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.

HIGH SCHOOL TASK

close up of artificial turf

Driving Phenomenon: Temperatures are much higher on artificial turf than on regular grass football fields. Students try to figure out how to explain the difference.

Download All Task Documents (.ZIP – 2MB)
Task Overview (.PDF – 512KB)
Student Version (.DOC – 490KB)
Teacher Guide (.PPT – 2MB)

Tennessee Academic Standards for Science and Next Generation Science Standards Learning Targets

Tennessee Academic Standards for Science

  • CHEM1.PS3: Draw and interpret heating and cooling curves and phase diagrams. Analyze the energy changes involved in calorimetry by using the law of conservation of energy quantitatively (use of q = mcΔT) and qualitatively. This standard is not completely measured in this assessment as it is included in multiple units in chemistry. This assessment focuses on specific heat and its relationship to heat transfer.

Next Generation Science Standards

  • Science and Engineering Practices
    Developing and Using Models

    • Middle School Element:  Develop and/or revise a model to show the relationships among variables, including those that are not observable but predict observable phenomena. Note: This middle school element is used to develop/scaffold skills students may find difficult.

    Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking

    • High School Element: Use mathematical, computational, and/or algorithmic representations of phenomena or design solutions to describe and/or support claims and/or explanations.

    Engaging in Argument from Evidence

    • High School Element: Construct, use, and/or present an oral and written argument or counter arguments based on data and evidence.
  • Disciplinary Core Ideas
    PS3.A Definitions of Energy

    • High School Element: Energy is a quantitative property of a system that depends on the motion and interactions of matter and radiation within that system. That there is a single quantity called energy is due to the fact that a system’s total energy is conserved, even as, within the system, energy is continually transferred from one object to another and between its various possible forms. Note: The entire DCI is not measured in this assessment. The focus of this assessment is specific heat and its relation to heat transfer.
  • Crosscutting Concepts
    Patterns

    • High School Element: Mathematical representations are needed to identify some patterns.

    Energy and Matter: Flows, Cycles, and Conservation

    • High School Element: Changes of energy and matter in a system can be described in terms of energy and matter flows into, out of, and within that system.
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The Tennessee District Science Network was funded by Arconic Foundation.

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