PublicSensors

NGSS Resources

PublicSensors website activities provide instructions for how students and builders can create their own simple sensors to study the world around them. These activities can be implemented in a variety of subject classes and help support various NGSS alignment based on class goals.  Below are suggested Next Generation Science Standards that can be aligned with PublicSensors activities depending on the STEM course they are used in.   

Curriculum alignment to Next Generation Science Standards

Grade

Physical Science

Earth and Space Science

Engineering and Technology

4th grade

4-PS3-2: Evidence that energy can be converted from one form to another.
4-PS3-4: Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.
4-PS4-3: Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information.

4-ESS3-1: Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and that their uses affect the environment.

Connections to 3-5-ETS1.A: Defining and Delimiting Engineering Problems include: Fourth Grade: 4-PS3-4 
Connections to 3-5-ETS1.B: Designing Solutions to Engineering Problems include: Fourth Grade: 4-ESS3-2 
Connections to 3-5-ETS1.C: Optimizing the Design Solution include: Fourth Grade: 4-PS4-3 Articulation of DCIs across grad

5th grade

5-ESS2-1: Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.
5-ESS3-1: Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.

3-5-ETS1-1: Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
3-5-ETS1-2: Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem. 3-5-ETS1-3: Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.

Middle School

MS-PS3-3: Apply scientific principles to design, construct, and test a device that either minimizes or maximizes thermal energy transfer.
MS-PS3-4: Plan an investigation to determine the relationships among the energy transferred, the type of matter, the mass, and the change in the average kinetic energy of the particles as measured by the temperature of the sample.
MS-PS4-3: Integrate qualitative scientific and technical information to support the claim that digitized signals are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than analog signals.

MS-ESS2-6: Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.
MS-ESS3-3: Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
MS-ESS3-5: Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

MS-ETS1-1: Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions. 
MS-ETS1-4: Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.

High School

HS-PS4-5: Communicate technical information about how some technological devices use the principles of wave behavior and wave interactions with matter to transmit and capture information and energy

HS-ESS2-2: Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems. 
HS-ESS2-4: Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems result in changes in climate. 
HS-ESS3-5: Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth’s systems.

HS-ETS1-2: Design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering.