Science Task Prescreen
Task Title: Natural Selection: Following the Shift in Traits
Grade: High School
Date: 2024-05-20
SEP: Analyzing and Interpreting Data
DCI: LS4.B (Natural Selection), LS4.C (Adaptation)
CCC: Patterns
Task Purpose: To assess students’ ability to analyze and interpret data from a natural selection simulation to explain how trait distributions shift in a population over time due to environmental pressures, aligned to HS-LS4-3.
Instructions
- Before you begin: Complete the task as a student would. Then, consider any support materials provided to teachers or students, such as contextual information about the task and answer keys/rubrics.
- Prescreen: Answer the following high-level questions to identify any major red flags (🚩) in your task. If you find one or more red flags, consider the purpose of the task and the evidence gathered to determine whether the task warrants a deeper dive.
Prescreen Questionnaire
| Question | Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Is there a phenomenon or problem driving the task? | [x] | [ ] 🚩 |
| 2. Can the majority of the task be answered without using information provided by the task scenario? | [ ] 🚩 | [x] |
| 3. Can significant portions of the task be answered successfully by using rote knowledge (e.g., definitions, prescriptive or memorized procedure)? | [ ] 🚩 | [x] |
| 4. Does the majority of the task require students to use reasoning to successfully complete the task? | [x] | [ ] 🚩 |
| 5. Does the task require students to use some understanding of disciplinary core ideas to successfully complete the task? | [x] | [ ] 🚩 |
| 6. Do students have to use at least one science and engineering practice to successfully complete the task? | [x] | [ ] 🚩 |
| 7. Are the dimensions assessed separately in the majority of the task? | [ ] 🚩 | [x] |
| 8. Is the task coherent and comprehensible from the student perspective? | [x] | [ ] 🚩 |
Recommendation
Based on your assessment needs and the task purpose recorded above, make a recommendation about this task moving forward (choose one):
- [x] Warrants further review.
- [ ] Should not be used.
Summary
Summarize your evidence and reasoning:
This task is anchored in a compelling real-world phenomenon (the peppered moth population shift during the Industrial Revolution). Students must actively engage with the natural selection simulation to generate their own trait distribution data and construct evidence-based explanations, rather than relying on rote recall. The three dimensions are tightly integrated: students analyze and interpret data (SEP) to identify patterns (CCC) that demonstrate natural selection and adaptation (DCI) as the mechanism driving population changes.