Science Task Prescreen
Task Title: Martian Sports: Investigating Newton’s Second Law
Grade: High School
Date: 2026-04-16
SEP: Analyzing and Interpreting Data
DCI: PS2.A: Forces and Motion
CCC: Cause and Effect
Task Purpose: To evaluate students’ ability to use a computational model (simulation) to gather evidence and support the claim that a net force (gravity) causes a proportional acceleration.
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 is grounded in the phenomenon of low-gravity sports on Mars, which inherently requires the use of the simulation to understand the novel kinematic behavior. Students cannot answer the calculation or synthesis questions without first gathering and analyzing data from the simulation (v_y, t, etc.). The task integrates the SEP (Analyzing Data) by requiring manual calculation of acceleration from simulation output, the DCI (PS2.A) by connecting force to motion changes, and the CCC (Cause and Effect) by identifying gravity as the cause of vertical acceleration while horizontal velocity remains constant in the absence of horizontal force.