Unit 07 · Disease, Immunity & Prevention
This unit is about how the body defends itself and how we prevent illness with evidence. It covers how the immune system works — the barriers, cells, and memory that fight infection — how diseases spread from person to person, and how hygiene and vaccination interrupt that spread. You’ll model how an illness moves through a population and watch how prevention changes the outcome. Mastery means you can explain how the body defends itself and judge prevention the way a scientist does: by the evidence, not the headline.
| Criterion | Developing | Proficient | Mastery |
|---|---|---|---|
| How the immune system defends the body | Cannot say how the body protects itself from germs. | Names a defense or two but cannot explain how they work together. | Explains how the immune system defends the body — barriers like skin, white blood cells that fight invaders, and the memory that follows an infection or a vaccine. |
| How diseases spread | Cannot describe how an illness passes from one person to another. | Names a way disease spreads but cannot connect it to prevention. | Explains the main ways diseases spread — contact, droplets, contaminated food or water — and links each route to how it can be interrupted. |
| Evidence-based prevention | Cannot name an evidence-based way to prevent disease. | Lists a prevention step but cannot explain the evidence behind it. | Explains how hygiene and vaccination prevent disease and describes the scientific evidence for each — presented as science, not as personal medical advice. |
| Modeling disease transmission | Cannot show or predict how an illness moves through a group. | Runs a transmission model but cannot interpret what it shows. | Models how a disease spreads through a population and interprets how adding a prevention measure changes the outcome. |
| Anchor lab (immunity & disease-transmission modeling) | Skips the modeling activity or runs it without recording results. | Completes the model but cannot explain the pattern in the data. | Completes the immunity & disease-transmission model, records the data carefully, and explains how prevention measures change how far and fast the disease spreads. |
| Integration (cross-domain) | Makes no supported connection between the source and the science. | Uses the source but needs help connecting evidence, writing, or limitations to the science. | Independently connects History, Reading, and Writing using a cited source, appropriate evidence, a limitation, and a scientific explanation. |
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 integration guide's evidence checklist for the separately reported criterion.
“Adaptive immune memory is antigen-specific. Correcting vitamin C deficiency addresses scurvy by a different mechanism; Lind's small comparison did not demonstrate immune memory or transmission control. I use the assigned sources to distinguish those claims and their evidence.”
“You get sick from germs, and washing your hands is good, I think. I’m not sure how to show how a disease actually spreads through people.”
You demonstrate this unit by modeling how a disease spreads through a population and defending your prevention reasoning aloud — not a multiple-choice test. A criterion counts as mastered only when you can run the model with real data and justify the science behind each prevention step. Prevention here is presented as evidence, never as personal medical advice. Mastery is demonstrated, not awarded.
A 5-page clipboard packet — unit overview, key terms, the mastery rubric, anchor examples, and a score sheet you can print and grade against.