HS-ESS2-1 | Earth's Surface Processes

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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.

Reference Tables

Relevant reference tables:


Assessment

What assessment of HS-ESS2-1 might look like on a NY state exam.

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

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.

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.

Vocabulary

Terms from the Earth & Space Science Glossary that come from this standard or from the released exam questions that assess it.

From this standard
  • coastal erosion
  • constructive processes
  • continental features
  • crust
  • deposition
  • destructive processes
  • Earth
  • Earth materials
  • Earth’s surface
  • Earth’s systems
  • erosion
  • feedback
  • geologic history
  • internal and surface processes
  • land features
  • minerals
  • model
  • mountain
  • ocean
  • ocean-floor features
  • plate movements
  • plate tectonics
  • plateaus
  • ridges
  • sea-floor features
  • seamounts
  • spatial scales
  • subduction
  • surface processes
  • tectonic uplift
  • temporal scales
  • trenches
  • unifying theory
  • valleys
  • volcanism
  • weathering
From released exam questions

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
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