Grade 8 Performance-Based Assessment Research Simulation Task

Grade 8 Performance-Based Assessment Research Simulation Task Today you will view a photograph and read two articles about aurora borealis. As you read, gather information about aurora borealis in order to answer questions about the readings and write an analytical essay. 2015 Standards Solution Holding, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 1

Aurora Borealis Light from the aurora is emitted by atmospheric gases when they're hit by particles from space. Credit: http://pixabay.com/en/aurora-borealis-aurora-69221/ 2015 Standards Solution Holding, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 2

1. Part A: What is the meaning of the word emitted as it is used in the photo caption? A. welcomed B. released C. located D. determined Part B: What statement is true about the photograph and best supports your answer in Part A? A. The light of the aurora appears in the atmosphere. B. The terrain is mountainous beneath the aurora. C. The aurora is green in color. D. The aurora is a very rare occurrence. 2. Part A: What can you conclude about the aurora based on this photo? A. It can only be photographed at dawn and at dusk. B. It is affected by the phases of the moon. C. It only appears for a brief moment in time before disappearing. D. It is often visible in cold polar regions of the world. Part B: Which detail from the photo supports the answer to Part A? A. the snow on the ground B. the color of the aurora C. the stars in the background D. the absence of the moon 2015 Standards Solution Holding, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 3

3. Part A: Having viewed the photograph of the aurora and read its caption, what question can you now answer because evidence is provided? A. Does the aurora affect the weather? B. How often is the aurora visible? C. What causes the aurora? D. Is the aurora always green? Part B: What statement is true about the photograph and best supports your answer in Part A? A. The aurora appears when atmospheric gases are hit by particles from space. B. The aurora can often be seen from the International Space Station as it orbits the earth. C. Iceland is a common place to see the aurora borealis due to its location near the North Pole. D. The aurora is more common in winter and in spring than in summer or fall. 2015 Standards Solution Holding, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 4

Aurora Sighting From NSf.gov, adapted by Laura Schaefer 1. Dance of the spirits, as it's known by the Cree, one of North America's largest groups of Native Americans. The phenomenon, called the aurora borealis in the Northern Hemisphere and aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere, is indeed a dance of particles and magnetism between the sun and the Earth. 2. The sun continuously produces a solar wind of charged particles, or plasma. As that "breath" reaches Earth, it causes our planet's magnetic field to shapeshift from round to teardrop--with a long tail on the side farthest from the sun. The teardropstretched field ultimately reconfigures into two parts, one controlled by Earth's magnetic field, the other by the solar wind. 3. The instability excites the solar-charged particles. They follow spiral paths along lines connecting Earth's north and south magnetic poles to its atmosphere. "What happens next," says scientist Elizabeth MacDonald of the New Mexico Consortium in Los Alamos, "is one of nature's most spectacular sights: the aurora." The light of the aurora is emitted when the charged particles collide with gases in Earth's upper atmosphere. Glimpsing an aurora 4. How often the aurora is visible in an area, MacDonald says, depends upon a host of factors, including the intensity of the solar wind; the season--the aurora may be strongest around the spring and fall equinoxes; whether the sun is near the peak of its 11-year cycle; and how far someone is from what scientists call the auroral oval, the lights' ring-shaped display. 5. Knowing where and when an aurora is happening has been difficult to find out--until now. A new project called Aurorasaurus allows citizens around the world to track auroras and report on their progress. Aurorasaurus is designed by researchers from the New Mexico Consortium, Pennsylvania State University and Science Education Solutions. 6. Visitors to the Aurorasaurus website can see where an aurora is happening in real-time, let other Aurorasaurus visitors know of an aurora's existence, and receive "early warnings" when an aurora is likely to happen in their Earth-neighborhood. Aurora-power 7. "Auroras are beautiful displays that have fascinated humans through the ages," says Therese Moretto Jorgensen, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Geosciences, which, along with NSF's Directorate for Education and Human Resources and Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering, funds Aurorasaurus through NSF's INSPIRE program. 8. INSPIRE supports projects whose scientific advances lie outside the scope of a single program or discipline, lines of research that promise transformational advances, and prospective discoveries at the interfaces of scientific boundaries. 9. "Auroras are of major interest," says Moretto Jorgensen, "because of their effects on Earth. There's a close relationship between auroras and the magnetic variations that pose a threat to the power grid. "A better understanding of when and where auroras happen will help us develop models that can forecast these potentially hazardous events." 10. Scientists hope that by amassing data from thousands of aurora-viewers, they'll learn more about the solar storms that can disrupt or destroy Earth's communications networks and affect the planet's navigation, pipeline, electrical and transportation systems. During one solar storm in 1989, transformers in New Jersey melted and wiped out power all the way to Quebec, leaving millions of people in the dark. 11. The largest such solar storm in history, the Carrington Event, zapped Earth in 1859. It was so large it lit up the skies with auroras from the poles to the tropics. Electrical currents from the storm caused fires in telegraph systems and knocked out communications. 2015 Standards Solution Holding, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 5

4. Part A: What is the meaning of the word prospective as it is used in the article? A. future B. significant C. amateur D. lengthy Part B: Which detail from the article best supports the answer to Part A? A. the magnetic variations that pose a threat to the power grid (paragraph 9) B. displays that have fascinated humans through the ages" (paragraph 7) C. lines of research that promise transformational advances (paragraph 8) D. outside the scope of a single program (paragraph 8) 5. Part A: According to the article, why do scientists want to collect data from thousands of people viewing the aurora? A. to learn more about how climate change is affecting the poles B. to inspire more students to pursue the sciences at the university level C. to find a way to use Earth s magnetic fields as an alternative energy source D. to learn more about the solar activity that can disrupt telecommunications Part B: Which line from the passage best supports the answer to Part A? A. Visitors to the Aurorasaurus website can see where an aurora is happening in real-time, let other Aurorasaurus visitors know of an aurora's existence, and receive "early warnings" when an aurora is likely to happen in their Earth-neighborhood. (paragraph 6) B. Scientists hope that by amassing data from thousands of aurora-viewers, they'll learn more about the solar storms that can disrupt or destroy Earth's communications networks and affect the planet's navigation, pipeline, electrical and transportation systems. (paragraph 10) C. How often the aurora is visible in an area, MacDonald says, depends upon a host of factors, including the intensity of the solar wind; the season--the aurora may be strongest around the spring and fall equinoxes (paragraph 4) D. The teardrop-stretched field ultimately reconfigures into two parts, one controlled by Earth's magnetic field, the other by the solar wind. (paragraph 2) 2015 Standards Solution Holding, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 6

6. From the options below, select the sentence that states the main purpose of this article about Aurorasaurus. Then, select two pieces of evidence to support your answer. Put your answers in the tables below the options. Possible Purposes To explain the significance of the aurora in the Native American religion To explore ways Aurorasaurus can prevent the aurora from harming communications networks To give specific instructions for how to best view the aurora To explain how the Aurorasaurus program is aiding the work of scientists Possible Evidence INSPIRE supports projects whose scientific advances lie outside the scope of a single program or discipline (paragraph 8) "A better understanding of when and where auroras happen will help us develop models that can forecast these potentially hazardous events." (paragraph 9) Dance of the spirits, as it's known by the Cree, one of North America's largest groups of Native Americans. (paragraph 1) Purpose Evidence 2015 Standards Solution Holding, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 7

The INSPIRE Award From NSF.gov, adapted by Laura Schaefer 1. This INSPIRE award is a two-year inter-disciplinary project pursuing tightly coupled goals within human centered computing, citizen science, and space weather research. The aurora borealis of the northern hemisphere and its twin, the aurora australis of the southern hemisphere, are among the most beautiful and awe-inspiring of natural phenomena. They are a manifestation of the interaction of solar plasma with the Earth's atmosphere, magnetic field, and surface, the combined effect of which is termed space weather. As the aurora is a visible manifestation of space weather, observations of aurora are potentially a means of forecasting its catastrophic extremes. 3. Capitalizing on public curiosity of normally intangible plasma physics, the objective of this project is to create a system for collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and redistributing data on the dynamics and evolution of auroral events using crowd-sourced ad hoc Tweets and more purposeful postings from citizen scientists. The current solar maximum is the first since the emergence of the ubiquitous use of social media that has changed - and will continue to change - our interactions with computers and the world. Building on a demonstrated prototype system, the project is poised to take advantage of the approach in 2013-2014 of the maximum in the current 11-year solar activity cycle, with several high activity years following. 4. The team combines expertise in space weather science, human-computer interface design, and informal science education to realize each of its intertwined goals. 5. For space science, the contribution will be a totally new data source for auroral observations and the potential for real-time, higher-resolution space weather forecasts that are a critical step towards transforming our ability to protect and manage critical infrastructure susceptible to interruption and damage. With crowd-sourced data and user contributions, it is possible to achieve the increased density of high quality data needed for improved predictions. State of the art human-computer interfaces, for data upload, analysis, and interpretation that make participation easy, intuitive, and rewarding, will be developed to ensure the high quality data critical to forecasting. 6. For the field of human-centered computing, the creation of new frameworks will transform our understanding of how the emergent processes of crowd-sourced knowledge and labor come together for scientific discovery under the structures of networked computer platforms. Specifically, the stickiest problem in making crowdsourced media actionable is the verification of the messages received at a high enough tolerance level for organizational decision-making. A transformative approach will be adopted, employing verification techniques within a community of active participants who will also engage the data, offering human intelligence in collaboration with machine intelligence. 7. The education approach is innovative and potentially transformative in its use of social media to explore the beautiful and mysterious aurora, through which participants in a dynamic social network will come to understand the relevance of space weather to their lives. Intellectually engaging resources, research projects, and motivational incentives for participation will help build a community of citizen scientists committed to advancing knowledge of space weather. 8. This low-cost, citizen science system for improved forecasting of geomagnetic storms has the potential to transform the way space weather prediction is done and considering the enormous potential cost to society of damage due to such storms would be cost-effective. The project will help enhance public understanding of this little known phenomenon so that citizens are aware and prepared to respond to the effects of space weather. Resulting new understanding of effective approaches to citizen science and the impact of human computer interactions on motivations and success at learning will have value to a wealth of other ongoing citizen science programs. 2015 Standards Solution Holding, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 8

7. Part A: What is the meaning of the word ubiquitous as it is used in the excerpt? A. surprising B. new C. global D. occasional Part B: Which detail from the excerpt best supports the answer to Part A? A. social media that has changed - and will continue to change - our interactions with computers and the world (paragraph 3) B. the contribution will be a totally new data source for auroral observations (paragraph 5) C. As the aurora is a visible manifestation of space weather, observations of aurora are potentially a means of forecasting its catastrophic extremes. (paragraph 1) D. help build a community of citizen scientists committed to advancing knowledge of space weather (paragraph 7) 8. Part A: What has been the problem with collecting data from crowd sources in the past? A. insufficient machine intelligence B. conflicting data C. lack of citizen interest D. verification of the messages Part B: Which detail from the excerpt best supports the answer to Part A? A. the stickiest problem in making crowd-sourced media actionable is the verification of the messages received at a high enough tolerance level for organizational decision-making. (paragraph 6) B. motivational incentives for participation will help build a community of citizen scientists committed to advancing knowledge of space weather. (paragraph 7) C. the impact of human computer interactions on motivations and success at learning will have value to a wealth of other ongoing citizen science programs. (paragraph 8) D. The team combines expertise in space weather science, human-computer interface design, and informal science education to realize each of its intertwined goals. (paragraph 4) 2015 Standards Solution Holding, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 9

9. The article says several innovations will help ensure the data collected by the INSPIRE project is helpful to scientists. Drag and drop these factors into this graphic organizer. Choose from the options below. INSPIRE Options: A. The aurora borealis of the northern hemisphere and its twin, the aurora australis of the southern hemisphere, are among the most beautiful and awe-inspiring of natural phenomena. (paragraph 1) B. State of the art human-computer interfaces, for data upload, analysis, and interpretation that make participation easy, intuitive, and rewarding, will be developed to ensure the high quality data critical to forecasting. (paragraph 5) C. The current solar maximum is the first since the emergence of the ubiquitous use of social media that has changed - and will continue to change - our interactions with computers and the world. (paragraph 3) D. Building on a demonstrated prototype system, the project is poised to take advantage of the approach in 2013-2014 of the maximum in the current 11-year solar activity cycle, with several high activity years following. (paragraph 3) E. A transformative approach will be adopted, employing verification techniques within a community of active participants who will also engage the data, offering human intelligence in collaboration with machine intelligence. (paragraph 6) 2015 Standards Solution Holding, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 10

10. You have learned about the aurora borealis by reading two articles and viewing a photograph. In an essay, compare the purposes of the three sources. Then analyze how each source uses explanations, demonstrations, or descriptions to help accomplish its purpose. Be sure to discuss important differences and similarities between the information gained from the photograph and the information provided in the articles. Support your response with evidence from each source. 2015 Standards Solution Holding, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 11

Answer Key Standards 1A. B RI.8.4 1B. A RI.8.1 2A. D RI.8.2 2B. A RI.8.1 3A. C RI.8.3 3B. A RI.8.1 4A. A RI.8.4 4B. C RI.8.1 5A. D RI.8.1 5B. B RI.8.1 6. Purpose: To explain how the Aurorasaurus program is aiding the work of scientists Evidence: 1. INSPIRE supports projects whose scientific advances lie outside the scope of a single program or discipline (paragraph 8) RI.8.2; RI.8.1 2. "A better understanding of when and where auroras happen will help us develop models that can forecast these potentially hazardous events." (paragraph 9) 7A. C RI.8.4 7B. A RI.8.1 8A. D RI.8.3 8B. A RI.8.1 9. State of the art human-computer interfaces, for data upload, analysis, and interpretation that make participation easy, intuitive, and rewarding, will be developed to ensure the high quality data critical to forecasting. (paragraph 5) The current solar maximum is the first since the emergence of the ubiquitous use of social media that has changed - and will continue to change - our interactions with computers and the world. (paragraph 3) A transformative approach will be adopted, employing verification techniques within a community of active participants who will also engage the data, offering human intelligence in collaboration with machine intelligence. (paragraph 6) RI.8.2; RI.8.1 2015 Standards Solution Holding, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 15