Life science, taught at the bench.

Most life science classes are a textbook to read with a few activities bolted on. This one is the reverse. Every week is built around a question you answer at the bench — with a microscope, a hand lens, a jar of pond water, a living thing to observe and sketch — and the reading is there to support that work. That is what "lab-led, not textbook-led" means, and it is the most important thing to understand about how this course runs.

The course runs on a two-day rhythm: a Concept Day, where the idea is introduced and worked through together, and an Experiment Day, where it becomes real — observed, measured, sketched — and written into a real lab notebook. Between the two days, the student works at home, and that gap is where the learning sticks.

Mastery is the progression rule. A student moves on from an idea when they can reproduce, explain, and apply it — not when the calendar says so. "Not yet" is the honest, expected default; "mastered" is earned and shown. The rubrics are the tool that makes that judgment fair and repeatable.