Alaska Science Performance Standard L4/A3

	Alaska Science Key Element A3 A student who meets the content standard should understand models describing the composition, age, and size of our universe, galaxy, and solar system and understand that the universe is constantly moving and changing (Universe).

Performance Standard Level 4, Ages 15–18

Students use secondary research to develop models that explain the origin and continued development of the solar system, galaxy, and the universe.

Sample Assessment Ideas

Students make a model of the sun-Earth-lunar system that is accurately scaled for both size and distance.
Students conceptually demonstrate the “Big Bang”, including the center of expansion and continued thinning of mass per volume by inflating a balloon covered with dots from a marking pen.

Expanded Sample Assessment Idea

Expanded Sample Assessment Idea

Students model star movement and explain the red shift.

Procedure Students will: Break into groups of four, each contributing specific information to the activity. Use the Internet to collect information about star movement. Demonstrate the Doppler effect by moving a sound source of constant pitch towards the listener and away from the listener. Discuss how to use the Doppler effect to describe the relative motion of stars. Make a model or draw a picture and use it to demonstrate how a change in motion and position causes a change in wave frequency. Discuss the red-shift of light. Reflection and Revision Compare and contrast light energy and sound energy. What other energy sources are emitted from stars in addition to light energy? How is the energy source used to identify the type of star? The distance of the star? What evidence is used to identify the chemical composition of a star? What evidence is used to identify the age of a galaxy? Use your model to explain the motion and movement of blue-shifted stars and galaxies.	Levels of Performance
	Stage 4	Student explanation is complete and shows evidence of logical reasoning. The model or drawing accurately describes how a change in motion and position causes a change in wave frequency. The student uses the model or drawing to explain blue-shift and the movement of blue-shifted galaxies. The student explanation contains detailed evidence of how energy-related information is used to classify, identify, and describe stars or galaxies in the universe.
	Stage 3	Student explanation shows evidence of clear and logical reasoning, but may contain minor errors or omissions. The model or drawing describes how a change in motion and position causes a change in wave frequency. Minor errors or omissions may be present. The student uses the model or drawing to explain blue-shift or the movement of blue-shifted galaxies. The student explanation contains some evidence of how energy-related information is used to classify, identify, or describe stars or galaxies in the universe.
	Stage 2	The model or drawing may contain evidence of skilled craftsmanship but may be incomplete, incorrect, or lack detail. Student explanation contains limited knowledge of how to classify, identify, or describe stars or galaxies in the universe. It may contain errors of science fact and reasoning.
	Stage 1	The model, drawing, and student explanation are largely incomplete and incorrect.

Standards Cross-References
( Alaska Department of Education & Early Development Standards)

National Science Education Standards

The sun, the Earth, and the rest of the solar system formed from a nebular cloud of dust and gas 4.6 billion years ago. The early Earth was very different from the planet we live on today. (Page 189)

The origin of the universe remains one of the greatest questions in science. The “Big Bang” theory places the origin between 10 and 20 billion years ago, when the universe began in a hot dense state; according to this theory, the universe has been expanding ever since. (Page 190)

Early in the history of the universe, matter, primarily the light atoms hydrogen and helium, clumped together by gravitational attraction to form countless trillions of stars. Billions of galaxies, each of which is a gravitationally bound cluster of billions of stars, now form most of the visible mass in the universe. (Page 190)

Benchmarks

The stars differ from each other in size, temperature, and age, but they appear to be made up of the same elements that are found on the Earth and to behave according to the same physical principles. Unlike the sun, most stars are in systems of two or more stars orbiting around one another. (Page 65)

On the basis of scientific evidence, the universe is estimated to be over ten billion years old. The current theory is that its entire contents expanded explosively from a hot, dense, chaotic mass. Stars condensed by gravity out of clouds of molecules of the lightest elements until nuclear fusion of the light elements into heavier ones began to occur. Fusion released great amounts of energy over millions of years. Eventually, some stars exploded, producing clouds of heavy elements from which other stars and planets could later condense. The process of star formation and destruction continues. (Page 65)

Increasingly sophisticated technology is used to learn about the universe. Visual, radio, and x-ray telescopes collect information from across the entire spectrum of electromagnetic waves; computers handle an avalanche of data and increasingly complicated computations to interpret them; space probes send back data and materials from the remote parts of the solar system; and accelerators give subatomic particles energies that simulate conditions in the stars and in the early history of the universe before stars formed. (Page 65)

Mathematical models and computer simulations are used in studying evidence from many sources in order to form a scientific account of the universe. (Page 65)

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