Code Creators

Grade
4
Duration
Instructional Model
Performance based learning and assessment

Phenomenon:

Imagined
How can information be tranferred between people in different places?

Summary:

Students engage in a hands-on inquiry to learn Morse Code and apply it to transfer messages across a room without speaking. They write questions about Morse Code, research its function and methods, plan and conduct communication trials, and analyze accuracy. This task emphasizes communication systems, encoding information, and collaborative problem solving, involving practices such as asking questions, planning investigations, and analyzing data to understand and improve information transfer methods.
  • Physical Sciences
Student Activities
  • Generating scientific questions
  • Gathering information
  • Designing solutions
  • Carrying out investigations
Key Materials Needed:
  • Physical manipulatives

What will this task address?

Science and Engineering Practices

  • Asking Questions and Defining Problems
  • Planning and Carrying out Investigations
  • Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

Disciplinary Core Ideas

  • PS4.C: Waves and Their Applications in Technology for Information Transfer - Information Technologies and Instrumentation

Crosscutting Concepts

  • Patterns

Performance Expectations

  • 4-PS4-3

Task Features

Accessibility

Agency

Communication

Metacognition

Highlights:
  • Includes scoring guidance
  • Includes student work samples
  • Collaborative
  • Evidence-based
  • Designed with teachers

Task Documents

About the Task Design

New Hampshire developed these tasks for use within PACE's federally approved local-and-common assessment system, which delivered cross-district comparability without centralized testing. They serve as models for how performance tasks function inside a competency-based systems, and can be used by teachers as end-of-instruction tasks that engage students in demonstrating science understanding through active engagement with some key SEPs.

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