Category: High-Adventure Science
Following the recommendation to incorporate the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) science and engineering practices in their classrooms, schools across the country are looking for ways to integrate scientific argumentation into their curriculum. Since 2012 the High-Adventure Science project in collaboration with National Geographic Education has offered free online modules for Earth and space science […]
A new resolution may overturn the Interior Department’s “Stream Protection Rule,” which required coal mining companies to monitor and test the quality of local streams and rivers before, during, or after mining operations. There is no better time than the present to learn about the importance of water issues in our communities and environment. Three […]
We are excited to announce that the Concord Consortium’s High-Adventure Science modules are now available on the National Geographic Education website, thanks to a National Science Foundation-funded partnership with National Geographic Education. High-Adventure Science modules have been used by thousands of students so far, and we welcome the opportunity to share our modules with a wider audience of middle and high school teachers.
Note: This blog post was updated January 24, 2022, with new images, exemplar answers, explanations of items, and links to new teacher resource materials, including two High-Adventure Science modules that offer automated scoring for selected argumentation items. One of the questions unique to the High-Adventure Science project is what we call the explanation-certainty item set. […]
What was Earth like 2.8 billion years ago? The first life was emerging on the planet. The Sun was weaker than it is today, but geologic evidence shows that the climate was as warm (or warmer) than it is today. Was Earth colder because of the weak Sun, or warmer, as geologic evidence suggests? How […]
About 33 million years ago, the Earth abruptly went from being warm and wet to having Antarctic ice cover. Only 23 million years after the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, a time of some of the warmest temperatures on Earth, ice covered the surface. What happened? According to a recent study by scientists at Yale and Purdue universities, […]
New groundwater and soil moisture drought indicator maps produced by NASA are available on the National Drought Mitigation Center’s website. They currently show unusually low groundwater storage levels in Texas. The maps use an 11-division scale, with blues showing wetter-than-normal conditions and a yellow-to-red spectrum showing drier-than-normal conditions. (Credit: NASA/National Drought Mitigation Center) The map […]
A team of astronomers led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology have found 18 planets orbiting stars more massive than our Sun. Finding planets is becoming more and more routine with the Kepler telescope, but these planetary discoveries help to answer questions about planetary formation–and raise other questions about planetary orbits. The scientists […]
What caused the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM)? About 56 million years ago, Earth’s temperature was a lot warmer than it is today–as much as 21°F higher than today (see the graph). Earth’s temperature is rising today, likely because of human emissions of greenhouse gases. But 56 million years ago, there were no human emissions; there […]
In science, less isn’t more; more is more. That basic premise is supported by a recent report from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: Separating signal and noise in climate warming. Earth’s overall temperature is affected by natural processes, such as La Niña and El Niño, as well as by human factors. From 1999 to 2008, Earth’s […]