HS-ESS3-3 | Resource Management and Sustainability
Create a computational simulation to illustrate the relationships among management of natural resources, the sustainability of human populations, and biodiversity.
Clarification statement: Examples of factors that affect the management of natural resources include costs of resource extraction and waste management, per-capita consumption, and the development of new technologies. Examples of factors that affect human sustainability include agricultural efficiency, levels of conservation, and urban planning.
Assessment boundary: Assessment for computational simulations is limited to using provided multi-parameter programs or constructing simplified spreadsheet calculations.
Assessment
What assessment of HS-ESS3-3 might look like on a NY state exam.
Performance Level Descriptions
PLDs communicate the knowledge and skills expected of students to demonstrate proficiency in each Learning Standard. NYS assessments classify student performance into one of five levels.
Vocabulary
Terms from the Earth & Space Science Glossary that come from this standard or from the released exam questions that assess it.
- agricultural efficiency
- biodiversity
- computational simulation
- conservation
- Earth
- human impacts
- model
- natural resources
- new technologies
- per-capita consumption
- resource extraction
- resource management
- sustainability
- urban planning
- waste management
- atmosphere – June 2026, June 2025
- barrier island – Aug 2026
- bioaccumulation – Jan 2026
- brine – June 2025
- carbon dioxide – June 2025
- climate change – June 2026, June 2025
- coal – June 2025
- deforestation – June 2025
- dunes – Aug 2026
- Earth’s surface – June 2026
- emissions – June 2025
- energy flow – June 2026
- erosion – Aug 2026
- evaporation – June 2025
- food chain – Jan 2026
- fossil fuel reserves – June 2025
- fossil fuels – June 2025
- fresh water – Aug 2026
- geothermal energy – June 2026
- greenhouse gas emissions – June 2025
- greenhouse gases – June 2025
- hurricanes – Aug 2026
- irrigation – Aug 2026
- kiln – June 2025
- lithosphere – June 2026
- mass – Jan 2026
- microplastics – Jan 2026
- minerals – June 2026
- mining – June 2025
- mitigate – Aug 2026, June 2026
- natural gas – June 2025
- ocean – Jan 2026
- open pit mine – June 2025
- peninsula – Aug 2026
- population growth – June 2025
- precipitation – June 2025
- river – Aug 2026
- saline aquifer – June 2025
- solar energy – June 2025
- solar evaporation ponds – June 2025
- storm surge – Aug 2026
- volcanic activity – June 2026
- volcano – June 2026
- wetland loss – June 2025
- wetlands – June 2025
Resources
Examples and discussion of resources for the learning, teaching, and assessment of HS-ESS3-3.
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NGSS Dimensions
Performance expectation HS-ESS3-3 was developed using the following elements from the NRC document A Framework for K-12 Science Education:
- Using mathematics and computational thinking: Create a computational model or simulation of a phenomenon, designed device, process, or system.
- Human impacts on Earth systems: The sustainability of human societies and the biodiversity that supports them requires responsible management of natural resources.
- Stability and change: Change and rates of change can be quantified and modeled over very short or very long periods of time. Some system changes are irreversible.
- Influence of Engineering, Technology, and Science on Society and the Natural World: Modern civilization depends on major technological systems.
- Influence of Engineering, Technology, and Science on Society and the Natural World: New technologies can have deep impacts on society and the environment, including some that were not anticipated.
- Science is a Human Endeavor: Scientific knowledge is a result of human endeavors, imagination, and creativity.