These eight free reading routes lead to specified passages, original tasks, supplied data, worked answers and evidence criteria. Print each learning page with its separate five-page assessment packet. Additional books on Page 2 are optional.
Select reading support by readiness, not a credit promise. Data analysis is not a claimed observation; practical handling is assessed separately. No cultures, dissection, field exposure or ingestion is required.
| Unit reading route | Student output |
|---|---|
| 01: OpenStax Biology 1.2; Microbiology 3.1, Redi | Classified cards, cumulative seed graph and control comparison. |
| 02: OpenStax Biology 4.1 and 4.3 | Hooke/Leeuwenhoek timeline, scale calculation and evidence note. |
| 03: Harvey, VIII–IX; OpenStax Biology 40.1 | Flow map and paragraph distinguishing through-flow from stored blood. |
| 04: OpenStax Biology 12.1, Mendel | Pp x Pp probability square, 705/224 flower-count comparison and museum label. |
| 05: OpenStax Biology 18.1 and 20.1 | Selection-model log/graph and evidence for branching ancestry. |
| 06: Linnean Society, His career and legacy; OpenStax 20.1 | Four key paths, an alternate key and naming/ancestry explanation. |
| 07: NPS Elk/Trophic Cascades; USGS restoration; OpenStax 46.2 | Dated Yellowstone claim ledger, count graph, food web and multi-factor brief. |
| 08: EPA DDT history; OpenStax Biology 47.3 | Matched site comparison and bounded, budgeted decision memo. |
Each link opens the exact section/figure assignments and public source URLs. Verified 27 September 2026. Keep historical records, synthetic models and personal observations distinct.
Optional background: CK-12 Life Science, OpenStax Concepts of Biology, or a suitable middle-school textbook. None replaces the assigned evidence work or requires a purchase.
A textbook tells you what is true; these show how the truth was found — the patient watching, the stubborn observations, the human stakes. Recommend one per semester as a slow read alongside the lab work.
| Book & author | What it carries |
|---|---|
| Hidden Worlds Kathryn Lasky | Microscopist Dennis Kunkel’s work and images, not a Leeuwenhoek biography. Optional alongside the assigned free microscopy sources. |
| The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot | Optional adult history; a guide should review suitability. No young-readers edition or purchase is assumed. |
| One Beetle Too Many Kathryn Lasky | A picture-book biography of Charles Darwin, from a boy who collected everything to the naturalist who explained why life changes over time. A natural companion to the Evolution & Adaptation unit. |
| Citizen Scientists Loree Griffin Burns | Ordinary people counting butterflies, birds, frogs, and ladybugs — real ecology done by real families. Models the observe-and-record habit and shows students their own backyard counts. |
| The Wild Robot Peter Brown (optional) | A novel about a robot learning to survive in a wild ecosystem — a gentle, story-driven pairing with the ecosystems and adaptation units if a class wants a read-aloud. |
A family that reads two of these trade books slowly, anchored to real lab work, finishes the year with what a stack of chapters never delivers: the sense that life science is a thing people do — and that the student has now done a little of it.