Pre-Assessment

Name______________________________________ Date____________ Period____________

Two students, Logan and Taylor, are in a biology class discussing what they think causes
heart disease.
Taylor: Eating unhealthy foods causes heart disease because too much salt in the diet
causes high blood pressure which will eventually lead to cardiovascular disease and thus
a heart attack.
Logan: I think eating unhealthy food causes heart disease because high density
cholesterol molecules build up in your arteries which causes high blood pressure and is
what leads to heart attack.

Who is right? __________________________________________________________________

Explain your choice, using appropriate evidence and reasoning to justify your answer. If you
think neither are correct, provide an alternative explanation of what you think causes heart
disease and why.
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Pre-Assessment Answer Key

BOTH Logan and Taylors responses are correct. See below.
Student 1 Response (correct):
Logan is correct because low density cholesterol molecules (LDL) collect along the
endothelial lining of arteries by attaching to plaque molecules. This buildup creates blockages
which makes it harder for the heart to pump blood which results in a need for higher blood
pressure.
Student 2 Response (Correct):
Taylor is correct because an increase in salt consumption means that your body retains
more water. This increase in water makes it more difficult for the heart to pump blood through
the arteries, resulting in higher blood pressure.
Student 3 Response (partially correct, wrong justification):
Taylor is correct because an increase in salt results in the body retaining water. Because
there is more water in the body, it is absorbed into red blood cells in a process called osmosis.
Too much water in the cell will cause it to lyse (break open and die). The lack of red blood cells
to carry oxygen means that the heart has to work harder to properly oxygenate the body. This
results in high blood pressure.

Lesson standard:
SC.912.L.14.36 Describe the factors affecting blood flow through the cardiovascular
system.
In order to fulfill the standard above, our lesson will be dealing with the effects of diet
on heart health. Our pre-assessment seeks to identify what the students already know
about the factors involved in heart health, specifically how salt and cholesterol impact blood
pressure. Heart disease is complicated and many dietary components result in the same
outcomes for different reasons; thus, both Taylor and Logan from the assessment are
correct in their explanations of what can lead to heart disease. We would like to know if
students are knowledgeable about the topic and can identify and explain why either or both
students are correct, but students may also choose to provide a different explanation as to
why unhealthy foods lead to heart disease (which may or may not be incorrect!). By
justifying their responses, we will hopefully be able to identify any alternative conceptions
students might have (such as the explanation given for the partially correct response).
Science Practices:
In order to answer the main question on the pre-assessment, students will be
engaging in two science practices simultaneously: engaging in an argument from evidence
and constructing an explanation. The first is met by students using prior knowledge to
discuss the relationship between cardiovascular disease and unhealthy foods. Their
justification from evidence is either Logan or Taylor explanation, and the reasoning piece
comes from what they already know in the case of the pre-assessment, or what we hope
they will have learned in the case of the post-assessment. Both the science practices are
also met by presenting the evidence in a concise argument in support of or against Taylor
and Logans own explanations.