Science Assessment ~ Ideas ~ There are similarities and differences between organisms living today, and between organisms living today and those that lived in the past, both within the same species and between species.

Key Idea: Environmental conditions have changed in the past and continue to change today.

Sub-Ideas
Items & Student Performance
Misconceptions
NGSS

Students are expected to know:

Environmental conditions on earth (such as temperature and amount of rainfall) fluctuate over time, and have changed throughout the history of the earth.
Environmental changes can occur abruptly (such as changes caused by volcanic eruptions, asteroids striking the earth, or a new organism entering an ecosystem), or gradually (such as changes caused by the movement of continents, erosion, or sedimentation).
Over long periods of time, small changes in environmental conditions can add up, resulting in large overall changes in environmental conditions. Examples of this include changes in temperature, precipitation, and concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. This can lead to significant changes in the environment such as a rise in sea level, a decrease in the size of glaciers, and expansion of deserts.

Boundaries:

In writing test items, changes in environmental conditions may include changes in the physical environment (climate, geography), or conditions in the living community (which species are present and how many of each species are present), but students will not be tested on whether they know that the term “environmental conditions” includes both living and non-living factors.

Percent of students answering correctly (click on the item ID number to view the item and additional data)
Item ID Number	Knowledge Being Assessed	Grades 6–8	Grades 9–12
EN018002	The environmental conditions on earth changed in the past, and they are changing now.	66%	77%
EN019002	Changes to the physical environment of earth can happen suddenly or gradually.	65%	69%
EN017002	Conditions have changed in significant ways everywhere on earth, with some of these changes happening suddenly and others more gradually.	62%	69%
EN020002	Many changes to the physical environment have happened from the time that earth was formed until the present day.	43%	50%

Frequency of selecting a misconception
Misconception ID Number	Student Misconception	Grades 6–8	Grades 9–12
ENM027	Except for a few major changes due to large volcanoes that have erupted or meteorites that have struck the earth, environmental conditions have stayed the same throughout the history of the earth (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).	14%	12%
ENM026	Except for minor fluctuations from year to year, environmental conditions have stayed the same throughout the history of the earth (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).	13%	11%
ENM044	Since the time life began, conditions have remained the same in the oceans but have changed on land (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).	12%	7%
ENM050	Environmental conditions did not change in the past, but they are changing now (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).	11%	7%
ENM043	Environmental conditions have changed in the past, but are no longer changing (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).	8%	6%
ENM025	There have been no changes to the physical environment of the earth since life began (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).	5%	3%

Frequency of selecting a misconception was calculated by dividing the total number of times a misconception was chosen by the number of times it could have been chosen, averaged over the number of students answering the questions within this particular idea.

NGSS Statements
Code	Statement
ESS2.A MS	The planet's systems interact over scales that range from microscopic to global in size, and they operate over fractions of a second to billions of years. These interactions have shaped Earth's history and will determine its future.