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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Hopewell Geometry In this task, students will calculate the measurements of right traingles used in Hopewell Native American earthworks. This task includes: |
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How Effective is Perspiration at Cooling? This task (in PALM and in PALS) focuses on Regulation and Behavior. Students must emulate human perspiration by wrapping water filled test tubes in both wet and dry newspapers, and then collect data on the cooling water to discover trends and make predictions. This task includes: |
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Human Inheritance This task (in PALM and in PALS) focuses on Genetics and Molecular Biology and Patterns of Inheritance. Students must use their knowledge of Madelian genetics to answer questions about the occurance of a trait on a family tree. This task includes: |
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Ice Cold In this task, students will explore how salt effects ice and determine if there are some salts that work better for melting. This task includes: |
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John Brown's Legacy This task gauges students' ability to source and contextualize a document. Students must first source a playbill, determining when it was created and by whom. Students then select facts that might provide the most relevant historical context in order to determine the authors' motivation, and explain how the facts might shed light on why the authors wrote the play. 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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Keep It Hot In this task, students will create their own experiment that explores different materials abilities to insulate beverages. This task includes: |
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Lange's Iconic Photograph This task gauges students’ ability to source, contextualize, and corroborate a document. Students must consider how the context surrounding the creation of Lange’s iconic photograph affects its reliability as historical evidence of Dust Bowl life. Students must also analyze the photograph to determine how the content of the image might also affect its reliability. Finally, students are asked to determine missing information/perspective that would better help them evaluate the reliability of the document. The task includes a range of supplementary materials, many available for download with the creation of a free account:
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Leaky Faucet In this task, students must calculate how many drop of water fall out of a leaky faucet at certain time intervals. This task includes: |
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Let the Sunshine In In this task, students will collect and analyze data to predict how a product will work. This task includes: |
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Math Club Mystery In Math Club Mystery students are asked to find out how many students, teachers and parents went on a trip to the movies. The key concept is to set up equations that represent the given information and use those equations to determine, from the given information the possible combinations of students, teachers and parents that were on the trip. This task includes:
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