Science

In grades 9-12, students continue to engage in three-dimensional learning utilizing the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards or NGSS. In the core NGSS aligned courses, students develop a greater capacity to investigate and explain natural phenomena and to design solutions to global challenges with greater emphasis on systems thinking and community-based geoscience literacy. Students collaborate on performance tasks that engage them in the authentic work of both scientists and engineers.

Courses

Grade 9 Science

Units

Plate Tectonics

In order to explain “How do people reconstruct and date events in Earth’s planetary history?” ninth-grade students learn to use indirect evidence to construct an account of Earth’s geologic history.
Students use geoscience data to model geoscience processes to explain “Why do the continents move?
Students engage in systems thinking to figure out “How do the properties and movements of water shape Earth’s surface and affect its systems?”

Planetary Motion

Climate Change

Students explore the questions, “How do people model and predict the effects of human activities on Earth’s climate” and “How do the major Earth systems interact?”
Using geoscience data from ice cores, analysis of global temperature data, and explorations of heat and light energy, students develop a systems model to explain the phenomena of melting glaciers.
Students research global challenges and create a systems model of causes and effects along with the prediction of the effectiveness of different mitigation strategies.

Big Bang

Biology

Units

Coral Reef/Sustainability

Biology students use the phenomena of coral reef bleaching as context for the questions, “How do the major Earth systems interact?” and “How does biodiversity affect humans?”
Students use scientific ideas about carbon cycling, atmospheric composition changes, and biosphere feedback mechanisms to design a plan to maintain the biodiversity of reef habitats by reducing human impact on them.

Forest Regrowth/Biochemistry

In order to figure out, “How do the structures of organisms enable life’s functions?” students explore the phenomena of forest regrowth following a wildfire.
To make sense of “How do substances combine or change (react) to make new substances?” students investigate cellular processes, including photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
Engaging in systems thinking, students determine the interaction between cell structures, processes, and carbon-based organic molecules.
Students show “How do organisms obtain and use the energy they need to live and grow?” when explaining tree regrowth.

Yellowstone Wolves/Ecology

Considering the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park, students explore the questions “How do organisms interact with the living and non-living environment to obtain matter and energy?“ and “How do matter and energy move through ecosystems?
Students use results from homeostasis experiments and predator-prey simulations to visualize and explain changes to the Yellowstone ecosystem.

Dwarfism/Genetics

Students engage in a case study of dwarfism. In order to explain, “How are the characteristics from one generation related to the previous generation?” students compare and contrast cell division for growth and for reproduction.
Students examine the DNA replication errors and environmental factors that can cause genetic variations or influence the expression of traits.

Hawaiian Crickets/Evolution

Students use their understanding of genetics to explore, “How can there be so many similarities among organisms yet so many different plants, animals, and microorganisms?”
Students explore factors that influence an organism's chances for survival and reproduction and the mechanisms of natural selection.
Students examine ecological disturbances and relationships that may have resulted in the evolution of crickets that cannot chirp.

Chemistry

Units

Nuclear Processes/Atomic Structure and Periodicity

To engage in the question, “What is the universe and what goes on in stars?” students compare observations of a supernova and nuclear bomb test.
Students research the processes of fission and fusion and star life cycles and the evidence for different models of atomic structure.
Students are presented with a forensic case study to solve using spectral analysis of unknown substances.
After exploring the role of ions, isotopes, and electron configurations, and analyzing the patterns in elements and their properties that led to the development of the Periodic Table of the Elements, the students address the question, “How can one explain the structure and properties of matter?”

Toxic Waste/Chemical Bonding

As a context for the question, “How do substances combine or change (react) to make new substances?” students review current, local examples of toxic waste dumping.
Students create explanatory models of the forces involved in different types of bonding, as well as molecular shapes and polarity.
Students design tests to identify unknown substances and develop models of explaining their results.

Vehicle Airbag Design/Gas Laws and Chemical Reactions

Students design an airbag to figure out, “How does one characterize and explain reactions and make predictions about them?” and “How can one explain and predict interactions between objects and within systems of objects?
Students examine the behavior of gasses and model the gas laws. They explore different types of chemical reactions and investigate factors that can change the speed of a chemical reaction and affect its equilibrium point.
Students apply science ideas related to stoichiometry, limiting reactants, and thermal energy changes to determine the amounts and types of substances to use in their airbag designs.

Chemistry of Climate Change

Students explore the question, “How do humans depend on Earth’s resources?” and “How do people model and predict the effects of human activities on Earth’s climate?”
Students use systems modeling techniques to visualize the impacts of an event on the Earth’s systems (biosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere) and humans that are part of the biosphere.
Students explore mitigation strategies such as alternative energy sources, green home design, and urban planning.

Physics

Students solve First Law thermodynamics equations involving a change of enthalpy, the heat of formation, the heat of reaction, Hess's Law, heats of vaporization, calorimetry and fusion.
Students solve Second Law thermodynamics equations involving entropy, the free energy of formation, the free energy of reaction, the dependence of change in free energy on enthalpy and entropy changes, and the relationship to equilibrium constants and electrode potentials.

Students study the three kinds of biodiversity essential to the preservation of ecological systems.
Students relate the role of biodiversity to humans and to ecological system health. They examine the negative impacts that humans have on biodiversity and legislation and policies that protect species from extinction. They review human interventions that have resulted in population increases.

Land Use: Forests and Grasslands

Students focus on forests and grasslands to consider the effects of land-use decisions.
Students identify forest types, products, and harvest techniques that harm or restore habitat. They relate the overuse of rangeland to the formation of deserts.
Students debate the recreational and economic value of national parks, consider the value and challenges of wildlife refuges, and characterize the principles of landscape ecology.

Students learn about the major types of air pollutants, their sources, environmental impacts, and human health effects.
Students characterize the indoor air pollutants, including their sources, types of buildings affected, and human health effects.
Students propose strategies to decrease indoor and outdoor air pollutants and evaluate the effectiveness of the Clean Air Act.

Water Use and Management

Water Pollution

Students learn about common water pollutants, their origin, and impacts on the environment and human health, as well as ways to remediate the pollutant.
Students summarize the quality of water in developed and developing countries.
Students explain contamination problems associated with groundwater and describe the major ocean pollutants.
Students appraise the effectiveness of the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Students learn the correct pronunciation, spelling, and use of medical terms for each body system as well as the related anatomy, physiology, human diseases, and treatment. The systems studied include the integumentary, musculoskeletal, circulatory, lymphatic and immune, respiratory, digestive, urinary and reproductive, and nervous systems, including the specialized sense organs for vision, hearing, smell, and taste.

Genetics

Units

History of Genetics

Mitosis and Meiosis

Students describe the intercellular movement of the genetic information throughout the four phases of mitosis(PMAT).
Students diagram the phases of mitosis interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase.
Students relate the division of somatic (nonsex) cells to the increased cell number in cooperation with apoptosis and necrosis.
Students relate the cell division process through virtual models of meiosis.
Students describe the intercellular movement of the genetic information throughout the two divisions of the four phases of meiosis; interphase, prophase I, metaphase I, anaphase I, telophase I, prophase II, metaphase II, anaphase II, and telophase II.
Students will determine the possible variations of genes through independent assortment.

DNA

Students build a model of DNA, placing the parts of the nucleotides to produce a working model of DNA much like Watson and Crick used when discovering the double-helix structure of DNA.
Students use the models to explain DNA replication and protein synthesis.
Working with lab partners, students engage in a DNA extraction lab using peas and other plants.
Students produce the DNA and examine it under a dissection microscope to make observations and draw conclusions.

Biotechnology

Students learn Darwin's Principles of Natural Selection and review the basic tenets of evolution.
Students will explore selective breeding, hybridization, inbreeding, and polyploidy.
Students explore the tools of genetic engineering.
Students explore cloning, transgenic organisms, and gene splicing along with the ethics of utilizing these techniques in agriculture, industry, health, and medicine.

Units

Body Organization and Terminology

Students learn the nomenclature of the structure of the human body.
Students explain the levels of organization in the human body, the systems and their function, and the major cavities.
Students explore homeostasis as it relates to any system and feedback mechanisms.
Students develop a model to demonstrate their knowledge of the anatomical positions and use anatomical terms to identify the external regions of the body.

Chemistry and the Living Body

Students review types of bonds, pH, and chemical reactions.
Students relate these concepts to cell dynamics.
They explain the role different bond types play in the human body.
Students describe the importance of water's unique chemical properties.
Students apply their knowledge of enzymes to situations such as hypothermia and hyperthermia. They evaluate the use of supplements and vitamins.

Cells: Structure and Function

Students describe the structure and function of different cell types and their organelles.
They describe the processes that transport, transcription, and translation and relate this to the overall health and function of the cell.
Students relate the process of mitosis to cancer, how cancer affects the cells and thus the entire human body.
Students explain the relationship of aging to cellular processes.

Integumentary System

The Skeletal System

Students discuss different types of bones and joints based on their anatomy and shapes.
Students describe the differences in the ossification of intramembranous bones and endochondral bones.
Students relate the impact of the exercise on the concept of 'challenging' the bone tissues.
Students distinguish among the different vertebrae of each region.
Students describe the effects of aging and selected diseases on bone function.

Students describe the anatomy of the spinal cord and explore the regions of the brain.
Students explain the 'one' neuron single pathway to 'one' neuron anatomy of the brain and the process of establishing long term memory.
Students assess how drug use can affect 'judgment' in terms of brain anatomy/physiology.
Students identify given disorders when symptoms are indicated.
Students relate parasympathetic and sympathetic functions to given situations based on the needs of the body.

Sensory Organs

Students describe the anatomy of the sensory organs, how each one functions, and related disorders.
Students discuss the role of the eye structure, rods and cones, and lens adjustments in vision.
Students discuss the physiology of pitch detection in the basilar membrane, the location of the sound, static and dynamic equilibrium.
Students describe the anatomy of the tongue’s taste regions and the basal membrane of the nose.
Students explain the importance of slow and fast adapting sensory structures, including pain and proprioception.

Respiratory Anatomy

The Cardiovascular System

Students identify the anatomy of the heart, the cardiac cycle, and what mechanisms control the cycle.
Students relate heart health to genetics and lifestyle, examine heart disease case studies, and make relevant connections to their own family histories.
Students identify the major circulatory routes, and types of blood vessels, and become proficient at measuring blood pressure

Immunity

Students explain the different types of immunity, the defense mechanisms of the human body, and the different types of immunoglobulins and their specific functions.
Students determine why some individuals seem to catch many contagious illnesses while others are rarely sick.
Students determine the causes of allergies, autoimmune disorders, and other dysfunctions of the immune system. They describe the role of the Major Histocompatibility Complex.

Units

Nature of Marine Science

The Water Planet and the Not-So-Rigid Earth

Students explain how the homogeneous Protoearth became a layered Earth with outgassing producing the atmosphere and the oceans and how life in the early oceans changed the atmosphere.
Students simulate the process of radiometric age dating of rock and summarize the geologic time scale.
Students describe the formation and evolution of ocean basins as related to plate tectonics.
Using data from volcanic island arcs and seamounts, the students infer plate motions and whether the present oceans are opening or closing.

The Seafloor and Marine Sediments

Students describe characteristics of marine provinces and relate bathymetric features to plate boundaries and motions.
Students explain that continental margins are made up of the continental crust and that deep-ocean features occur in oceanic crust.
Students explain how marine sediments provide evidence of Earth’s history.
Students identify properties of marine sediments and explain how the distribution of marine sediments is controlled by proximity to land, depth of seawater, the productivity of marine organisms, and topography of the seafloor.

Students explain how ocean currents are set in motion by wind or by differences in density caused by differences in salinity and temperature and how ocean currents moderate global temperatures and influence global climate.
Students explain that ocean surface waves are caused primarily by solar energy imbalances creating wind and how a tsunami is generated by seismic disturbances in the ocean basin. They explain the causes of tides.

Coasts and Coastal Waters

Students research and explain the primary processes that reconfigure the shore and explain how humans have negatively affected the shore and the littoral oceans.
Students explain why coastal waters have more variable characteristics than the open ocean and why many of these coastal environments are important ecosystems and often remove land-derived pollutants from water.
Students identify marginal seas as relatively large, semi-enclosed basins of seawater that typically have restricted circulation.

Marine Habitat

Students explore marine life and maintain a saltwater aquarium habitat.
Students explain that organisms living in the oceans develop special adaptations to the chemical and physical characteristics of seawater and that algae are the basic producers of food.
Students infer the availability of sunlight and nutrients in the ocean and differentiate between the pelagic and benthic environments.

Biological Productivity and Energy Transfer

Pelagic Organisms and Benthic Organisms

Students describe the characteristics of pelagic organisms and the special adaptations that allow pelagic organisms to survive and thrive.
Students describe the adaptations and modifications that permit some mammals to live in the sea.
Students describe the characteristics of benthic organisms, how their distribution is affected by the usual physical and chemical constraints of the oceans, and the chemosynthesis that takes place at hydrothermal vents and cold seeps.

Marine Resources

Marine Environmental Concerns

Students study how pollutants occur in increasing amounts and types in the oceans, including industrial and agricultural chemicals as well as plastic, oil, sewage, trash, and radioactive waste.
Students describe how nations individually and collectively have attempted to control pollutants by legislation and regulations and evaluate the impact of marine legislation and regulation on the welfare and economy of the average individual.

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