Everything you need to run the course.
A course pack is more than a syllabus. It contains the full set of materials a guide, parent, or micro-school operator uses to teach Earth Science well. Print the checklists, lean on the rubrics to keep the bar consistent, and never let a student near a specimen, a stream table, or dilute acid without running the safety list first.
Student lessons, datasets, and worked answers
Each existing unit now includes assigned reading sections, teaching explanations, supplied data, foundation/core/honors tasks, checked answers, and a transfer question. Choose the level before instruction. Use the web unit for student lessons and the separate printable packet for assessment.
- Unit 01: Measure relative plate motion and test a seismic location model
- Unit 02: Use density, independent properties and rock proportions as evidence
- Unit 03: Quantify landscape gradient, sediment transport and soil horizons
- Unit 04: Connect isotope fractions, logarithmic ages and ordered events
- Unit 05: Calculate pressure gradients, relative humidity and dew-point limits
- Unit 06: Separate observed CO2, temperature anomalies and proxy-based inference
- Unit 07: Distinguish freshwater storage, discharge, salt balance and heat transport
- Unit 08: Apply orbital scaling and explain seasons with bounded geometry
Each dataset declares whether it contains observed, rounded reference, reconstructed, or synthetic information; check its source and limitations. Complete the practical observation requirements with approved supervision or stated alternatives; the learning pages do not certify laboratory safety or course credit.
For the student
Retrieval, spaced practice, and the non-negotiable habit of working problems by hand rather than rereading worked examples.
A one-page planner that schedules retrieval and daily problem sets around the two-day Concept Day / Experiment Day rhythm.
Goggles, gloves, fume hood, and SDS: the safety, setup, and readiness list every student runs before an Experiment Day.
How to structure a earth science entry — data tables with units and significant figures, calculations, and error analysis. The artifact students defend all year.
For the guide & parent
A no-sign-up walk through a real week of Earth’s Structure & Plate Tectonics, a rubric, a notebook page, and a demonstration — the actual materials in this pack.
A plain-language walkthrough for students and parents: the rhythm, the three demonstrations, and how mastery works.
Running more than one cohort: pacing, shared lab days, specimen-kit prep, and keeping mineral-ID defenses manageable.
Hand lenses, streak plates, hardness kits, dilute acid, stream tables, maps, and safety gear — what to buy and roughly what it costs.
All print-ready packets are arranged in binder order, ready to print for a three-ring binder.
Reference
The vocabulary, symbols, and units that unlock the whole course — from streak and hardness to strata and half-life.
Common misconceptions (that the seasons come from distance to the Sun, that continents sit still, that weather and climate are the same) and how to address each one.
Where the reading lives: OpenStax Earth Science, CK-12, and books worth owning. The text sits underneath the bench.
The method, made operable
Mastery, not points: the three levels, why "not yet" recovers, and how it becomes a grade.
Mastery and integration tell a student they can and where it connects. Wonder tells them why they'd bother.
A loop, not a line: falsification, the "No" branch, and recording what you measure. Learn why these practices matter in a real lab.
One per unit, plus the three demonstration rubrics. The shared bar for "mastered."
Encouraged vs. off-limits, plus a curated prompt library for studying earth science with AI honestly.
The cross-domain playbook, connecting plate tectonics, deep time, and the rock cycle into one worked example.