Whole Earth Curriculum WEC

Grade 9

Grade 9 is the first year of high school, and the year the learner becomes a co-author of their own education. The year opens with two demanding invitations that set the bar for everything after: constructing an evidence-based explanation of a changing climate and reading scientific sources for reliability, bias, and interest (D06), and reasoning about how a society should remember harm it has done or suffered, across more than one ethical framework and with historical perspective (D09 + D08). From there the year turns inward to consolidate identity, purpose, and values: subtle and secondary emotions named in a broad vocabulary and analyzed as shaped by social context, media, and group belonging; a coherent personal narrative linking past, present, and hoped-for future; a longer-term goal with a realistic plan and milestones; and self-advocacy that respects others (D01). The body is read as the somatic ground of thought and feeling — how body state shapes mood and thinking, a body-positive or body-neutral view held against media's messages, a movement goal tracked over time, how movement shapes mental health, and a local food system traced from farm to table to waste and its effects on health, workers, and the environment (D03). Relationships become practice in a plural world: communicating across real difference, healthy relationship skills including consent, trust, and honest talk about feelings, empathic inquiry, empathy limited and expanded by distance and media, forms of community across cultures, and the honest question of how nationalism and in-group loyalty both build and limit belonging (D02). The heart of the year is given to the three great tools of school, now wielded at full strength — language, number, and science. Language becomes synthesis and argument: synthesizing multiple spoken sources, leading discussion, analyzing how structure, style, and argument work together, writing research-supported arguments that cite sources and weigh conflicting evidence, composing for real audiences, and holding language loss and revitalization as questions of identity and justice, always home language first with multilingualism as wealth (D04). Mathematics becomes modeling and proof: real numbers and radicals, units and precision, linear and exponential functions with slope and intercept read in context, quadratic equations, rigid motions and coordinate proof, theorems about lines, angles, and triangles, and two-way tables used to explore questions of fairness (D05). Science becomes the disciplined study of the natural world: how matter cycles and energy flows through ecosystems and how disruptions affect carrying capacity, biodiversity and why it matters, the conservation and transformation of energy and the atom's structure and bonding, greenhouse gases and climate, and the evidence for the age of the Earth and the universe — origins held as stories grounded in evidence, among many (D06). The arts become deliberate voices: digital and mixed-media work, the composition and symbolism of advertising and news, music that builds identity and resistance, performance as a way to explore the self, and design that shapes everyday life and the environment (D07). Health returns with sexual and reproductive health — anatomy, consent, and access to accurate care — and recognizing mental-health struggle in oneself and others and knowing how and where to seek help (D03). Then the year turns outward to the full adult questions. Ethics, justice, and political economy: analyzing a moral question across consequences, duties, and virtues; tracing systemic injustice through actions, rules, and structures; evaluating human rights across cultures; analyzing how power is distributed and held accountable; weighing democratic participation against alternatives; and analyzing the roots of conflict and the possibilities and limits of reconciliation (D09). Global history: analyzing continuity and change in one global process across regions and centuries, suppressed and revived knowledge traditions, the mixing of cultures, societies and their environments over deep time, the transatlantic slave trade and forced migration, empire and anti-colonial movements, and the spread of freedom and dignity (D08). Technology, media, and environment: how algorithms and platforms shape what people see and choose and who holds power over users, echo chambers and how to break them, tracing viral claims to their source, the greenhouse effect and the carbon cycle, feedback loops, fossil fuels versus renewables, and environmental justice (D10). The hardest truths — ecological crisis, inequality, moral ambiguity — are met with intellectual tools and a sense of agency, never nihilism. The year closes in All of Me, All of Us, gathering the coherent personal narrative, the caring community, and the living Earth, and handing off to Grade 10.

180 school days Draft

Year timeline

  1. 1–5 Evidence in a Changing Climate 1 lessons
  2. 6–10 Remembering a Painful Past 1 lessons
  3. 11–24 Feelings, Identity & Purpose 10 lessons
  4. 25–37 My Body, Wellness & Movement 8 lessons
  5. 38–51 Relationships, Empathy & Community 10 lessons
  6. 52–69 Language, Literature & Argument 12 lessons
  7. 70–85 Mathematics & Reasoning 12 lessons
  8. 86–100 Living Systems, Physical Systems & Our Origins 10 lessons
  9. 101–112 Creative & Aesthetic Expression 8 lessons
  10. 113–125 Health, Sexuality & Safety 8 lessons
  11. 126–144 Ethics, Justice & Political Economy 14 lessons
  12. 145–159 Global History: Change, Power & Liberation 10 lessons
  13. 160–174 Technology, Media & Our Earth Home 10 lessons
  14. 175–180 All of Me, All of Us 4 lessons

Domain weighting

Grade 9 Scope

How to read this scope

Each unit_id in the frontmatter resolves to a unit file under units/. start_day/end_day map the unit onto the 180-day school year; the list is a continuous sequence from day 1 to day 180 with no gaps or overlaps. domain and pillar name the primary domain(s) and pillar(s) each unit serves. domain_weighting expresses the intended balance of instructional time across the ten domains, in percent of the year. lesson_count counts the core lessons; the days between lessons carry flex time, assessment, integration, and celebration. assessment_plan describes how a learner’s growth is seen and recorded at this level.

Year at a glance

The Grade 9 year is a spiral that deepens what Grade 8 began — and it is the first year of high school, when formal operations mature and the learner is treated as a co-author, not a student. Where Grade 8 learned to analyze — to pull a reaction apart, weigh competing accounts, model a relationship with a line, critique a work with evidence — Grade 9 learns to synthesize and hold competing truths: to build a claim from data while naming its limits, to reason across more than one ethical framework at once, to model the world with functions and prove with coordinates, and to face the hardest truths with intellectual tools and a sense of agency, never nihilism. The year opens with two short, demanding invitations that set the bar for the whole grade.

Evidence in a Changing Climate (U.09.001, D06) is the high-grade science opener. Learners construct an evidence-based explanation that links data to a claim and states its limits and uncertainties (D06.S1.09.01), and critically evaluate a source of scientific information for reliability, bias, and conflicts of interest (D06.S1.09.02). Inquiry is held over creed, data over assertion. Remembering a Painful Past (U.09.002, D09 + D08) is the ethics-of-memory opener, the bar for holding a hard topic with nuance. Learners analyze a moral question using more than one ethical framework — consequences, duties, virtues — and compare what each shows (D09.S1.09.01), while explaining historical perspective, how people in the past saw their world differently (D08.S1.09.02). Evidence and values are distinguished throughout, and more than one defensible answer is allowed to stand.

From there the year turns inward to consolidate identity, purpose, and values. Feelings, Identity & Purpose (U.09.003, D01) builds on Grade 8’s separation of event, thought, and feeling toward a mature emotional life. Learners use a broad emotional vocabulary to articulate subtle and secondary emotions in complex social situations (D01.S1.09.01) and analyze how emotions are shaped by social context, media, and group belonging (D01.S1.09.02). They construct a coherent personal narrative connecting past, present, and hoped-for future (D01.S2.09.01), analyze how a person’s identity is shaped by society and in turn shapes their choices (D01.S2.09.02), set a longer-term goal with a realistic plan and milestones (D01.S3.09.01), and advocate for their own needs and boundaries while considering others (D01.S3.09.02). Identity, values, and purpose now consolidate, so every self is honored as a whole in the making, never a label, and every question is held as a question.

My Body, Wellness & Movement (U.09.004, D03) then reads the body as the somatic ground of thought and feeling. Learners explain the somatic basis of emotion and thought, showing how body state shapes mood and thinking (D03.S1.09.01), and evaluate body-image messages from media and peers to articulate a body-positive or body-neutral view of their own body (D03.S1.09.02). They set a personal movement or fitness goal and track progress over time (D03.S2.09.01), analyze how movement affects mental health and learning through mechanisms such as endorphins and focus (D03.S2.09.02), analyze a local food system from farm to table to waste and its effects on health, workers, and the environment (D03.S3.09.01), and explain how hunger, food security, and unequal access to healthy food shape health outcomes around the world (D03.S3.09.02). The body is taught with dignity and joy, honoring the wide range of bodies and abilities. Relationships, Empathy & Community (U.09.005, D02) turns outward into the practice of care in a plural world, where peers and belonging matter most. Learners communicate respectfully across differences of opinion, culture, and background (D02.S1.09.01), practice healthy relationship skills including consent, trust, and honest talk about feelings (D02.S1.09.02), and use empathic inquiry to understand another’s feelings and needs before responding (D02.S2.09.01). They examine how empathy can be limited or expanded by distance, media, and technology (D02.S2.09.02), compare forms of community across cultures, including chosen families and mutual-aid networks (D02.S3.09.01), analyze how nationalism, exclusion, and in-group loyalty can both build and limit community (D02.S3.09.02), evaluate how economic and social systems shape cooperation, competition, and inequality (D02.S4.09.01), and design a cooperative project that meets a real need in their community (D02.S4.09.02).

The heart of the year is given to the three great tools of school, now wielded at full strength: language, number, and science. Language, Literature & Argument (U.09.006, D04) builds from Grade 8’s rhetoric and structured debate toward synthesis and authorship. Learners synthesize information from multiple spoken sources and present a coherent account or argument (D04.S1.09.01), and lead or facilitate a discussion, inviting participation and managing disagreement with fairness (D04.S1.09.02). They analyze how a text’s structure, style, and argument work together to create meaning and effect (D04.S2.09.01), and synthesize ideas and evidence from multiple texts to form a supported position (D04.S2.09.02). They write a research-supported argument that integrates and cites sources and evaluates conflicting evidence (D04.S3.09.01), and compose for real audiences and purposes — letters, proposals, published digital pieces (D04.S3.09.02). They explain how a person’s languages are part of their identity and reflect on their own multilingual or monolingual experience (D04.S4.09.01), and describe language loss and revitalization and why protecting languages matters for humanity and the environment (D04.S4.09.02) — always home language first, with multilingualism held as wealth. Mathematics & Reasoning (U.09.007, D05) grows from Grade 8’s functions and linear equations into modeling and proof. Learners work with real numbers, roots, and radicals in expressions and equations, explaining which properties justify each step (D05.S1.09.01), and choose appropriate units and levels of precision when measuring and calculating, interpreting results in context (D05.S1.09.02). They model real situations with linear and exponential functions and interpret slope and intercept in context (D05.S2.09.01), solve quadratic equations using several methods and interpret what their solutions mean in real situations (D05.S2.09.02), use rigid motions and coordinates to prove and reason about geometric relationships such as congruence (D05.S3.09.01), and prove and apply theorems about lines, angles, triangles, and parallelograms (D05.S3.09.02). They summarize and compare distributions of a single variable using plots and summary statistics (D05.S4.09.01), and use two-way tables and conditional relative frequencies to explore relationships between categories, including questions of fairness (D05.S4.09.02). Mathematics remains sense-making with real things, drawn from many traditions, for everyone.

Living Systems, Physical Systems & Our Origins (U.09.008, D06) is the full pass through Grade 9 science, following the evidence-and-source discipline of the opener into the three great bodies of the natural world. Learners explain how matter cycles and energy flows through ecosystems and how disruptions affect carrying capacity (D06.S2.09.01), and describe biodiversity and why it matters for resilient ecosystems and human well-being (D06.S2.09.02). They explain the law of conservation of energy and analyze energy transformations and efficiency in a real system (D06.S3.09.01), and use the structure of the atom to explain bonding and how chemical reactions absorb or release energy (D06.S3.09.02). They explain how greenhouse gases regulate climate and how human activity is changing the climate system (D06.S4.09.01), and explain the evidence for the age of the Earth and the universe and how scientists measure it (D06.S4.09.02). Origins are held as stories grounded in evidence, among many others — never as dogma, and never as the only defensible account of a beginning.

Creative & Aesthetic Expression (U.09.009, D07) gives craft and a critical eye to the imagination now that formal reasoning has matured. Learners create a digital or mixed-media artwork that combines techniques and reflect on the choices technology made possible (D07.S1.09.01), and analyze how visual media such as advertising, news, and social media use composition and symbolism to influence viewers (D07.S1.09.02). They create music using digital or recording tools and reflect on how the technology shaped the sound and the process (D07.S2.09.01), and analyze how music can build identity, community, or resistance across more than one culture (D07.S2.09.02). They create a performance that uses the moving body to explore identity or a personal question (D07.S3.09.01), analyze how dance, drama, and ritual build community or carry memory across cultures (D07.S3.09.02), use digital or fabrication tools to design and make an object and reflect on how the tools changed what was possible (D07.S4.09.01), and analyze how technology and design shape everyday life and the environment (D07.S4.09.02). The arts of other cultures are met as living traditions to honor with respectful questions, never as specimens.

Health, Sexuality & Safety (U.09.010, D03) returns to the body at a turning point, now with the honesty and agency high school demands. Learners explain the basics of sexual and reproductive health — anatomy, consent, and how to access accurate information and care (D03.S4.09.01) — and recognize signs of mental-health struggle in themselves or others and describe how and where to seek help (D03.S4.09.02). Every body, every pace, and every family’s way of living is honored; the body is taught with dignity, never shame, and questions are met with accurate information and care, not fear.

The final third steps into the full adult questions of power, justice, and the living Earth. Ethics, Justice & Political Economy (U.09.011, D09) deepens Grade 8’s weighing of consequences, duties, and fairness into reasoning across frameworks. Learners analyze a moral question using more than one ethical framework and compare what each shows (D09.S1.09.01), evaluate the role of conscience and self-criticism in forming one’s own values (D09.S1.09.02), analyze a systemic injustice by tracing how individual actions, rules, and structures combine to produce unfair outcomes (D09.S2.09.01), and evaluate the idea of human rights across cultures, including critiques that they reflect some traditions more than others (D09.S2.09.02). They analyze how power is distributed in a society and how citizens can hold power accountable (D09.S3.09.01), evaluate the strengths and limits of democratic participation and compare with alternatives (D09.S3.09.02), analyze the causes of conflict and violence — inequality, fear, scarcity — and how they can be addressed at the root (D09.S4.09.01), and evaluate reconciliation and restorative justice as responses to serious harm, including their possibilities and limits (D09.S4.09.02). Questions are held as questions, never answered as dogma.

Global History: Change, Power & Liberation (U.09.012, D08) gives Grade 9 its full pass through the long, many-voiced human story, deepening the opener’s single standard of historical perspective. Learners analyze continuity and change in one global process, such as long-distance trade or the growth of cities, across several regions and centuries (D08.S1.09.01). They analyze how a knowledge tradition was suppressed, marginalized, or lost through colonialism or conquest, and how peoples have worked to preserve or revive it (D08.S2.09.01), and explain how the mixing of cultures created new traditions and identities (D08.S2.09.02). They analyze how societies changed and were changed by their environments over long spans of time, including adaptation and cases of decline (D08.S3.09.01), and analyze the transatlantic slave trade and other forced migrations as global movements of people with lasting effects (D08.S3.09.02). They analyze colonialism and empire as systems of power and the anti-colonial movements that fought for liberation (D08.S4.09.01), and explain how ideas of freedom and dignity spread and fueled struggles for liberation across different continents (D08.S4.09.02). History is told from many perspectives, never as a single nation’s triumph, and the voices of those too often left out are centered with care and accuracy.

Technology, Media & Our Earth Home (U.09.013, D10) gathers the outward year into critical judgment and stewardship — neither worship nor fear. Learners explain how software and algorithms, such as recommendations and feeds, shape what people see and choose (D10.S1.09.01), analyze who controls a digital platform and what power that control gives over users (D10.S1.09.02), explain how algorithmic feeds and echo chambers can narrow what people see and how to break out of them (D10.S2.09.01), and evaluate a viral claim by tracing it to its source and checking it against independent reporting (D10.S2.09.02). They explain the greenhouse effect and how the carbon cycle connects living things, oceans, atmosphere, and rock over time (D10.S3.09.01), explain what a feedback loop is and how warming can speed up more warming (D10.S3.09.02), compare fossil fuels and renewable energy sources in how they work, their limits, and their effects on people and the planet (D10.S4.09.01), and analyze how the burdens and benefits of environmental change fall unevenly on different people — environmental justice (D10.S4.09.02).

The year closes in All of Me, All of Us (U.09.014, D01 + D02), gathering every whole person, the caring community they have built, and the living Earth — and looking ahead to Grade 10, where a personal narrative becomes a considered position, identity is examined as socially and historically constructed, science grows into genetics, quantitative motion, and the Big Bang, history deepens into periodization and the ethics of remembrance, and the ethics of technology and the environment mature into full political and ecological stewardship.

Throughout, the four pillars are interwoven. Intellectual awareness (P3) carries the most weight — synthesis and argument in language, modeling and proof in mathematics, the evidence-and-source discipline and systems thinking of science, and the creative and critical work of the arts — while contextual and ecological awareness (P4) rises sharply, for high school faces history, political economy, rigorous ethics, and the deep effects of technology on humanity and the environment. Emotional and social awareness (P1) remains the ground: identity, values, and purpose consolidate, and relationships and belonging matter more than ever. A known, cared-for, and capable body-and-self (P2) is the foundation all of it stands on. Science (D06) and global history (D08) each now carry a full unit of the year — science as the disciplined study of living, physical, and Earth systems, history as the long, many-voiced record of change, power, and liberation — and both spiral into still greater depth in Grades 10–12, where the full scientific and historical ladders unfold. The hardest truths of the world are faced honestly — inequality, ecological crisis, moral ambiguity — always met with intellectual tools and a sense of agency, never nihilism. No high-stakes tests anywhere: a learner’s growth is seen through explanations that state their limits, arguments that weigh conflicting evidence, reasoning across more than one ethical framework, modeling and proof with real things, made and critiqued works, and a portfolio of what they say, make, and do as co-authors of their own education.