennessee Academic Standards for Science

• 6.LS2.6: Research the ways in which an ecosystem has changed over time in response to changes in physical conditions, population balances, human interactions, and natural catastrophes.

Next Generation Science Standards

• Science and Engineering Practices
  Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
  • Middle School Element: Apply scientific ideas, principles, and/or evidence to construct, revise and/or use an explanation for real world phenomena, examples, or events.

  Engaging in Argument from Evidence

  • Middle School Element: Compare and critique two arguments on the same topic and analyze whether they emphasize similar or different evidence and/or interpretations of facts.

  Asking Questions and Defining Problems

  • Middle School Element: Ask questions that arise from careful observation of phenomena, models, or unexpected results, to clarify and/or seek additional information.
• Disciplinary Core Ideas
  LS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience
  • Middle School Element: Ecosystems are dynamic in nature; their characteristics can vary over time. Disruptions to any physical or biological components of an ecosystem can lead to shifts in all its populations.
• Crosscutting Concepts
  Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Prediction
  • Middle School Element: Cause and effect relationships may be used to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems.