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 on, careful hands with springs and circuits; explicit, every time
- Setup — balances, ramps, spring scales, circuit kits; partner assignment
- Execution — the lab itself; the guide circulates and coaches
- Debrief & lab notebook — completed before the student leaves
- Cleanup & reset — equipment packed away 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 matter to electricity and magnetism.
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 · Matter & Its Properties | Mass, volume, density, states of matter, physical properties, mixtures vs pure substances | Density & properties-of-matter measurement (balance, ruler, graduated cylinder) | Measuring and units, everyday materials (reading); applied math: density from mass and volume |
| 02 · Atoms, Elements & the Periodic Table | Elements, compounds and mixtures; atoms as building blocks; reading the periodic table at a survey level | Element & mixture separation (sorting, filtering, evaporating) | The story of the atom, Dalton to Bohr (history, reading); pattern-finding across the table |
| 03 · Chemical & Physical Changes | Physical vs chemical change, evidence of a chemical change, conservation of mass | Physical vs chemical change investigation (before-and-after observations) | Conservation of mass, how scientists learned matter is not lost (history); before-and-after measurement math |
| 04 · Forces & Motion | Speed, distance-time, balanced vs unbalanced forces, Newton's laws at a survey level | Motion on a ramp & force measurement (spring scale, timing a cart) | Newton and the story of motion (history, reading); plotting distance-time data |
| 05 · Energy & Its Forms | Kinetic vs potential energy, forms of energy, energy conservation | Energy transfer (pendulum swing, roller-coaster track) | The age of steam and machines (history, economics); graphing energy changes |
| 06 · Heat & Thermal Energy | Temperature vs heat; conduction, convection and radiation | Simple heat-transfer investigation — measure heat moving between warm and cool water | Keeping warm and staying cool (geography, everyday life); temperature data math |
| 07 · Waves, Sound & Light | Wavelength, frequency, amplitude; reflection of sound and light | Waves in a spring & sound-and-light demos (tuning forks, mirrors) | Music, how we hear and how we see (art, biology); measuring wavelength and frequency |
| 08 · Electricity & Magnetism | Electric current, complete circuit loops, magnets and electromagnets | Simple circuits & electromagnets (battery, wire, bulb, switch, magnet) | Michael Faraday and the electric world (history, technology, writing); measuring current in a circuit |
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.
Build-and-test defense
Build a simple working device — a circuit, a ramp, or a lever — measure how it behaves, then defend your design and your data out loud, under questions.
Timed prediction-and-test
Predict a physical outcome from a measurement, then run it live under time and explain why the result matched — or didn't.
Oral lab-notebook defense
Walk a guide through your own notebook: the question, the method, the data, the anomalies, the interpretation.