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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Ethical Dilemmas In this task, students will explore how to evaluate the negative impacts of the War of 1812 without applying modern values and perspectives. This task includes: |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Evacuating Japanese Americans This task assesses students' knowledge of the past—but rather than measure rote recall of decontextualized facts, this assessment requires students to make connections across time and construct an argument about how events are connected. Students with a strong sense of the past will be able to explain that the bombing at Pearl Harbor made Americans suspicious of Japanese and Japanese-Americans living in the United States, leading them to be imprisoned in camps. Students will also be able to place internment in the historical context of American xenophobia directed at individuals of Asian descent at the time, and explain how both the Gentlemen's Agreement and the internment of Japanese Americans were products of this. Resources available for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment with source materials, as well as the Rubric containing benchmark descriptors. |
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Every Day is Earth Day In the Every Day is Earth Day task, students will write short essays “Save the Earth” or poems related to this problem. They will take photos, create drawings, videos where they really help to protect the environment. |
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Explosion of the USS Maine This task assesses students’ ability to reason how evidence supports a historical argument. Students must explain how a report by the Naval Court of Inquiry and a San Francisco newspaper article both support the conclusion that confusion pervaded US public thought following the sinking of the USS Maine. Resources for this task include downloadable PDF versions of both the assessment as well as the Rubric with benchmark descriptors. |
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Source Subject Grade Level |
Finding Solutions to Hunger, Poverty and Inequality In the Finding Solutions to Hunger, Poverty and Inequality task, students will research and discuss the root causes of hunger and poverty in the world and take meaningful actions to help create a more just and sustainable world. This task includes several possible classroom activities. |
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Finding Solutions to Hunger, Poverty, and Inequality In this task, students will research the causes of poverty and hunger throughout the world and come up with possible actions that would create a sustainable existence for all. This task includes: |
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First Nations Involvement in the War, Part 1 In this task, students will explore the concept of causes and consequences through exploring the First Nation's involvement in the War of 1812 as well as as personal experience. This task includes: |
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First Nations Involvement in the War, Part 2 In this task, students will explore the consequences of the First Nations involvement in the War of 1812 and explore the concept f continuity by determining how these past events are relevant today. This task includes: |
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Floating and Sinking In this task, students will conduct an experiment to determine why bottles float in water. This task includes: |
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Folk Costumes Around the Globe The Folk Costumes Around the Globe task is meant to give the students from as many countries as possible, a chance to share their folk/national costumes with other students and teachers in the world, to promote their folk art and traditions. The students will provide pictures of folk costumes from their countries together with a short description of them, and give information about the occasions on which people use/used to wear them. |
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