The course map.
Eight units — four per semester — the labs that anchor them, and the two-day rhythm that runs every week of the year. This is the planner’s view — the whole course on one page.
Two days a week, and the work between them.
Every unit runs on the same rhythm: Concept Day → [student works at home] → Experiment Day → [student synthesizes at home] → next Concept Day. One day forces a choice between depth and breadth; two days allow both. More than two crowds out the at-home work where integration actually happens.
Concept Day
- Arrival & warm-up — reconnect with the prior session
- Pre-lecture discussion — surface what the at-home reading raised
- Direct instruction — micro-lectures, worked problems, demonstrations
- Problem set / model work — apply the concept, solo or in pairs
- Misconception sweep & wrap-up — correct common errors, preview the lab
Guide's role: Socratic and diagnostic. Student's role: active participation; pre-reading required.
Experiment Day
- Pre-lab briefing — the question, the procedure, the safety
- Safety check — goggles when needed, careful handling of live specimens; explicit, every time
- Setup — microscopes, slides, specimens, partner assignment
- Execution — the lab itself; the guide circulates and coaches
- Debrief & lab notebook — completed before the student leaves
- Cleanup & specimen care — to standard; non-negotiable
Guide's role: safety officer first, teacher second. Student's role: the lab notebook is THE artifact — predictions before results.
From what’s alive to human impact.
The sequence is deliberate: each unit assumes the one before it. Click any unit to open its mastery rubric — the standard a student demonstrates against to advance.
| Unit | Big ideas | Anchor lab(s) | Integrates with |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 · Characteristics & Needs of Living Things | Living vs. non-living, the traits every living thing shares, and what organisms need to survive | Observing living organisms & what they need | What makes something alive — the question across history, reading & writing; careful observation |
| 02 · Cells & Their Structures | Cells as the building blocks of life, the main cell parts and what they do, plant vs. animal cells | Microscopy of cells — onion skin, cheek cells, pond water | Leeuwenhoek and the first look at cells (history, reading); the microscope; scale & magnification |
| 03 · From Cells to Organisms | How cells build tissues, organs, and body systems that work together to keep a body alive | Body-system modeling | The history of anatomy (history, reading, writing); building models; body measurements |
| 04 · Genetics & Heredity | Traits, genes, and how features pass from parents to their offspring | Simple genetics & a trait-survey activity | Mendel and his pea plants (history, writing); counting traits & simple ratios |
| 05 · Evolution & Adaptation | Variation, adaptation, and how living things change over long spans of time | Adaptation & a natural-selection simulation | Darwin’s voyage (history, geography, writing); reading data |
| 06 · Classification & the Kingdoms of Life | Sorting life into groups by shared traits; the kingdoms of living things and how we name them | Dichotomous-key classification | Linnaeus and naming living things (history, reading); careful observation & logic |
| 07 · Ecosystems & Interdependence | Food webs, energy flow, and how living things depend on one another to survive | Ecosystem-in-a-jar & food-web modeling | Habitats and biomes (geography, data); the environment |
| 08 · Human Impact on Living Systems | How people change habitats, and how living systems respond over time | Human-impact investigation (local) | Conservation and stewardship (history, ethics, writing); economics |
Every unit carries the core spokes — History, Reading, and Writing — anchored to the story in the integration guide. The column above names each unit’s distinctive spokes; geography and soft social studies run where they fit, and students pick from elective spokes (data, ethics, economics, technology, art). An applied-math lane runs through every unit too — math used in service of the science, never as a separate program.
Where mastery gets proven in person.
Three times across the year, the student steps up to a demonstration that cannot be faked, outsourced, or generated. These are the AI-proof core of the course — understanding, shown in real time, against a rubric, in front of a guide.
Microscope cell defense
Find, focus, and identify cells and their structures under the microscope, and explain what each part does — out loud, under questions.
Timed classification challenge
Sort and key out organisms under time pressure using observable traits — then defend your choices.
Oral lab-notebook defense
Walk a guide through your own notebook: the question, the method, the data, the anomalies, the interpretation.