Use the science to investigate a real source, explain the evidence, and communicate a defensible conclusion. The guide supplies the actual reading, data, task, and chosen level before the unit begins.
| Strand | Required evidence |
|---|---|
| History, Reading, Writing | Use an approved source in context and a student-authored response. Separate the original evidence from later explanations; do not force a single-hero story. |
| Geography and ethics | Include location, social context, or ethical trade-offs where they genuinely support the scientific question. |
| Elective extensions | Choose additional depth in data, technology, economics, or art. Extensions do not replace the core work. |
| Quantitative science | Use the unit's mathematical lane at the agreed level. Supply units, denominators, and model conditions; required science is assessed as science. |
Integration is reported separately and cannot lower the science grade or block a science demonstration pass. Science and practical criteria determine that pass.
Use the same approved task in both formats. The web guide explains the source, data, assumptions, student work, and evidence checklist; this packet is its portable summary, not a different assignment.
Use the web guide's approved unit assignment.
| Unit | Astronomy big idea | Integration anchor |
|---|---|---|
| 01 The Sky & Celestial Motion | The daily and yearly sky reflects Earth's motions. | Compare pre-telescope sky-keeping, the Antikythera mechanism, and Polynesian wayfinding; identify their different instruments and observational knowledge. |
| 02 The History of Astronomy | Our model of the cosmos shifted from Earth-centered to Sun-centered as evidence outweighed authority. | Copernicus, Galileo, and the Church; pair with Galileo’s Starry Messenger — observation overturns fourteen centuries of authority. |
| 03 Light, Telescopes & Spectra | Nearly everything we know arrives as light, and a spectrum decodes it. | Fraunhofer’s dark lines and the birth of spectroscopy — read a stellar spectrum for its element fingerprints. |
| 04 The Solar System | The planets move on predictable orbits governed by gravity. | Kepler wringing three laws from Tycho Brahe’s data — the ellipse-and-period reasoning behind orbital law. |
| 05 The Sun & the Stars | Connect stellar models with fusion, neutron capture, and element origins. | Use the assigned NASA/DOE sources and stellar dataset; distinguish measured properties from inferred interior processes. |
| 06 Galaxies & the Milky Way | Stars gather into galaxies, and distant galaxies’ light is redshifted by cosmic expansion. | The “Great Debate” over the spiral nebulae; Slipher’s redshifts — who saw it first, who got the credit. |
| 07 Cosmology & the Big Bang | The universe expands from a hot, dense beginning, and the distance ladder measures it. | Henrietta Swan Leavitt and the cosmic distance ladder — Cepheid standard candles, the Harvard “computers,” the credit that went to Hubble. |
| 08 Space Exploration & Life in the Universe | We send instruments to other worlds and search the sky for signs of life. | From Sputnik and Apollo to the Voyager Golden Record and exoplanets — the cost, risk, and ethics of exploration. |
Use an approved Leavitt source and a supplied, calibrated Cepheid period-luminosity relation. Combine period with apparent brightness to estimate distance; state units, calibration, and extinction assumptions. Explain what the measurements support and how uncertainty affects the result, then discuss the history of the work and its attribution.
Math never drives a unit, but astronomy uses it constantly — always anchored to the observation or measurement under the sky. Here is the quantitative skill each unit actually uses, done inside the observing context rather than as a parallel curriculum.
| Unit | Applied math at the agreed level |
|---|---|
| 01 The Sky & Celestial Motion | Angular measure (degrees, arcminutes); altitude–azimuth coordinates; timing motion across the sky. |
| 02 The History of Astronomy | The geometry of retrograde motion; scale models and ratios; simple angular-parallax reasoning. |
| 03 Light, Telescopes & Spectra | The inverse-square law for brightness; wavelength–frequency conversion; reading peak position off a spectrum. |
| 04 The Solar System | Kepler’s third law (P² ∝ a³); ellipse geometry; ratio-and-proportion for orbital scale. |
| 05 The Sun & the Stars | H–R plotting, parallax and calibrated distances; assigned main-sequence lifetime and effective-temperature radius models, with stage and uncertainty limits. |
| 06 Galaxies & the Milky Way | Redshift ratios (Δλ/λ); Hubble’s law as a straight-line fit; reading slope off a velocity–distance graph. |
| 07 Cosmology & the Big Bang | The period-luminosity relation; logarithms and the distance modulus; the distance ladder, rung by rung. |
| 08 Space Exploration & Life in the Universe | Scientific notation, light-travel time, and transit data; the Drake equation combines rates, fractions, counts, and lifetime. Check dimensions and explore uncertain inputs rather than claiming a measured probability. |
Students do the period-luminosity ratio inside the cosmology unit, the magnitude logarithm inside the stars unit, Kepler’s law inside the solar-system unit. The number always means something because it is attached to a sky they measured — never a worksheet detached from the astronomy.
Integration is its own strand. Track each unit’s integration level across the year — Developing, Proficient, or Mastery — separate from the science-mastery rubric. Record the evidence reference and date in the final column.
| Unit | Developing | Proficient | Mastery | Evidence / date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 The Sky & Celestial Motion | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 02 The History of Astronomy | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 03 Light, Telescopes & Spectra | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 04 The Solar System | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 05 The Sun & the Stars | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 06 Galaxies & the Milky Way | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 07 Cosmology & the Big Bang | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 08 Space Exploration & Life | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
A student who walks through all eight anchors finishes understanding that astronomy is how humans learned to read the sky, and that every number on the page was once a discovery someone fought for — the version of the subject a student keeps.