Please note that many tasks were constructed prior to Common Core and the task alignments to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were not identified in the task materials. To search for the performance tasks explicitly aligned to the CCSS, Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), or College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, please go to CCSS, NGSS, and C3 tabs.
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Connections to the Philippine-American War This task assesses students' historical knowledge in a way that transcends the rote recall of facts by asking students to draw on their knowledge of the past to construct an argument about how two events are connected. Question 1 asks students to connect the explosion of the USS Maine to the imprisonment of Filipinos by the American military in 1901. Question 2 asks students how the popularity of Social Darwinism in the US is likewise connected to the imprisonment of Filipinos in 1901. The task includes a range of supplementary materials, all accessible and available for download with the creation of a free account through the site:
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Consequences of Tecumseh In this task, students will read through primary and secondary documents to determine the consequences of the War of 1812. This task includes: |
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Continuity and Change in Memorials In this task, students will compare the commemorations of the War of 1812 that took place in 1912 and 2012 and explore the continuities and changes that happened over time. This task includes: |
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Cooking Up a Mystery In Cooking Up a Mystery students will use evidence from the lab and the Internet to identify a criminal suspect in a cooking contest and make safety improvements. This task includes:
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Counting Trees In this task, students must develop and explain a method for counting the amount of trees in a diagram. This task includes: |
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Creating Columbus Day This task assesses students' ability to evaluate the relevance of contextual information for determining the motivations of an author. Students must select one fact, and explain how it sheds light on why President Harrison declared Columbus Day a national holiday in 1892. Students with a strong understanding of contextualization will be able to explain how the fact that Catholic voters comprised an important voting block in the pending election might have affected Harrison's decision to honor an Italian Catholic explorer. Resources available for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment as well as the Rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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Creeping This task (in PALM and in PALS) focuses on the Structure of the Earth Systems. Students must understand a model depicting "soil creep" in order to measure and graph their calculations. This task includes: |
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Critter Museum In this task, students will act as museum directors and sort, classify, and provide information of the animals to be displayed. This task includes: |
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Crustal Sinking This task (in PALM and in PALS) focuses on the knowledge of the Stucture of the Eath System. Students must examine the relationship between Earth's Crust and the mantle by conducting an experiment in which they measure the rate at which a test tube sinks into "goo". This task includes: |
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Daffodils & Tulips In the Daffodils & Tulips task, students in different parts of the world qwill plant bulbs together and collect data on various parameters (latitude, longitude, sunlight, temperature etc.) and track when they blossom. Classrooms around the world will choose Daffodil and/or Tulip bulbs to plant during the same week in November. Students will be asked to collect temperature data throughout the experiment and report to the group – in addition they will report when the blooms appear etc. The project can be as involved or as simple as the class needs it to be. |
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