New York State Standards addressed by the

Pass The Salt learning experience

Salt Learning Experience | Salt Handout | Assessment Guide/Rating Scale

New York learning standards, key ideas and associated performance indicators that this project is designed to address and assess include:

MST 1: Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry and engineering

design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.

Scientific Inquiry

Key Idea 1: The central purpose of scientific inquiry is to develop explanations of natural phenomena in a continuing, creative process.

1.1 Students elaborate on basic scientific and personal explanations of natural phenomena, and develop extended visual models and mathematical formulations to represent their thinking.

1.2 Students: hone ideas through reasoning, library research and discussion with others,

including experts.

Key Idea 2: Beyond the use of reasoning and consensus, scientific inquiry involves the testing of proposed explanations involving the use of conventional techniques and procedures and usually requiring considerable ingenuity.

2.1 Students devise ways of making observations to test proposed explanations.

2.2 Students refine their research ideas through library investigations, including electronic information retrieval and reviews of the literature, and through peer feedback obtained from review and discussion.

2.3 Students develop and present proposals including formal hypotheses to test their explanations, i.e. they predict what should be observed under specified conditions if the explanation is true.

2.4 Students carry out their research plan for testing explanations, including selecting and developing techniques, acquiring and building apparatus, and recording observations as necessary.

Key Idea 3: The observations made while testing proposed explanations, when analyzed using conventional and invented methods, provide new insights into phenomena.

3.1 Students use various means of representing and organizing observations (e.g. diagrams, tables, charts, graphs, equations, matrices) and insightfully interpret the organized data.

3.2 Students apply statistical analysis techniques when appropriate to test if chance alone explains the result.

3.3 Students assess correspondence between the predicted result contained in the hypothesis and the actual result and reach a conclusion as to whether or not the explanation on which the prediction was based is supported.

3.4 Students based on the results of the test and through public discussion, they revise the explanation and contemplate additional research.

3.5 Students develop a written report for public scrutiny that describes their proposed explanation, including a literature review, the research they carried out, its result, and suggestions for future research.

MST 2: Students will access, generate, process, and transfer information using

appropriate technologies.

2.1: Information technology is used to retrieve, process, and communicate information and as a tool to enhance learning

2.1a Students understand and use the more advanced features of word processing, spreadsheets, and data-base software.

2.1b Students prepare multimedia presentations demonstrating a clear sense of audience and purpose.

2.1c Students access, select, collate, and analyze information obtained from a wide range of sources such as research data bases, foundations, organizations, national libraries, and electronic communication networks, including the Internet.

MST 4: Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories

pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the

historical development of ideas in science.

Key Idea 5: Organisms maintain a dynamic equilibrium that sustains life.

5.2 Students explain disease as a failure of homeostasis.

5.2a Homeostasis in an organism is constantly threatened. Failure to respond effectively can result in disease or death.

5.2b Biological research generates knowledge used to design ways of diagnosing,

preventing, treating, controlling or curing diseases of plants and animals

5.3 Relate processes at the system level to the cellular level in order to explain dynamic

equilibrium in multi-celled organisms.

5.3a Dynamic equilibrium results from detection of and response to stimuli.

Organisms detect and respond to change in a variety of ways both at the

cellular level and at the organismal level.

Key Idea 6: Plants and animals depend on each other and their physical environment.

6.1 Students explain factors that limit growth of individuals and populations.

6.1b The atoms and molecules on the earth cycle among the living and nonliving

components of the biosphere. For example, carbon dioxide and water

molecules used in photosynthesis to form energy-rich compounds are returned

to the environment when the energy in these compounds is eventually

released by cells.

6.1e In all environments organisms with similar needs may compete with one

another for resources, including food, space, water, air, and shelter. In any

particular environment, the growth and survival of organisms depend on the

physical conditions including light intensity, temperature range, mineral

availability, soil/rock type, and relative acidity (pH).

6.3 Students explain how the living and nonliving environment change over time and

respond to disturbances.

6.3a The interrelationships and interdependencies of organisms affect the

development of stable ecosystems.

6.3b The environment may be altered in substantial ways through the activities

of organisms, including humans, or when climate changes. Although these

alterations are sometimes abrupt (e.g. natural disasters), in most cases

species replace others resulting in long-term gradual changes in

ecosystems.

Key Idea 7: Human decisions and activities have had a profound impact on the physical

and living environment.

7.1 Describe the range of interrelationships of humans with the living and nonliving

environment.

7.1a The Earth has finite resources; increasing human consumption places

severe stress on the natural processes that renew some resources and

deplete those resources that cannot be renewed.

7.1b Natural ecosystems provide an array of basic processes that affect humans.

Those processes include but are not limited to: maintenance of the quality

of the atmosphere, generation of soils, control of the water cycle, removal

of wastes, energy flow, and recycling of nutrients. Humans are changing

many of these basic processes and the changes may be detrimental.

7.1c Human beings are part of the Earth's ecosystems. Human activities can,

deliberately or inadvertently, alter the equilibrium in ecosystems. Humans

modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, consumption, and

technology. Human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting,

pollution, atmospheric changes, and other factors is threatening current

global stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems may be irreversibly

affected.

7.2 Explain the impact of technological development and growth in the human

human population on the living and nonliving environment.

7.2a Human activities that degrade ecosystems result in a loss of diversity of

the living and nonliving environment. For example, the influence of

humans on other organisms occurs through land use and pollution. Land

use decreases the space and resources available to other species, and

pollution changes the chemical composition of air, soil, and water.

7.2d Many factors influence environmental quality. These include: population

growth and distribution, resource use, capacity of technology to solve

problems, as well as the role of economic, political, ethical and cultural

views.

7.3 Explain how individual choices and societal actions can contribute to improving the

environment.

7.3a Through a greater awareness and application of ecological principles, each

individual can help to assure that there will be suitable environments for

succeeding generations of life on our planet.

7.3b Individuals in society must decide on proposals which involve the introduction of

new technologies. Individuals need to make decisions which will assess risks,

costs, benefits and tradeoffs. Members of our society should understand the

appropriateness and value of raising basic questions such as "what can happen?"—

"what are the odds?"--and, --"how do scientists and engineers know what will

happen?"

MST 5: Students will apply technological knowledge and skills to design, construct, use,

and evaluate products and systems to satisfy human and environmental needs.

MST 5.3: Computers, as tools for design, modeling, information processing, communication, and

system control, have greatly increased human productivity and knowledge.

PI 5.3a: Use computer technology to gather information and present it to an intended

audience in a form that is useful to them in a decision making process.

MST 5.6: Technology can have positive and negative impacts on individuals, society and the

environment and humans have the capability and responsibility to constrain or promote

technological development.

PI 5.6a: Identify the impact that technology, society and individuals have on an organism’s

ability to survive, and advocate for proposals designed to remedy negative situations.

ELA 1: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

ELA 1.2 Speaking and writing to acquire and transmit information requires asking probing and

clarifying questions, interpreting information in one’s own words, applying information

from one context to another, and presenting the information and interpretation clearly,

concisely, and comprehensibly.

PI 1.2a: Write and present research reports, feature articles, and thesis/support papers on a

variety of topics related to all school subjects.

PI 1.2e: Revise and improve early drafts by restructuring, correcting errors, and revising for

clarity and effect.

PI 1.2f: Use standard English skillfully, applying established rules and conventions for

presenting information and making use of a wide range of grammatical constructions

and vocabulary to achieve an individual style that communicates effectively.

ELA 3: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.

ELA 3.2: Speaking and writing for critical analysis and evaluation requires presenting opinions

and judgments on experiences, ideas, information, and issues clearly, logically, and

persuasively with reference to specific criteria on which the opinion or judgment is

based.

PI 3.2b: Make effective use of details, evidence, and arguments and of presentational

strategies to influence an audience to adopt their position.

PI 3.2c: Monitor and adjust their own oral and written presentations to have the greatest

influence on a particular audience.