HS-ESS3-1: How Resources, Hazards and Climate Shape Human Activity
Also called NGSS HS-ESS3-1 · Topic: Human Sustainability · Earth and Space Science
The Official Wording
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 hurricanes, 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.
NGSS Lead States, 2013 · Read it on nextgenscience.org · checked October 15, 2026
What HS-ESS3-1 Means in Plain English
Students build an evidence-based explanation of how Earth has steered human history: why towns grew beside rivers and fertile deltas, why people mine where ores and fuels are concentrated, and why droughts, floods, earthquakes or shifting climate have pushed whole populations to move.
The explanation must rest on evidence such as maps, rainfall records, population counts and historical accounts, not on general claims. NGSS sets no extra limit, so any well-documented case works. It builds on MS-ESS3-1 and MS-ESS3-2 and prepares students to weigh resource choices in HS-ESS3-2.
HS-ESS3-1 I Can Statements
- I can explain why early cities grew near rivers and fertile soil.
- I can use evidence to link a natural hazard to human choices.
- I can explain how a change in climate made people move.
HS-ESS3-1 Worked Example
A document-based case a class can work through on the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
Why did so many families leave the Great Plains in the 1930s?
Set It Up: Printed rainfall records for the 1930s, a map of the dust storm region, Farm Security Administration photographs and a short account of how the prairie was plowed.
- Read the rainfall records year by year and mark the dry years.Several years well below normal
- Read how settlers plowed up native grassland in the 1910s and 1920s to plant wheat.Deep-rooted grass replaced by bare fields
- Study the photographs and the storm map.Dust buries fences, crops fail
- Track where families went and why.Families head west, many to California
- Write a claim and tie each piece of evidence to it.Claim, evidence, reasoning chart
Drought on land stripped of its grass turned soil into blowing dust, crops failed, and families left to find work elsewhere.
Why it works: Grass roots hold soil in place, so when drought hit plowed land the wind carried the topsoil away and the land could no longer support farming.
Common Mistakes with HS-ESS3-1
One cause only
“The Dust Bowl happened because it stopped raining.”
Try this: Look for several linked causes, such as drought plus plowed grassland, and show how each piece of evidence supports the chain.
Claims without evidence
“People always live near water.”
Try this: Back each claim with something specific, such as a map, a rainfall record or a population count, and say how it supports the claim.
Nature decides everything
Saying people had no choices once the drought began
Try this: Include human decisions too, like farming methods, building codes or dams, because they can soften or worsen what a hazard does to people.
Where HS-ESS3-1 Fits
Practice HS-ESS3-1
Quick Check
- Why were so many early civilizations founded along rivers?
- How did plowing the prairie make the 1930s drought worse?
- Give one way a rising sea level could change where people live.