The performance expectations in Human Impacts help students formulate answers to the questions: “How do humans depend on Earth’s resources?” and “How do people model and predict the effects of human activities on Earth’s climate?” Students understand the complex and significant inter dependencies between humans and the rest of Earth’s systems through the impacts of natural hazards, our dependencies on natural resources, and the environmental impacts of human activities. The crosscutting concepts of cause and effect; systems and system models; stability and change; and influence of engineering, technology, and science on society and the natural world are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas. In the HS. Human Impacts performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in using mathematics and computational thinking, constructing explanations and designing solutions, and engaging in argument from evidence and to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas.
The performance expectations in Weather and Climate help students formulate an answer to the question, “What regulates weather and climate?” Students understand the system interactions that control weather and climate, with a major emphasis on the mechanisms and implications of climate change. Students can understand the analysis and interpretation of different kinds of geoscience data allow students to construct explanations for the many factors that drive climate change over a wide range of timescales. The crosscutting concepts of cause and effect and stability and change are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas. In the HS. Weather and Climate performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in developing and using models and analyzing and interpreting data and to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas.