MS-ESS3-3NGSS*ScienceEarth and Space ScienceGrades 6-8
MS-ESS3-3: Designing Ways to Monitor and Reduce a Human Impact on the Environment
In plain English: MS-ESS3-3 is the NGSS middle school performance expectation that asks students to apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment, such as water use, land use or pollution. Students choose what to measure, collect a baseline, design a solution and use new data to judge whether it worked. It is usually taught in grade 6, 7 or 8 Earth science.
Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
Clarification Statement: Examples of the design process include examining human environmental impacts, assessing the kinds of solutions that are feasible, and designing and evaluating solutions that could reduce that impact. Examples of human impacts can include water usage (such as the withdrawal of water from streams and aquifers or the construction of dams and levees), land usage (such as urban development, agriculture, or the removal of wetlands), and pollution (such as of the air, water, or land).
Next Generation Science Standards · Disciplinary Core Idea: Earth and Human Activity · Official standard
A human impact is a change people cause in the environment, such as taking water from a stream, paving land or releasing pollution. In this lesson students design a method for monitoring an impact (measuring it again and again over time) and for minimizing it (making it smaller). Every design applies a scientific principle, an idea from science that predicts what will happen, such as "pavement does not let rain soak in" or "pollution spreads out and thins with distance from its source." Students choose an indicator (a measurement that shows how big the impact is), collect a baseline (measurements taken before any change), add a comparison site away from the impact, test a solution, and judge it with new data.
The NGSS Clarification Statement says: "Examples of the design process include examining human environmental impacts, assessing the kinds of solutions that are feasible, and designing and evaluating solutions that could reduce that impact. Examples of human impacts can include water usage (such as the withdrawal of water from streams and aquifers or the construction of dams and levees), land usage (such as urban development, agriculture, or the removal of wetlands), and pollution (such as of the air, water, or land)." MS-ESS3-3 has no official Assessment Boundary. All data sets on this page are invented and labeled as invented. Students do the practice of designing solutions: they examine an impact, assess which solutions are feasible (possible with the money, time and tools available), and design and evaluate a monitoring plan and a solution.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Examine a human impact on water, land or air and describe what changes, where and by how much
Design a monitoring method with an indicator, sites including a comparison site, a baseline and a schedule
Assess which solutions are feasible using criteria and constraints, and explain the scientific principle each one uses
Use before-and-after monitoring data to evaluate whether a solution reduced the impact, and suggest an improvement
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
How communities use science ideas to protect Earth's resources and environment 5-ESS3-1
Criteria and constraints of a design problem MS-ETS1-1
Finding a percent of a quantity and a percent change 7.RP.A.3
Show a photo of a school pickup line with cars waiting and engines running. Ask students to look before discussing.
Warm-Up Prompt
"Your principal says idling cars are making the air dirty at pickup time, and asks you to fix it. Before you fix anything, how would you prove the air is dirtier there? After your fix, how would you prove it worked?"
Record ideas. Push students past "ask people to stop" toward something measurable. Keep the list: it becomes the first monitoring plan of the lesson.
Direct Instruction15 minutes
Three kinds of impact. Water usage includes taking water from streams and aquifers (underground layers that hold water) and building dams and levees (walls of earth along a river that hold back floods). A dam stores water but can block fish and change the river's temperature below it; a levee protects the land behind it but can push floodwater onto places downstream. Land usage includes building cities, farming and draining wetlands (land soaked with water most of the year, such as marshes). Pollution is any harmful material added to air, water or land.
The design process (Diagram 1). First examine the impact: what changes, where, and how much. Then plan the monitoring: an indicator, the sites, the baseline and how often to measure. A good plan measures the same way each time and includes a comparison site that the solution does not touch, so a change caused by weather or season shows up there too. Next, assess feasible solutions using criteria (what the solution must achieve) and constraints (limits such as cost, time and safety). Finally, design the solution with a scientific principle in mind, monitor again, and evaluate.
Pollution of the air: idling cars at pickup time (Diagram 2)
Invented data. Students hung sticky cards (index cards coated with petroleum jelly) at three sites for 3 days and counted the particles in a 1 cm² square: pickup lane 40, parking lot edge 28, back field 12. After a no-idling campaign, new cards showed 26, 22 and 11.
Result: Pickup lane: (40 - 26) / 40 = 35% fewer particles. Back field, the comparison site far from the cars: (12 - 11) / 12, about 8%. The large drop happened only near the cars. Principle: burning fuel releases tiny particles, and they thin out with distance from the source.
Water usage: withdrawal from a stream
Invented data. In August, a stream is 4 m wide and 0.5 m deep on average, and a floating ball travels 10 m in 33 s (about 0.3 m/s). A farm pumps 0.15 m³ of water per second from the stream.
Result: Flow is about width x depth x speed = 4 x 0.5 x 0.3 = 0.6 m³/s. The farm takes 0.15 / 0.6 = 25% of the flow. A monitoring plan measures the flow every week in summer, and a rule could limit pumping to 10% of the flow (0.06 m³/s) so enough water stays for fish.
Land usage: a new parking lot and runoff
Invented data. A storm drops 20 mm of rain on a 1,000 m² lot. About 90% of the rain runs off pavement, and about 15% runs off a lawn.
Result: Rain volume = 0.020 m x 1,000 m² = 20 m³. Runoff: pavement 0.90 x 20 = 18 m³ (18,000 L); lawn 0.15 x 20 = 3 m³. Principle: water soaks into soil but not through pavement. Permeable pavers, which have gaps filled with gravel, let some of it soak in.
Land usage: monitoring a restored wetland
Invented data. A county drained 54 of its 150 ha of wetland for farms, then restored 20 ha. Volunteers count frog calls for 5 minutes at the same 6 listening points each spring evening. Average frogs heard per point: 3.0 before restoring, then 3.5, 5.0 and 6.5 in the three springs after.
Result: Wetland lost: 54 / 150 = 36%. Frog calls rose from 3.0 to 6.5 per point, more than double. Using the same points, the same time of year and the same 5 minutes makes each year comparable. Principle: frogs breed in standing water, so more wetland should mean more frogs.
Water usage and agriculture: watering only when the soil needs it
Invented data. A farm pumps from an aquifer and waters a corn field 25 mm every 3 days for 72 days, whatever the weather. Soil moisture sensors show the soil is often still moist. With the sensors, the farm waters only when the soil dries below a set level and uses 450 mm in the season.
Result: Old schedule: 72 / 3 = 24 waterings x 25 mm = 600 mm. Savings: (600 - 450) / 600 = 25%. Monitoring a well meter and a monitoring well shows whether the aquifer level stops falling.
After each example ask: "What is the indicator? Where is the comparison? Which scientific principle makes the solution work?" Point out that Example 1 would prove nothing without the back-field cards.
Guided Practice15 minutes
Pairs evaluate an invented litter study, an example of land pollution. A class counted every piece of litter in four schoolyard zones for one week (the baseline). Then they placed four bins with lids, and student monitors, on the lunch patio only, and counted again the next week.
Litter pieces counted per week by zone (invented data)
Zone
Baseline week
Week after bins
Lunch patio (bins added)
85
38
Field
22
20
Parking lot
40
35
Front entrance
18
15
Find the percent change in each zone. Which zone changed the most?
Which zones act as comparison sites? What do their small changes tell you?
Is one week after the change enough? Plan how long you would keep monitoring, and why.
Suggest one improvement for the zone with the most litter after the change, and the scientific or practical reason it should work.
Independent Practice10-15 minutes
Each student designs a monitoring plan for a new problem. A town pumps groundwater from an aquifer that also feeds a creek, and the creek nearly stops flowing in late summer. The invented data below came from the town's well meters and a creek gauge.
Town pumping and creek flow (invented data)
Month
Town pumping (thousand m³)
Creek flow (L/s)
June
60
40
July
80
15
August
85
5
September
55
25
Students describe the pattern (the creek is lowest in the months the town pumps most), name one other cause that could explain it (summer has less rain), and add a measurement that would separate the two causes, such as a rain gauge or a creek far from the wells. Then they propose one way to reduce summer pumping and state how they would know it worked.
Closure5 minutes
Exit ticket: "Pick one impact from today. Name your indicator, your comparison site and the scientific principle your solution uses." Return to the warm-up list and circle the ideas that are now measurable.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give a planning frame with five boxes that match Diagram 1: impact, indicator and sites, solutions, design, evaluation
Provide a word bank: indicator, baseline, comparison site, criteria, constraint, feasible
Let students work from the sticky card data before planning their own monitoring
For Advanced Students
Ask students to plan how many sites and weeks of data they would need before they trust a 10% change
Have students explain how a levee that protects one town could raise flood levels for another, and how they would monitor it
Challenge: design a monitoring plan for the school's own water use and present it to the principal with a feasible solution and a cost
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Check that every plan names a measurable indicator, a baseline, a comparison site and a schedule, not only a solution. Look for solutions linked to a scientific principle (water soaks into soil, pollution thins with distance, wetlands store water). Listen for students who judge a solution from one measurement, or who give credit to the solution for a change that also happened at the comparison site. Strong designs weigh criteria against constraints and plan a second round of testing.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Sticky Card Air Monitors
20 min, plus 3 days of exposureGroups of 3
Groups build simple particle collectors, place them around the school and count what they catch. Then they use the counts to design a solution for the dirtiest site and a plan to monitor it.
Procedure
Draw a 1 cm by 1 cm square on each of 4 index cards. Spread a thin layer of petroleum jelly over the square with a cotton swab.
With the teacher, tape or tie the cards at the same height (about 1.5 m) at four sites: the bus loop, the front sidewalk, the school garden and inside a classroom. Keep cards away from traffic lanes.
After 3 days, count the particles in each square with a hand lens.
Safety: petroleum jelly is a household product, but keep it away from eyes and wash hands after handling the cards.
Sample Data (invented)
Particles per cm² in 3 days: bus loop 34, front sidewalk 25, school garden 9, inside the classroom 4.
Discussion Questions
The bus loop card caught more than three times as many particles as the garden card. What could explain the difference?
Which site would make a good comparison site for a solution at the bus loop? Why?
Design one feasible solution for the bus loop and say how you would use new sticky cards to evaluate it.
Modification for Distance Learning
Students place one card outside a window and one inside at home, then share counts on a class map and look for patterns near roads.
2
Schoolyard Heat Audit
25 minGroups of 3-4
Cities replace soil and plants with pavement and roofs, a land-usage impact that makes surfaces and air hotter. Groups measure surface temperatures around the school on a sunny afternoon and design a way to cool the hottest area.
Procedure
Within 15 minutes, measure five surfaces: blacktop, concrete, grass, ground under a tree and a light-colored painted surface. Hold the infrared thermometer about 30 cm away, or lay a stick thermometer on the surface under a folded card for 2 minutes.
Record the air temperature in the shade at the same time.
Safety: do not touch hot surfaces, wear a hat, bring water, and never point a thermometer's laser dot at anyone's eyes.
Sample Data (invented)
Air temperature in the shade: 30 °C. Surfaces: blacktop 52 °C, concrete 43 °C, light-painted surface 38 °C, grass 31 °C, ground under a tree 27 °C.
Discussion Questions
The blacktop was 25 °C hotter than the ground under the tree. Which scientific principles explain this (color, shade, water in plants)?
Name two feasible solutions for the playground and one constraint for each.
Plan the monitoring: which surfaces, what time of day, how many days, and what comparison would you use to show your solution worked?
Challenge Variation
Groups measure the same five surfaces every 30 minutes from noon to 3 p.m., graph the results, and decide when the playground is hottest.
3
Faucet Flow Audit
20 minPairs
Pairs measure how fast school faucets run, estimate how much water the school uses for handwashing, and evaluate a solution that reduces water withdrawal from the town's supply.
Procedure
Open a faucet fully and time how long it takes to fill a 1 L container. Repeat three times and average.
Flow rate in L/min = 60 / (seconds to fill 1 L).
Estimate: if 500 students wash their hands 3 times a day for 20 seconds, how many minutes does the faucet run each day? (500 x 3 x 20 s = 30,000 s = 500 min.)
Safety: wipe up spilled water so no one slips, and turn every faucet off after testing.
Sample Data (invented)
An old faucet fills 1 L in 7.5 s, which is 8 L/min. The same faucet with a low-flow aerator (a small screen that mixes air into the water) fills 1 L in 15 s, which is 4 L/min.
Discussion Questions
Using 500 minutes per day, how many liters per day does the aerator save? (8 x 500 = 4,000 L, 4 x 500 = 2,000 L, saving 2,000 L per day.)
Is the aerator feasible? Think about cost, how easy it is to fit, and whether hands still get clean.
Which data would you collect for a month to show the school's water use really dropped?
Modification for Distance Learning
Students run the same timing test on a faucet at home with an adult, and the class pools the results in a shared table.
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
2 diagrams
Diagram 1: A Design Cycle for Monitoring and Minimizing an Impact
The five steps students use on this page. Monitoring starts before the solution, to collect a baseline, and continues after it, to evaluate the change. If the data show the impact is still too large, the class returns to step 3.
Diagram 2: Sticky Card Particle Counts Before and After a No-Idling Campaign (Invented Data)
The invented data from Example 1, drawn to scale. The count at the pickup lane falls from 40 to 26 particles per cm². The back field, the comparison site far from the cars, barely changes, which supports the claim that the campaign caused the drop.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
MS-ESS3-3 Homework: Monitoring and Minimizing Human Impacts
Directions: All data sets are invented for practice. Show each calculation with units. Every monitoring plan needs an indicator, sites (including a comparison site), a baseline and a schedule. Every solution needs a scientific principle, a criterion and a constraint.
Part 1: Monitoring an Impact (Problems 1-3)
A dam releases water from the bottom of its reservoir. In July, the river is 18 °C above the reservoir and 11 °C just below the dam. Trout and other fish in the river need water within a certain temperature range. (a) By how many degrees does the dam change the river temperature? (b) Design a monitoring plan for the river below the dam: what you measure, where, how often and for how long. (c) Name one comparison site and explain why you need it.
In August, a stream is 3 m wide and 0.4 m deep on average, and a floating ball travels 10 m in 25 s. (a) Find the speed of the water. (b) Estimate the flow in m³/s using width x depth x speed. (c) A farm wants to pump 0.06 m³/s from the stream. What percent of the flow is that? (d) The town's rule allows at most 10%. Should the request be approved in August? Suggest a way the farm could still water its crops.
A student wants to show that a new no-idling rule cleaned the air at a bus stop. She hangs one sticky card at the bus stop for one afternoon, a windy day after the rule started, and counts 9 particles. List three problems with this monitoring plan and rewrite it so it could really test the rule.
Part 2: Minimizing an Impact (Problems 4-6)
A school parking lot is 4,000 m². A storm drops 15 mm of rain. (a) What volume of rain falls on the lot, in m³? (b) If 90% runs off the pavement, how much runoff is there? (c) Permeable pavers would cut runoff to 25% of the rain. How many cubic meters of runoff would they prevent in this storm? (d) Name the scientific principle the pavers use.
A school has $600 to reduce its water use. Option A: aerators for 40 faucets at $5 each, saving 1,600 L per day. Option B: retrofitting 10 toilets at $45 each, saving 1,100 L per day. Option C: two rain barrels for the garden at $90 each, saving 300 L per day in the growing season. (a) Find the cost of each option. (b) Which combinations fit the budget? (c) Which single option saves the most water per dollar? (d) Recommend a plan and name one constraint other than cost.
Choose one human impact from this list: removing a wetland for houses, a levee along a river, or trash washing into a creek. Write a full design: (a) the impact and the scientific principle behind it, (b) your indicator, sites, baseline and schedule, (c) two possible solutions with one criterion and one constraint each, and (d) how you will use the monitoring data to decide whether your chosen solution worked.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
Monitoring Plan
Indicator, sites with a comparison site, a baseline and a schedule
Indicator named but the plan is missing a baseline or comparison
Calculations
Correct volumes, flows, percents and costs with units
Correct method with one calculation or unit error
Solution and Principle
Solution linked to a scientific principle, with criteria and constraints
Solution named without a principle or without constraints
Evaluation
Explains how before-and-after data will show whether the solution worked
Says to check the solution without saying how
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
All data sets are invented. Some questions ask you to calculate, others to judge a monitoring plan or a solution. Your score updates as you answer, and Reset quiz clears everything so you or your students can try again.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A class wants to monitor how idling cars affect the air at school. Which indicator is best?
Answer: A
Sticky card counts measure the particles themselves at the place the impact happens, and they can be repeated the same way. Choice C counts parked cars, which do not run their engines. Choice D is an opinion, not a measurement of the pollution.
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Why should a monitoring plan include a comparison site far from the impact?
Answer: C
Weather and seasons change both sites, but the solution changes only one. If the comparison site changes as much as the impact site, the solution probably did not cause the change. Choice B confuses a comparison site with a second test site.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
What is a baseline in a monitoring plan?
Answer: B
A baseline is the set of measurements made before any change, so later data can be compared with it. Choice C is the after data. Choice D describes a limit, not a measurement.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A sticky card at a bus loop caught 50 particles per cm² before a no-idling rule and 30 after. What is the percent decrease?
Answer: D
The decrease is 50 - 30 = 20, and 20 / 50 = 0.40 = 40%. Choice A reads the difference of 20 particles as a percent. Choice B divides the after count by the before count (30 / 50). Choice C divides by the after count (20 / 30).
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A stream is 2 m wide and 0.4 m deep, and the water moves 0.5 m/s. About how much water flows past each second?
Answer: A
Flow is about width x depth x speed = 2 x 0.4 x 0.5 = 0.4 m³/s. Choice B adds the three numbers. Choice C divides by the speed instead of multiplying (2 x 0.4 / 0.5). Choice D misplaces the decimal point.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Why does replacing a field with a paved parking lot increase the runoff after a storm?
Answer: B
Soil has pores that let rain soak in, but pavement does not, so more of the rain runs across the surface. Choice A is wrong because pavement does not change how much rain falls. Choice C is wrong: some water evaporates from hot pavement, but evaporation reduces runoff instead of increasing it.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A school wants to cut its water use with $300. Which solution is feasible within that budget?
Answer: C
60 x $4 = $240, which fits the $300 budget. Choice A costs 8 x $250 = $2,000. Choices B and D also cost more than the budget, so they are not feasible under this constraint.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
When wetlands are drained for farms or houses, which change is likely downstream during heavy storms?
Answer: D
Wetlands soak up and hold storm water, then release it slowly. Without them, more water reaches rivers at once, so floods rise higher. Choice A is the opposite of what happens. Choice B is unlikely because wetlands also trap mud and pollutants.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A town wants to know whether its new rule limiting lawn watering is helping the aquifer. Which data best answer this?
Answer: A
The water level in a monitoring well is a direct indicator of how much water the aquifer holds, and before-and-after data show the effect of the rule. Choice B measures lawns, not the aquifer. Choice D gives only one year with no before-and-after comparison.
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A restroom faucet runs 400 minutes a day at 9 L/min. A low-flow aerator lowers it to 6 L/min. How much water does the aerator save per day?
Answer: B
Savings = (9 - 6) x 400 = 3 x 400 = 1,200 L per day. Choice A is the old daily use (9 x 400). Choice C is the new daily use (6 x 400). Choice D is the difference per minute without multiplying by the minutes.
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
After a solution starts, the particle count at the impact site drops by 30%. At the comparison site, it drops by 28%. What is the best conclusion?
Answer: C
Both sites dropped by almost the same amount, so something that affected both, such as rain or wind, probably caused most of the drop. Choice A gives the solution credit for the whole change. Choice B is unlikely because the comparison site is far from the solution.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A team is designing a way to cut litter in a park. Which of these is a constraint?
Answer: D
A constraint is a limit on the solution, such as cost. Choice A is a criterion, a goal the solution must reach. Choice B is part of the monitoring schedule. Choice C is a design choice.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A farm that pumps from an aquifer adds soil moisture sensors to its fields. How do the sensors reduce the water it withdraws?
Answer: A
Sensors show when the soil already has enough water, so the farm skips waterings it does not need and pumps less from the aquifer. Choice D would increase the water used. Choice C would harm the field and the aquifer.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which change would best lower the afternoon surface temperature of a sunny blacktop playground?
Answer: B
Shade blocks sunlight before it reaches the surface, and trees also cool the air as water evaporates from their leaves. Choice A makes the surface absorb more sunlight and get hotter. Choice C keeps the same dark, sunny surface. Choice D cools the surface only until the water evaporates, hours before the afternoon heat.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Design a monitoring plan for litter in a city park. Name your indicator, your sites (including a comparison site), your baseline and your schedule.
Sample answer: Indicator: pieces of litter counted in marked 10 m by 10 m squares. Sites: squares near the picnic area (where the solution will go) and a square far from it as a comparison. Baseline: count every Monday for 4 weeks before the solution. Schedule: keep counting every Monday, picking up all litter after each count, for at least 4 weeks after.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
A school roof is 200 m². A storm drops 25 mm of rain. How many liters of water run off the roof? Could a 200 L rain barrel hold it all? (1 m³ = 1,000 L.)
Volume = 0.025 m x 200 m² = 5 m³ = 5,000 L. A 200 L barrel holds only 200 / 5,000 = 4% of it, so no. The school would need many barrels, a larger tank, or a place for the rest to soak into the ground.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Sticky cards at a bus stop showed 54 particles per cm² before a no-idling rule and 36 after. At a comparison site, they showed 15 before and 14 after. Did the rule work? Use percent changes in your answer.
Bus stop: (54 - 36) / 54 = about 33% decrease. Comparison site: (15 - 14) / 15 = about 7% decrease. The bus stop dropped much more than the comparison site, so the data support the claim that the rule helped. More weeks of data would make the conclusion stronger.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
A stream flows at 1.0 m³/s in spring and 0.25 m³/s in August. A farm pumps 0.05 m³/s all year. What percent of the flow does the farm take in each season? A town rule limits pumping to 10% of the flow. What do you recommend?
Spring: 0.05 / 1.0 = 5%. August: 0.05 / 0.25 = 20%. The farm meets the rule in spring but takes far too much in August. Recommend pumping at most 0.025 m³/s in August (10% of 0.25), for example by storing spring water in a pond or watering only when soil sensors show it is needed.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
Volunteers monitor frogs at a restored wetland. In year 1 they counted frog calls for 10 minutes at 8 points on spring evenings and heard an average of 6 frogs per point. In year 2 a new team counted for 5 minutes at 4 different points on late-summer afternoons and heard 2 frogs per point. The county says the restoration is failing. Is that conclusion supported? Explain, and describe how to fix the monitoring plan.
Not supported. The team changed the method: different points, a shorter count and a different season and time of day, when fewer frogs call. The drop could come from the method, not the wetland. Fix: count at the same points, the same time of year and day, for the same length of time, and keep counting for several years, because frog numbers also vary with the weather; add a comparison wetland that was not restored.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
A farm plants a strip of grass and trees between its field and a stream. Explain the scientific principles that make this reduce water pollution, and name one thing you would measure to monitor it.
Plants slow the runoff, so mud settles out before it reaches the stream; water soaks into the soil under the strip; and roots take up fertilizer carried in the water. To monitor it, measure how muddy the stream water is (or how much fertilizer it carries) above and below the farm, before and after planting.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does MS-ESS3-3 mean?
MS-ESS3-3 asks students to use scientific principles to design a way to monitor a human impact on the environment and a way to make it smaller. Impacts include water use, land use and pollution. The code means Middle School, Earth and Space Science, core idea 3 (Earth and Human Activity), performance expectation 3.
Is MS-ESS3-3 an engineering standard?
Yes, in part. It is an Earth science performance expectation that uses the engineering practice of designing solutions, so it pairs well with MS-ETS1-1 and MS-ETS1-2. Students define criteria and constraints, design, test with data and improve.
Does MS-ESS3-3 have an assessment boundary?
No. NGSS lists no Assessment Boundary for MS-ESS3-3. The Clarification Statement gives examples of the design process and of impacts: water usage, land usage and pollution of the air, water or land.
What is the difference between monitoring and minimizing?
Monitoring means measuring an impact again and again over time, the same way each time. Minimizing means designing a change that makes the impact smaller. A complete design needs both: monitoring before the change gives a baseline, and monitoring after shows whether the change worked.
What is a good indicator for a human impact?
A good indicator is a measurement that changes when the impact changes and can be repeated the same way, such as particle counts on sticky cards, water level in a well, stream flow, litter counts or frog calls. Opinions and one-time observations are weak indicators.
Why do students need a comparison site?
A comparison site is a place the solution does not touch. If both sites change by the same amount, the change probably came from weather or season. If only the impact site changes, the solution is the likely cause.
What safe activities work for MS-ESS3-3?
Sticky card particle collectors, schoolyard surface temperature audits, faucet flow tests, litter counts and frog call surveys all use simple, safe tools. Students should stay away from traffic, avoid touching hot surfaces and work near water only with adult supervision.
What are examples of human impacts in MS-ESS3-3?
The Clarification Statement lists water usage (taking water from streams and aquifers, and building dams and levees), land usage (urban development, agriculture and removing wetlands) and pollution of the air, water or land.
How is MS-ESS3-3 assessed?
Students are usually asked to design or critique a plan. A strong answer names an indicator, a baseline, a comparison site and a schedule, links the solution to a scientific principle, and explains how the data will show whether the solution worked.
How does MS-ESS3-3 connect to high school?
It leads to HS-ESS3-4, where students evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces human impacts on natural systems, and to the high school engineering standards that weigh trade-offs among criteria.
07
Related Standards
5 standards
These standards connect to MS-ESS3-3: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
5-ESS3-1Prerequisite
Combine information on how communities use science to protect resources
Lesson coming soon
Alongside
MS-ETS1-1Parallel
Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem precisely
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