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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Old Problem - New Solution In this task, students will analyze the impact of a mining project and answer accompanying questions. This task includes: |
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Operating a Musical on a Shoestring Budget In this task, students will collaborate on finding sources to acquire musical equipment and props for little to no money. 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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Paper Chromatography In this task, students will perform a paper chromatography experiment and explore how this technique may be used by scientists. This task includes: |
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Patchwork In this task, students must discover a formula for determining the number of triangles and squares needed for varying cushion sizes. 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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Portrait of an Iroquois Leader This task assesses whether students can source and contextualize a document. Students must first examine a painting of an Iroquois man by a British artist, then determine which facts can help them evaluate the painting's historical reliability. Strong students will be able to explain how the false impression that Hendrick was an emperor (Fact 1) and the alliance between the British and the Iroquois against the French (Fact 3) may have fostered the regal and flattering nature of the painting. 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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Post-Civil War South This task assesses whether students can source and contextualize a document. Students must first examine an interview about the slaves freed from a plantation, then determine which facts can help them evaluate the interview's reliability. Strong students should be able to explain how the time elapsed between the interview and the events described (Fact 1) might affect the accuracy of his account. They should also be able to explain how Carter's family's allegiance to the Confederacy during the Civil War (Fact 2) could have influenced his perspective and affected the information he chose to include. 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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President Grant and Horace Greeley This assessment gauges students’ ability to source, contextualize, and corroborate a document. Students must consider how the contextual information about John Defrees's pamphlet on Grant's presidency affects its reliability as historical evidence. Then, students must identify other information that would help them further evaluate the reliability of the pamphlet. 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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