MS-PS4-3: Integrate qualitative scientific and technical information to support the claim that digitized signals are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than analog signals. 

Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on a basic understanding that waves can be used for communication purposes. Examples could include using fiber optic cable to transmit light pulses, radio wave pulses in wifi devices, and conversion of stored binary patterns to make sound or text on a computer screen.

By the end of grade 8. Appropriately designed technologies (e.g., radio, television, cell phones, wired and wireless computer networks) make it possible to detect and interpret many types of signals that cannot be sensed directly. Designers of such devices must understand both the signal and its interactions with matter. Many modern communication devices use digitized signals (sent as wave pulses) as a more reliable way to encode and transmit information.

Evidence Statements

MS-PS4-3

1. Obtaining information

   1. Given materials from a variety of different types of sources of information (e.g., texts, graphical, video, digital), students gather evidence sufficient to support a claim about a phenomenon that includes the idea that using waves to carry digital signals is a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than using waves to carry analog signals.

2. Evaluating information

   1. Students combine the relevant information (from multiple sources) to support the claim by describing:

      1. Specific features that make digital transmission of signals more reliable than analog transmission of signals, including that, when in digitized form, information can be:

         1. Recorded reliably.

         2. Stored for future recovery.

         3. Transmitted over long distances without significant degradation.

      2. At least one technology that uses digital encoding and transmission of information. Students should describe how the digitization of that technology has advanced science and scientific investigations (e.g., digital probes, including thermometers and pH probes; audio recordings).