Look for: The air higher in the atmosphere is much cold…

3.B Develop a model to show the relationship between the motion of the molecules that make up air and the energy of those molecules to explain the patterns of change in air temperature at various altitudes.

When analyzing students’ thinking and the evidence they use to support it in the Progress Tracker, look for the following ideas:

• The air higher in the atmosphere is much colder than the air near the ground.
• When the temperature of the air increases, the speed of the molecules that make up air increases, and when the temperature of the air decreases, the speed of the molecules that make up air decreases.
• The molecules that make up air at higher altitudes move slower and are closer together than air at lower altitudes closer to the ground.

Use students’ Progress Tracker to formatively assess (1) their understanding of the relationship between temperature and kinetic energy of particles of matter and (2) their ability to apply this understanding to develop a model that represents the differences in temperature (thermal energy) of the air at different altitudes. Students’ responses should not be graded; rather, use what you learn to inform next steps for moving their thinking forward. Examples include:

documenting your feedback in students’ notebooks, such as additional probing questions, suggestions for improvement, or a request for additional evidence or reasoning;

revisiting, reteaching, or reinforcing ideas from the lesson to help students fill in gaps in their learning;

using examples of actual student work to prompt discussion about what we have and haven’t figured out up to this point in the unit; and asking additional questions at the beginning of Lesson 4 to probe students’ thinking and help students make connections and build understandings.