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 | Careful observation turns a vague noticing into a sharp, answerable question. | Semmelweis noticing one clinic buried far more mothers than the other — the observation that started everything. |
| 02 The Lab Notebook | A dated, honest record is the backbone of every claim. | The hospital’s month-by-month death records — without the written numbers, no one could have seen the pattern. |
| 03 Measurement, Units & Sig Figs | Use units, precision, and appropriate denominators. | Calculate rates from dated counts; match periods before comparing historical records. |
| 04 Designing a Controlled Experiment | Define a comparison and identify possible confounders. | Distinguish the historical nonrandomized intervention from a controlled classroom design; no live hygiene test is required. |
| 05 Data Tables, Graphs & Patterns | Organize and graph evidence without hiding its limits. | Use the full dated record or labeled synthetic data, not only dramatic endpoints. |
| 06 Uncertainty, Error & Honesty | Report variation, uncertainty, and limitations. | Evaluate evidence and institutional context; do not substitute an unsupported motive for historical analysis. |
| 07 Lab Safety & Technique | Careful, repeatable technique protects people and produces trustworthy results. | Handwashing itself — a technique that was also a safety practice, done every time as an act of care. |
| 08 Communicating & Defending Findings | A finding you cannot defend cannot change anything. | Semmelweis was right but failed to persuade — his angry letters, and what he could have done instead. |
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 | Turning a noticing into a countable, comparable question; deciding what to measure and how often. |
| 02 The Lab Notebook | Recording numbers with their dates and units so a pattern can be found later. |
| 03 Measurement, Units & Significant Figures | Reading a ruler, balance, or graduated cylinder to the right precision; converting units; rounding honestly. |
| 04 Designing a Controlled Experiment | Choosing comparison groups; identifying the one variable; sample size and fair-test logic. |
| 05 Data Tables, Graphs & Patterns | Building a data table; plotting points; reading a trend off a line or bar graph. |
| 06 Uncertainty, Error & Honesty | Averaging repeated trials; describing spread and range; percent error; not over-claiming. |
| 07 Lab Safety & Technique | Use consistent technique to reduce avoidable error; check repeatability and distinguish random variation from systematic bias. |
| 08 Communicating & Defending Findings | Turning a count into a clear rate or percentage; making a graph an audience can read at a glance. |
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.