ATLAS (Authentic Tasks for Learning and Assessment in Science) is California's statewide, openly accessible library of vetted science performance tasks aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards. Launched in January 2026 by the Los Angeles County Office of Education with support from the California Department of Education and the State Board of Education, ATLAS provides every science educator in the state with high-quality, curriculum-embedded performance tasks at no cost.
A Statewide Assessment Resource
ATLAS is the foundation of California's CAST Innovation Concept for Performance Tasks Embedded in Learning (PTELS). Funded through Senate Bill 153, the library was developed in partnership with Digital Promise, Education First, and the CA NGSS Collaborative. It represents a major advancement in providing NGSS-aligned, instructionally relevant assessment resources to educators across the state.
Designed With and For Educators
ATLAS was built using a user-centered design process grounded in direct educator input. California educators across regions, grade levels, and student populations participated through focus groups, usability testing, and Educator Review Panels. Their insights shaped task clarity, search functionality, filtering options, and accessibility features throughout the platform.
Diverse Tasks for Diverse Classrooms
The library includes tasks ranging from 15-minute activities to multi-day investigations, across all K-12 science domains. Tasks ask students to conduct investigations, create storyboards, design solutions, and communicate their thinking in multiple ways. This diversity ensures every teacher can find resources that meet their students' needs and spark engagement.
More Than a Task Bank
ATLAS includes robust features beyond task search: natural language search, detailed task information pages, the ability to copy and adapt materials, teacher feedback and ratings, task collections, PLC group features, and resource pages with guidance on teaching with performance tasks. Logged-in educators can save favorites and share with colleagues.
How Might Teachers Use ATLAS to Support Science Teaching?
ATLAS is designed to save teachers time while deepening the quality of science instruction. Whether you are looking for a quick formative check or a multi-day engineering challenge, the platform provides the tools to find, adapt, and share performance tasks that work for your students.
Find the Right Task
Use natural language search to describe the task you need. Filter by grade band, science domain, SEP, CCC, duration, and task features. ATLAS returns relevance-ranked results so you can quickly identify tasks that match your instructional goals.
Adapt for Your Students
Copy task materials directly to your Google Drive with one click. Edit and differentiate for your specific student population, including multilingual learners and students with diverse needs, without losing the rigor of the original task design.
Assess Three-Dimensional Learning
Move beyond recall-based testing. ATLAS tasks are designed to capture evidence of students integrating disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts in authentic contexts tied to real phenomena.
Learn from Fellow Educators
Read feedback and implementation tips from teachers who have used the tasks. Create a free account to rate tasks, share your own experience, and help the ATLAS community grow. Join groups to collaborate with colleagues in your PLC.
Build Your Assessment Library
Save collections of tasks organized by unit, grade, or instructional purpose. Use ATLAS as a growing professional resource that supports your long-term planning and science assessment practice throughout the year.
Grow Your Practice
Access resource pages with guidance on teaching with performance tasks, using formative assessment data, and incorporating science discourse structures. ATLAS supports continuous professional growth alongside student learning.
"This tool really is a game changer for bringing high-quality science performance tasks into the classroom. It saves time searching and the ability to edit the tasks for my students is fantastic."
California educator and ATLAS beta tester
How Did UCSD-SP Partner to Develop Performance Tasks for ATLAS?
The UC San Diego Science Project at UC San Diego CREATE partnered with the San Diego County Office of Education and multiple UCSD research programs to contribute performance tasks to the ATLAS library. This work leveraged existing UCSD-SP curriculum projects and engaged experienced teacher leaders as co-designers throughout the development process.
UCSD-SP was selected as a task development partner for ATLAS based on our expertise in performance task design, our collaborative work with teacher leaders, and the strength of our existing NGSS-aligned curriculum projects. Our contribution includes both short performance tasks (10-20 minutes each) and extended performance tasks that span multiple class sessions.
Each task was developed through a co-design process with 12 experienced teacher leaders recruited from existing UCSD-SP and SDCOE professional learning networks. Teachers served not as reviewers of finished products, but as co-designers who brought classroom expertise to every stage of task development. John Spiegel at SDCOE facilitated professional learning for the co-design cohort, grounding the work in the CA NGSS Toolkit for Student-Centered Assessment.
Tasks were built on foundations from four UCSD-SP curriculum projects, each connected to ongoing research partnerships at UC San Diego. This ensured that tasks reflect authentic scientific practices and current research while remaining grounded in the realities of California classrooms.
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San Diego Science Project UC San Diego CREATE |
SDCOE San Diego County Office of Education |
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Listening to Waves NSF-funded program |
SoCal Heat Hub Scripps Oceanography, UCSD |
Five-Phase Development Cycle
1. August 2024: Foundation Building and Partnership
Strategic planning with SDCOE, teacher recruitment from UCSD-SP networks, defining technical requirements with ATLAS Service Area 3.
2. September 2024: Professional Learning and Launch
Task design principles, equity-centered practices, assessment toolkit protocols. Formation of collaborative design teams around curriculum focus areas.
3. September - October 2024: Collaborative Design and Development
Iterative design cycles with biweekly check-ins, peer feedback, and ongoing coaching from project leadership.
4. October - November 2024: Quality Assurance and Review
Educator Review Panel evaluation, ATLAS Service Area 3 feedback, and student piloting where feasible to gather evidence of engagement and accessibility.
5. November - December 2024: Revision, Finalization, and Submission
Multi-source revision cycles, rubric development, teacher guide creation, and final submission to the ATLAS platform.
How Did UCSD-SP Develop Tasks in Collaboration with UCSD Science Researchers?
Every extended performance task draws on active UCSD research programs, connecting students to authentic scientific practices and real phenomena studied by university researchers. This partnership ensures tasks reflect current science while remaining accessible and meaningful for diverse learners across California.
Four Curriculum Foundations
Each task draws from an existing UCSD-SP curriculum project developed through ongoing university-school partnerships. These projects connect classroom science to active research at UC San Diego, providing students with authentic phenomena and data grounded in real scientific investigation.
MFLOW
- Music and coding integration connecting physics of sound to creative design through an interactive application developed with the Listening to Waves program.
- Grades 4-8
Science of Sound and Music
- Physics of sound exploration connecting wave properties to musical phenomena, developed through the NSF-funded Listening to Waves research program
- Grades 6-8
Cooler Communities
- Climate education and community action developed in partnership with the SoCal Heat Hub at Scripps Oceanography, UC San Diego.
- Grade 5+
Problem Solving Like An Expert (PSLAE)
- Engineering design challenges that position students as problem solvers tackling real-world design constraints with scientific reasoning.
- High School
Iterative, Equity-Centered Quality Assurance
UCSD-SP developed Science Performance Task Design Principles to guide the development of every task. These seven principles ensure that tasks are not only rigorous and three-dimensional, but also equitable, instructionally useful, and educative for teachers. Equity is embedded structurally throughout task design, not treated as an add-on.
Multiple feedback loops ensured that tasks met the standards of both the research community and practicing classroom teachers. An Educator Review Panel of approximately 45 California educators provided external feedback that strengthened task structure, particularly around educative teacher supports and instructional usefulness.
- Teacher Co-Design 12 experienced teacher leaders served as co-designers, contributing classroom expertise at every development stage.
- Peer Feedback Protocols Structured peer review within and across design teams during development, with biweekly collaborative problem-solving sessions.
- Educator Review Panel Approximately 45 California educators representing diverse regions and student populations reviewed task drafts and design principles.
- ATLAS Service Area 3 Review Two rounds of external feedback on platform alignment and quality criteria before final submission.
- Student Piloting Classroom testing with students collected evidence of engagement, accessibility, and learning outcomes to inform task revisions.