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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Connecting Math to Our Lives In this task, students will explore how math is being used in their community and shed light on promoting equity. This task includes: |
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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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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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Daffodils and Tulips In this task, students around the world will plant either tulips of daffodils, record data, and compare when they bloom. This task includes: |
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Debate Over the League of Nations This task measures students’ ability to source and contextualize a document. Students read a 1919 opinion column from The Evening Missourian. Students must then select the two facts that help them determine whether the opinions expressed in the column were typical or atypical of American attitudes about joining the League of Nations at the time. 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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Declaration of Independence This task measures students’ ability to source a document. When historians interpret a document, they first look to find out who wrote it and when. 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 this might affect its reliability. Students are asked to agree or disagree with a claim regarding the usefulness of a painting for historians who wish to understand the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. Students who understand the importance of when a document was produced will see that this painting is of minimal use for that purpose because it was produced over 50 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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Democracy Then and Now In this task, students will trace the roots of democracy by exploring the purpose and types of government. This task includes: |
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Dirt Detectives In this task, students will roleplay as archaeologists. They will create a culture bag that they feel best represents them and present it to the class. Afterwards, students will create a box at home with various items in dirt. Back in class, students will "dig" through artifacts and use notes from the presentations to correlate people to artifacts and glean information about each other. They will use this project to gain a better understanding about how archaeologists use artifacts to learn about the past. This task includes: |
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