Science Task Prescreen
Task Title: Balancing the Global Carbon Budget: Modeling Human Impacts
Grade: High School
Date: 2026-04-21
SEP: Developing and Using Models
DCI: ESS2.D: Weather and Climate
CCC: Energy and Matter
Task Purpose: Determine whether students can use a quantitative box model to represent carbon cycling and evaluate mitigation scenarios.
Instructions
- Before you begin: Complete the task as a student would. Then, consider any support materials provided to teachers or students, such as contextual information about the task and answer keys/rubrics.
- Prescreen: Answer the following high-level questions to identify any major red flags (🚩) in your task. If you find one or more red flags, consider the purpose of the task and the evidence gathered to determine whether the task warrants a deeper dive.
Prescreen Questionnaire
| Question | Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Is there a phenomenon or problem driving the task? | [x] | [ ] 🚩 |
| 2. Can the majority of the task be answered without using information provided by the task scenario? | [ ] 🚩 | [x] |
| 3. Can significant portions of the task be answered successfully by rote knowledge? | [ ] 🚩 | [x] |
| 4. Does the task require students to use reasoning to successfully complete the task? | [x] | [ ] 🚩 |
| 5. Does the task require students to use disciplinary core ideas? | [x] | [ ] 🚩 |
| 6. Do students have to use at least one science and engineering practice? | [x] | [ ] 🚩 |
| 7. Are the dimensions assessed separately in the majority of the task? | [ ] 🚩 | [x] |
| 8. Is the task coherent and comprehensible from the student perspective? | [x] | [ ] 🚩 |
Recommendation
- Warrants further review.
- Should not be used.
Summary
Students manipulate emissions and large-scale interventions, collect quantitative pool values and flux approximations, and use models to justify mitigation strategies. The task targets HS-ESS2-6 and includes explicit prompts for model interpretation and limitations.