Use the science to investigate a real source, explain the evidence, and communicate a defensible conclusion. The guide supplies the actual reading, data, task, and chosen level before the unit begins.
| Strand | Required evidence |
|---|---|
| History, Reading, Writing | Use an approved source in context and a student-authored response. Separate the original evidence from later explanations; do not force a single-hero story. |
| Geography and ethics | Include location, social context, or ethical trade-offs where they genuinely support the scientific question. |
| Elective extensions | Choose additional depth in data, technology, economics, or art. Extensions do not replace the core work. |
| Quantitative science | Use the unit's mathematical lane at the agreed level. Supply units, denominators, and model conditions; required science is assessed as science. |
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 same approved task in both formats. The web guide explains the source, data, assumptions, student work, and evidence checklist; this packet is its portable summary, not a different assignment.
Use the web guide's approved unit assignment.
| Unit | Marine Biology big idea | Integration anchor |
|---|---|---|
| 01 · The Ocean Environment | Local light zones; salinity, temperature and oxygen; mixing and circulation | Compare NOAA circulation and light evidence with the limits of historical soundings |
| 02 · Plankton & Primary Production | Marine microbes, plankton, primary production and respiration; microbial loop and biological pump | NASA ocean-color evidence versus microbial-rate measurements and oxygen claims |
| 03 · Marine Plants, Algae & Kelp Forests | Algal diversity and seagrasses; habitat cover; net production and carbon-stock limits | NOAA habitat monitoring and restoration claims: observed cover versus inferred carbon benefit |
| 04 · Marine Invertebrates | Invertebrate phyla and feeding; larval life history, dispersal, settlement and recruitment | Compare sessile adults with dispersing larvae using NOAA reproduction evidence |
| 05 · Fish & Sharks | Fish anatomy, buoyancy and gill exchange; teleost/shark osmoregulation | Correct a physiological museum claim using OpenStax comparative evidence |
| 06 · Marine Reptiles, Birds & Mammals | Tetrapod traits; oxygen stores and thermoregulation; feeding, migration and detection | NOAA humpback recovery, population differences and photo-identification evidence |
| 07 · Ocean Ecosystems | Ecosystem contrasts; symbiosis, microbial loop and recruitment; abundance versus diversity | 1977 vent discovery and habitat claims tested against measured coverage and uncertainty |
| 08 · Humans & the Ocean | Fish stocks versus catch/CPUE; pollution and oxygen; carbonate chemistry and conservation | NOAA assessment evidence and a bounded conservation briefing, separate from the science grade |
Read an approved Challenger record with its station and date, or label a reconstructed dataset as reconstructed. Interpret a depth profile and use an approved key. Counts require sampled volume, area, effort, and method before comparison; a dredge haul alone is not a population estimate. Defend the evidence for deep-sea life and its limits. The same records support an inland alternative to field collection.
Math never drives a unit, but marine biology uses it constantly — always anchored to the observation or measurement at the bench. Here is the quantitative skill each unit actually uses, done inside the lab context rather than as a parallel curriculum.
| Unit | Applied math at the agreed level |
|---|---|
| 01 The Ocean Environment | Profile gradients; oxygen differences; salt mass balance; absolute/gauge pressure; endpoint uncertainty. |
| 02 Plankton & Primary Production | Counts/mL → counts/L using concentrate and source volumes; light/dark oxygen rates; microbial-loop carbon balance and recovery sensitivity. |
| 03 Marine Plants, Algae & Kelp Forests | Point-intercept cover and bounds; volume/time/mass-normalized oxygen exchange; biomass growth and standing-carbon sensitivity. |
| 04 Marine Invertebrates | Conditional life-stage survival; dispersal fates; local retention versus share of settlers; recruitment sensitivity and advection limits. |
| 05 Fish & Sharks | Osmoregulation gradients and signed water-flux balances; fin/body ratios; within-model length–mass scaling. |
| 06 Marine Reptiles, Birds & Mammals | Cooling slopes and relative change; group encounters per hour and detection sensitivity; trapezoidal depth-time mean. |
| 07 Ocean Ecosystems | Area-normalized density; pooled Simpson D and richness; missing-plot sensitivity; NPP and food-web carbon transfer. |
| 08 Humans & the Ocean | Catch/effort CPUE; percent change; survey-index bounds and catchability sensitivity; logarithmic pH and carbonate/calcification response. |
Students do the plankton count inside the tow-net lab, the percent-cover calculation inside the quadrat survey, the morphometric ratio inside the fish study. The number always means something because it is attached to a result they produced — never a worksheet detached from the marine biology.
Integration is its own strand. Track each unit’s integration level across the year — Developing, Proficient, or Mastery — separate from the science-mastery rubric. Record the evidence reference and date in the final column.
| Unit | Developing | Proficient | Mastery | Evidence / date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 The Ocean Environment | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 02 Plankton & Primary Production | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 03 Marine Plants, Algae & Kelp | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 04 Marine Invertebrates | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 05 Fish & Sharks | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 06 Reptiles, Birds & Mammals | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 07 Ocean Ecosystems | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 08 Humans & the Ocean | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
A student who walks through all eight anchors finishes understanding that marine biology is how humans learned to read a hidden world, and that every name on the page was once a discovery someone sailed for — the version of the subject a student keeps.