Science: Systems, Evidence & Our Origins

Objectives

• D06.S1.11.01 Design and defend an investigation that controls variables, includes controls and replicates, and reports uncertainty.
• D06.S1.11.02 Compare how different ways of knowing (scientific, indigenous, and artistic) generate and test knowledge, and what each offers.
• D06.S2.11.01 Explain the evidence for evolution and common ancestry, and distinguish this from beliefs about life's meaning.
• D06.S2.11.02 Analyze the ethics of human relationships with other species and ecosystems, including conservation and restoration.
• D06.S3.11.01 Explain how matter and energy behave at atomic and quantum scales and why this challenges everyday intuition.
• D06.S3.11.02 Apply thermodynamics to real systems and evaluate the energy and material costs of technology.
• D06.S4.11.01 Compare cosmological models and weigh the evidence for each, holding them as models rather than certainties.
• D06.S4.11.02 Explain how Earth's systems are coupled and how climate, ecology, and human society shape one another.

Essential questions

• How do I design and defend an investigation that controls variables and reports uncertainty, and how do scientific, indigenous, and artistic ways of knowing differ?
• What is the evidence for evolution and common ancestry, and what is our ethical relationship with other species and ecosystems?
• How do matter and energy behave at atomic, quantum, and thermodynamic scales, and how are Earth's systems coupled with climate, ecology, and human society?

Big ideas

• A trustworthy investigation controls variables, includes controls and replicates, and reports uncertainty; different ways of knowing each generate and test knowledge in their own way.
• Evolution and common ancestry are grounded in evidence, distinct from beliefs about life's meaning, and raise ethics for our relationships with other species.
• Matter and energy behave unexpectedly at atomic and quantum scales, thermodynamics reveals the costs of technology, and Earth's systems are coupled with human society.

Lessons

1. 1 Designing and Defending an Investigation 55 minutes
2. 2 Carrying It Out: Replicates and Uncertainty 55 minutes
3. 3 Scientific Ways of Knowing 55 minutes
4. 4 Indigenous and Artistic Ways of Knowing 55 minutes
5. 5 Evidence for Evolution: Variation, Inheritance, Selection 55 minutes
6. 6 Common Ancestry and the Tree of Life 55 minutes
7. 7 Evidence and Meaning, and the Ethics of Other Species 55 minutes
8. 8 Conservation, Restoration, and Ecosystems 55 minutes
9. 9 Matter at the Atomic Scale 55 minutes
10. 10 The Quantum Scale: Where Intuition Fails 55 minutes
11. 11 Thermodynamics: Energy, Heat, and Order 55 minutes
12. 12 Energy and Material Costs of Technology 55 minutes
13. 13 Cosmological Models: The Big Bang 55 minutes
14. 14 Comparing Cosmological Models, Weighing Evidence 55 minutes
15. 15 Earth's Coupled Systems 55 minutes
16. 16 Climate, Ecology, and Society 55 minutes

Assessment plan

A designed and defended investigation with controls, replicates, and reported uncertainty; a ways-of-knowing comparison across scientific, indigenous, and artistic traditions; an evidence-for-evolution explanation that distinguishes evidence from beliefs about meaning; an other-species-and-ecosystems ethics analysis; an atomic-and-quantum-scale explanation; a thermodynamics application with an energy-and-material-costs evaluation; a cosmological-models comparison held as models; and a coupled-Earth-systems explanation, gathered as portfolio artifacts.