HS-ESS2-1

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Develop a model to illustrate how Earth’s internal and surface processes operate at different spatial and temporal scales to form continental and ocean-floor features.

Clarification statement: Emphasis is on how the appearance of land features (such as mountains, valleys, and plateaus) and sea-floor features (such as trenches, ridges, and seamounts) are a result of both constructive processes (such as volcanism, tectonic uplift, and deposition) and destructive processes (such as weathering, subduction, and coastal erosion).

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include recalling the details of the formation of specific geographic features of Earth’s surface.

Performance Level Descriptions

Every Regents exam question on HS-ESS2-1 is written to match one of the performance level descriptions (PLDs) below.

Level 1: Use a model to determine whether a continental or ocean-floor feature results from Earth's internal and/or surface process(es) (constructive and/or destructive) or to identify the distribution of rocks and/or minerals within Earth's crust.

Level 2: Use a model to identify Earth's internal and/or surface process(es) (constructive and/or destructive) that operate at different spatial or temporal scales to form continental and/or ocean-floor features or to identify an Earth surface or internal process that forms continental or oceanic floor features or to explain the distribution of rocks and/or minerals within Earth's crust.

Level 3: Use a model to explain how Earth's internal and/or surface processes (constructive and/or destructive) operate at different spatial or temporal scales to form continental and/or ocean-floor features or to explain the distribution of rocks and/or minerals within Earth's crust.

Level 4: Develop a model to illustrate how Earth's internal and surface processes operate at different spatial and temporal scales to form continental and ocean-floor features.

Level 5: Develop a complex model which allows for manipulation and testing that demonstrates the relationships between Earth's internal and surface processes responsible for the formation of continental and ocean-floor features across varying spatial and temporal scales.

Resources

Examples and discussion of resources for the learning, teaching, and assessment of HS-ESS2-1.

This section could be expanded upon. You can help out by adding to this section.

Regents Exam Questions

Released New York State Regents exam questions that assess HS-ESS2-1 are listed here by exam and question cluster. Each link opens the question with its answer key.

Exam	Cluster	Question
August 2026	Chesapeake Bay Impact Event	Question 7
	Canary Islands Hotspot	Question 10
	Canary Islands Hotspot	Question 11
	The Gulf	Question 35
June 2026	Iceland Hotspot	Question 2
	The Slow Carbon Cycle	Question 12
	The Influence of Volcanoes on Earth’s Systems	Question 24
	Lake Nyos	Question 35
	The Complex Tectonics of the Western Pacific	Question 38
	The Siberian Traps	Question 50
January 2026	Evolution of Early Earth Systems	Question 13
	Doggerland	Question 25
August 2025	Northern New York's Pyrites Complex	Question 27
	Northern New York's Pyrites Complex	Question 29
	New York State Fossils of Note	Question 42
	New York State Fossils of Note	Question 44
June 2025	The Origin of Our Solar System	Question 29
	Ghost Forests	Question 39
	Tectonics of Hawaiian Islands	Question 46
	Tectonics of Hawaiian Islands	Question 49
Sample clusters (Fall 2024)	Theia and the Moon	Question 1
	Theia and the Moon	Question 4
Sample clusters (Spring 2024)	Plate Tectonics	Question 1

NGSS Dimensions

Performance expectation HS-ESS2-1 was developed using the following elements from the NRC document A Framework for K-12 Science Education:

Science and Engineering Practices

• Developing and using models: Develop a model based on evidence to illustrate the relationships between systems or between components of a system.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

• Earth materials and systems: Earth’s systems, being dynamic and interacting, cause feedback effects that can increase or decrease the original changes.
• Plate tectonics and large-scale system interactions: Plate tectonics is the unifying theory that explains the past and current movements of the rocks at Earth’s surface and provides a framework for understanding its geologic history.
• Plate tectonics and large-scale system interactions: Plate movements are responsible for most continental and ocean-floor features and for the distribution of most rocks and minerals within Earth’s crust.

Crosscutting Concepts

• 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.

Page contributors: Conrad Richman, Caroline Leonard

Earth and Space Science | HS. History of the Earth