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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Oil Spill In this task, students will chose an absorbant material to attempt seperating an oil and water mixture. This task includes: |
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Opposition to the Philippine-American War This task assesses students’ ability to use evidence to support a historical argument. Students are presented with two documents that provide different perspectives on the war in the Philippines. Students are then asked to explain how each of these disparate accounts supports the same historical conclusion: many Americans opposed the war in the Philippines. The task includes a range of supplementary materials, available for download with the creation of a free account:
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Ostrich Llama Count In Ostrich Llama Count students are given the combined number of heads and legs of ostriches and llamas. Using that information they are asked to explain how Raul and Esteban might have figured out how many ostriches and llamas there were. The key concepts are logical/algebraic reasoning and possibly systems of equations. This task includes:
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Paper Chromatography In this task, students will design an experiment to identify mixtures of inks. This task includes: |
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Paper Towels In this task, students will conduct an experiment to determine which brands of paper towels can hold the least and most amount of water. This task includes: |
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Peat Pots This task (in PALM and in PALS) focuses on the knowledge of the Earth System. Students must observe and calculate the capillarity of soil by observing a peat pot in water. This task includes: |
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Pendulums In this task, students will design their own pendulums and explore the variables which change the rate at which they swing. This task includes: |
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Photographs of Working Children This task assesses students’ ability to source, contextualize, and corroborate a document. Students are asked to consider how the contextual information affects the reliability of Lewis Hine's photography. They then must consider how the content of the photograph could affect its reliability. Finally, students must think of other information they would like to know about the photographer or the circumstances surrounding the photograph to further evaluate its reliability. 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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Pickett's Charge This task measures students’ ability to source a document. This assessment gauges whether students understand an important aspect of sourcing: the time elapsed between when a document was produced and the event that it depicts- and how reliability may be affected. Students who understand the importance of when a document was produced will see that the painting is of little use to historians who wish to understand the immediate circumstances around Pickett's Charge because it was produced over 30 years after the event. 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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Pond-water Populations This task (in PALM and in PALS) focuses on the Balance of Populations in Ecosystems. Students must design and complete an experiment to show how variables affect the growth of organisms in an aquarium or pond setting. This task includes: |
If you would like to recommend additional open-sourced performance task banks to be included in the database, or if you would like to report a broken link, please email Pai-rou Chen.
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