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 | Zoology big idea | Integration anchor |
|---|---|---|
| 01 What Is an Animal? | Classification evidence and the selection prerequisite before adaptation. | Assigned Darwin-Wallace account: distinguish observations, later explanations and our synthetic generation model. |
| 02 Sponges, Cnidarians & Worms | Compare body plans and diffusion constraints without a ladder. | Approved textbook figures and supplied geometry; current function does not establish historical origin. |
| 03 Mollusks & Arthropods | Compare structures and locomotion with stated denominators. | Approved image/key study and supplied speed records; two individuals do not explain a phylum's diversity. |
| 04 Echinoderms & the Chordate Transition | Stage-specific characters support branching ancestry. | Published developmental descriptions; unknown is not absent and a living group is not the next rung. |
| 05 Fish & Amphibians | The first vertebrates and the move onto land — gills, fins, lungs, and limbs. | The fossil Tiktaalik and the water-to-land transition — study anatomy; reason about buoyancy and gas exchange. |
| 06 Reptiles & Birds | Amniotic development and thermal trade-offs; birds are a reptile lineage. | Approved source figures and supplied thermal records; oxygen demand is not superiority or evolutionary history. |
| 07 Mammals | Multiple characters; whole-body versus per-gram demand. | Approved anatomical sources; warmth, heart chambers or habitat alone do not classify every mammal. |
| 08 Animal Behavior & Ecology | Sampling and missing data before causal stories. | Supplied ethograms or approved media/non-intervention observation; no motives or unperformed fieldwork invented. |
Complete the 15-minute Unit 01 activity using OpenStax 18.1. Read (3 minutes), calculate supplied generation frequencies (7), then attempt the changed-background case independently (5). Check inherited variation, differential reproduction and populations across generations. Record science readiness under Selection prerequisite; the cited historical response is separate. Synthetic counts are not Beagle measurements or a performed animal lab.
Math never drives a unit, but zoology 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 What Is an Animal? | Selection prerequisite: generation frequencies, recruits per parent and percentage-point change; state inheritance assumptions. |
| 02 Sponges, Cnidarians & Worms | Model surface area/volume in mm^-1; compare diffusion distances and optional distance-squared scaling. |
| 03 Mollusks & Arthropods | Supplied locomotion: mm/s versus body lengths/s, fixed context and changed-denominator transfer. |
| 04 Echinoderms & the Chordate Transition | Life-stage character counts: distinguish unknown from absent; a present-column percentage is not classification certainty. |
| 05 Fish & Amphibians | Oxygen in mg O2/(kg h); route shares and temperature context. Supplied data, not animal trials. |
| 06 Reptiles & Birds | mL O2/(g h), body versus ambient temperature and percent change from a named baseline; thermal trade-offs. |
| 07 Mammals | Whole-body versus per-gram oxygen demand; matched thermal assumptions and limits of two-record size scaling. |
| 08 Animal Behavior & Ecology | Scheduled/visible scan denominators, missing proportions, events/visible minute and observer agreement; no inferred motives. |
Students do the symmetry count inside the invertebrate lab, the morphometric ratio inside the fish study, the diversity index inside the field survey. The number always means something because it is attached to a result they produced — never a worksheet detached from the zoology.
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 What Is an Animal? | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 02 Sponges, Cnidarians & Worms | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 03 Mollusks & Arthropods | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 04 Echinoderms & Chordates | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 05 Fish & Amphibians | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 06 Reptiles & Birds | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 07 Mammals | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 08 Animal Behavior & Ecology | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
A student who walks through all eight anchors finishes understanding that zoology is how humans learned to read the living world, and that every animal on the page was once a discovery someone sailed for — the version of the subject a student keeps.