HS-ESS3-1 | Natural Resources, Hazards, and Human Activity
Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
Clarification statement: Examples of key natural resources include access to fresh water (such as rivers, lakes, and groundwater), regions of fertile soils such as river deltas, and high concentrations of minerals and fossil fuels. Examples of natural hazards can be from interior processes (such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes), surface processes (such as tsunamis, mass wasting and soil erosion), and severe weather (such as blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and droughts). Examples of the results of changes in climate that can affect populations or drive mass migrations include changes to sea level, regional patterns of temperature and precipitation, and the types of crops and livestock that can be raised.
Reference Tables
Relevant reference tables:
Assessment
What assessment of HS-ESS3-1 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.
- blizzards
- delta
- droughts
- earthquakes
- fertile soils
- floods
- fossil fuels
- fresh water
- groundwater
- human activity
- hurricanes
- interior processes
- lakes
- livestock
- mass migrations
- mass wasting
- migration
- minerals
- mitigate
- model
- natural hazards
- natural resources
- peer review
- precipitation
- river
- sea level
- severe weather
- soil
- soil erosion
- surface processes
- tornadoes
- tsunamis
- volcanic eruptions
- air quality – June 2026
- aquifer – Aug 2025
- atmosphere – June 2026, June 2025
- auto exhaust – Sample 2024
- basin – Aug 2026
- brackish water – June 2025
- carbon dioxide – June 2026, June 2025
- climate change – Aug 2026, June 2025
- coal – Jan 2026
- coastal flooding – Aug 2026
- dams – Aug 2025
- dissolved oxygen – Aug 2025
- drinking water – June 2025
- early warning system – June 2026
- Earth – Jan 2026
- earthquake swarm – Aug 2026
- emissions – Sample 2024
- erosion – Jan 2026
- gravity – Jan 2026
- greenhouse gases – Sample 2024
- habitats – Aug 2025
- hazard map – June 2026
- heat wave – Aug 2026
- heating and cooling degree days – Aug 2026
- high tide – June 2025
- hydroelectric energy – Sample 2024
- ice – June 2026
- irrigation – Aug 2026
- kiln – June 2026
- landslides – Jan 2026
- lava – Aug 2026
- lava flows – Aug 2026
- magma – June 2026
- mountain – June 2026
- natural disaster – Aug 2026
- natural gas – Jan 2026
- non-renewable resource – Sample 2024
- nuclear energy – Sample 2024
- ocean – Aug 2026, June 2026, Aug 2025
- over-pumping – Aug 2025
- pyroclastic flow – June 2026
- recycling – Jan 2026
- renewable resource – Sample 2024
- river valley – June 2026
- salinity – June 2025
- salt front – June 2025
- salt marsh – June 2025
- sea ice – Aug 2026
- snowpack – Aug 2026
- solar energy – Jan 2026
- volcano – Aug 2026, June 2026
- water quality – Aug 2025
- water table – Aug 2025, June 2025
- weathering – Jan 2026
- wildfire – Aug 2026, June 2025
NGSS Dimensions
Performance expectation HS-ESS3-1 was developed using the following elements from the NRC document A Framework for K-12 Science Education:
- Constructing explanations and designing solutions: Construct an explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from a variety of sources (including students’ own investigations, models, theories, simulations, peer review) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
- Natural resources: Resource availability has guided the development of human society.
- Natural hazards: Natural hazards and other geologic events have shaped the course of human history; [they] have significantly altered the sizes of human populations and have driven human migrations.
- Cause and effect: Empirical evidence is required to differentiate between cause and correlation and make claims about specific causes and effects.
- Influence of Engineering, Technology, and Science on Society and the Natural World: Modern civilization depends on major technological systems.