MS-ESS3-3 lessons
Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment. (Students design and compare plans for a town's waste on paper; they do not test them.)
The Next Generation Science Standards code MS-ESS3-3 asks students to: “Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment. (Students design and compare plans for a town's waste on paper; they do not test them.)” These Fieldbook lesson teaches it hands-on, with everyday materials, a printable teacher guide and a student sheet.
Our Changing Planet: Resources and Human Impact Grades 5–8 · partly supports this standard
- How can a town use less and waste less? 50–60 min
Teams act as a town council with a waste problem. They rotate around four stations describing what real places did, from Ljubljana's food-waste collection to Kamikatsu's 45 sorting bins, score each against criteria and constraints, and design a plan with a way to measure whether it works.
NGSS is used as written in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wyoming, so the code MS-ESS3-3 matches there. Other states word and number their own versions: see curriculum alignment for your state's codes.
More NGSS standards for middle school
All standards we teach · Curriculum alignment by state and province
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