Science Task Prescreen
Task Title: Volcanic Eruptions and Global Cooling: The 1816 Year Without a Summer
Grade: High School
Date: 2025-01-01
SEP: Analyzing and Interpreting Data; Constructing Explanations for Earth and Space Science
DCI: ESS2.D: Weather and Climate — variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems result in changes in climate
CCC: Cause and Effect; Energy and Matter
Task Purpose: To assess students’ ability to use a computational model to construct an evidence-based explanation for how volcanic stratospheric aerosols alter Earth’s energy balance and produce multi-year global temperature anomalies, targeting HS-ESS2-4.
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 using rote knowledge (e.g., definitions, prescriptive or memorized procedure)? | [ ] 🚩 | [x] |
| 4. Does the majority of the task require students to use reasoning to successfully complete the task? | [x] | [ ] 🚩 |
| 5. Does the task require students to use some understanding of disciplinary core ideas to successfully complete the task? | [x] | [ ] 🚩 |
| 6. Do students have to use at least one science and engineering practice to successfully complete the task? | [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
Based on your assessment needs and the task purpose recorded above, make a recommendation about this task moving forward (choose one):
- [x] Warrants further review.
- [ ] Should not be used.
Summary
Summarize your evidence and reasoning:
The task anchors in the historically documented 1816 ‘Year Without a Summer’ caused by the Mount Tambora eruption — a specific, globally significant phenomenon directly accessible through the interactive simulation. Students must use the simulation’s aerosol, albedo, radiation, and temperature outputs (not rote recall) to reason about causal mechanisms. All three dimensions are required and integrated throughout. No red flags identified. Recommend full screener review.