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 | Scientific Method & Lab Skills big idea | Integration anchor |
|---|---|---|
| 01 Observation & Asking Questions | A question defines its evidence and population. | Semmelweis reading. Distinguish observation, explanation and testable expectation; no invented quotation. Full task and data. |
| 02 The Lab Notebook | An audit trail preserves sources and changes. | Semmelweis reading. Name needed dated records and what the retrospective account does not supply. Full task and data. |
| 03 Measurement, Units & Significant Figures | A displayed digit is not an accuracy guarantee. | Semmelweis reading. Distinguish counts, rates and periods; extra digits do not validate evidence. Full task and data. |
| 04 Designing a Controlled Experiment | Allocation and observation rules affect inference. | Semmelweis reading. Compare historical nonrandomized intervention with explicit allocation and its limits. Full task and data. |
| 05 Data Tables, Graphs & Patterns | A useful fit must face new observations. | Semmelweis reading. Graph dated rates; check timing and residual counterevidence before a causal claim. Full task and data. |
| 06 Uncertainty, Error & Honesty | Uncertainty depends on independent evidence. | Semmelweis reading. Retain numerical evidence; evaluate residual dependence and uncertainty, not personal motives. Full task and data. |
| 07 Lab Safety & Technique | Approval and observed technique are separate evidence. | Semmelweis reading. Separate historical preventive evidence from authorization for present practice. Full task and data. |
| 08 Communicating & Defending Findings | A defensible report can revise its claim. | Semmelweis reading. Cite a qualified historical claim and write a revision grounded in evidence. Full task and data. |
Use dated counts and denominators to study the 1847 handwashing intervention. This was not a randomized comparison of identical wards. Calculate rates, consider trends and confounding, and separate evidence from a claim of proof. Complete the web guide's synthetic rate-comparison activity before interpreting the historical record. No live hygiene experiment is required.
Numbers never drive a unit, but learning to do science uses them constantly — always anchored to the object or measurement in front of the student. Here is the quantitative skill each unit actually uses, done inside the investigation rather than as a parallel curriculum.
| Unit | Applied math at the agreed level |
|---|---|
| 01 Observation & Asking Questions | Count per equal-area quadrat; census, convenience and random-sample means; weighted means by location. |
| 02 The Lab Notebook | Decimal transcription difference; verified-only mean with its denominator; a revised mean after recovery. |
| 03 Measurement, Units & Significant Figures | g-to-mg conversion; reading means, ranges and offsets; honors compares a two-point linear calibration model. |
| 04 Designing a Controlled Experiment | Final minus initial height; group means and blocked differences; independent-unit counts, not leaf or reading counts. |
| 05 Data Tables, Graphs & Patterns | Labeled axes, signed average velocity from position change/time, model residuals and squared-residual comparison; conditional transfer prediction. |
| 06 Uncertainty, Error & Honesty | Means and ranges at coupon and sheet levels; exclusion sensitivity; honors sample SD and SE with assumptions. |
| 07 Lab Safety & Technique | Repeat-reading means and reference error describe technique data only; no numerical score for ethical choices. |
| 08 Communicating & Defending Findings | Counts to percentages; within-batch and pooled rates; percentage-point differences with unequal denominators. |
Students find the rate inside the fair test, average their trials inside the measurement lab, and read the trend inside the graph they built. The number always means something because it is attached to a result they produced — never a worksheet detached from the work.
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 Observation & Asking Questions | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 02 The Lab Notebook | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 03 Measurement, Units & Sig Figs | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 04 Controlled Experiment | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 05 Data Tables & Graphs | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 06 Uncertainty & Honesty | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 07 Lab Safety & Technique | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 08 Communicating Findings | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
A student who walks through all eight anchors finishes understanding that doing science well is how humans learned to trust what they know, and that every skill on the page was once a hard-won lesson someone had to fight to be believed — the version of the craft a student keeps.