OpenSciEd Unit 8.1 · Lesson 10 · 10.B
Baseball Assessment 1
Assessment guide
How to read student work on this assessment — standards alignment, what strong understanding looks like, and common gaps.
Learning progression
Early understanding
Questions 1-2: Students should show a decrease in ball speed attributed to the loss of energy due to air resistance.
Target understanding
Students apply the science ideas to explain multiple baseball phenomena, including the effects of air density and wind on ball speed (changes to the stability of the system and its effect on kinetic energy changes due t…
Standards alignment
Students apply the science ideas to explain multiple baseball phenomena, including the effects of air density and wind on ball speed (changes to the stability of the system and its effect on kinetic energy changes due to air resistance), bat mass vs.
What understanding looks like
Strong
- Questions 1-2: Students should show a decrease in ball speed attributed to the loss of energy due to air resistance. Students should justify this idea using free-body diagrams showing the relative strengths of air resistance due to wind speed.
- Question 3: Students should use ideas for investigations that utilize previous labs and analogies made in class.
- Questions 4-6: Students will plot points based upon data, then predict a data point based on the line of best fit.
- Question 7: Students should explain that an increase in bat mass would decrease swing speed due to the amount of energy needed to move a more-massive object.
- Questions 8-9: Students should reflect an understanding that speed increases at a greater rate when kinetic energy is doubled. A decrease in air resistance would increase the visible effects of this relationship.
- Question 10: Students should argue the warning on the bat supports the coach’s claim that it produces higher peak forces in a collision than other bats, but nothing on the warning provides information to support the claim that it deforms less in a collision.
Gaps
- Students may interpret this question from different viewpoints in which the ball could be in contact with air, which would have an affect on the speed of the ball. Any of the following viewpoints are acceptable if justified with explanations of peak force and/or energy increases to the system.
- It does not support the argument that it is due to less deformation. We do not have enough data to make this claim. (If students try to make this claim by referencing ideas from Lesson 3, that is appropriate at this time. This idea will be explored further in Lessons 11-12.)
- Accept any response related to an amount of deformation and time to spring back. Some students may also connect this to peak forces and energy transfer. Any of these connections are appropriate at this time in the lesson set as they foreground relationships that they will explore in the last lessons of the unit.
From Teacher Edition
View assessment opportunity →Facilitation guidance from the lesson plan — what to notice in student thinking and how to respond while teaching.
Building towards
10.B Students apply the science ideas to explain multiple baseball phenomena, including the effects of air density and wind on ball speed (changes to the stability of the system and its effect on kinetic energy changes due to air resistance), bat mass vs. bat speed (interpreting patterns in graphical and tabular data to determine the linear and nonlinear effects on increases of kinetic energy within the system), and bat type (the effect deformation has on peak forces in the system and kinetic energy) on how the game is played.
What to look / listen for
Questions 1-2
Students should show a decrease in ball speed attributed to the loss of energy due to air resistance. Students should justify this idea using free-body diagrams showing the relative strengths of air resistance due to wind speed.
Question 3
Students should use ideas for investigations that utilize previous labs and analogies made in class.
Questions 4-6
Students will plot points based upon data, then predict a data point based on the line of best fit.
Question 7
Students should explain that an increase in bat mass would decrease swing speed due to the amount of energy needed to move a more-massive object.
Questions 8-9
Students should reflect an understanding that speed increases at a greater rate when kinetic energy is doubled. A decrease in air resistance would increase the visible effects of this relationship.
Question 10
Students should argue the warning on the bat supports the coach’s claim that it produces higher peak forces in a collision than other bats, but nothing on the warning provides information to support the claim that it deforms less in a collision.
Questions 11-12
These answers are subjective to viewpoint; see Key 1: Baseball Assessment and Key 2: Baseball Assessment.
See Key 1
Baseball Assessment and Key 2: Baseball Assessment for a more-detailed assessment guidance by question.
What to do
If students need additional assistance on
questions regarding air resistance
If students are not showing air resistance as a force acting on the ball, revisit the question 1 wind speed graph with students and ask about the factors that could be affecting the ball during its flight. Compare the points on the graph and the axes labels to determine if energy is being lost to the air or gained from the air. Look back at Lessons 8 and 9 to view representations of how air resistance on the cart was modeled and consider how this can be applied to the current model.
questions regarding plotting points
Revisit Lesson 9 and compare the plotted points seen on those graphs with the current graph students are constructing. Look at how the points are plotted on the x- and y-axes, and guide students in plotting the first point together.
questions regarding the line of best fit and data identification: Revisit the second graph on Station 2 data cards and determine how the line of best fit was determined for each color on that graph. After establishing how the line of best fit is constructed, ask students to predict what the points would be at different speeds and fuel consumptions. Once students are more comfortable with finding potential data points based upon the line of best fit, have students again try to identify the data point in question 6.
questions regarding the mass-energy relationship
Look back at the data from the Lesson 9 cart and box model and the Lesson 7 investigation data and graph regarding the increases in mass and kinetic energy needed to speed the object up to the same point. If this is not enough, pull the student aside and have them push two objects of different masses and determine which item would require more energy to get to the same speed. Have students apply this knowledge to the bat mass and swing speed questions on the assessment.
questions regarding increases in mass vs. increases in speed: Revisit the data from Lesson 7 on Changes in Kinetic Energy: Investigations #1 & 2 and Graphing Kinetic Energy Relationships to compare the relationships seen in the Lesson 7 data and the data on the assessment.
Materials
Last updated from official OpenSciEd on 6/5/2026
Student handout
8.1 Lesson 10 Assessment Baseball Assessment 1.docx
Google Form
Digitized — add an editable copy to your Google Forms
Teacher guide
8.1 Lesson 10 Teacher Edition.docx
Answer key (recommended)
8.1 Lesson 10 Answer Key Key 1 Baseball.docx