Science: Systems, Evidence & Our Origins

Objectives

• D06.S1.12.01 Evaluate competing scientific explanations of the same phenomenon using criteria of evidence, coherence, and falsifiability.
• D06.S1.12.02 Reflect on the ethics of scientific practice — who asks the questions, who benefits, and how knowledge is used — and propose a more just practice.
• D06.S2.12.01 Explain how ecosystems, economies, and human health are coupled, and weigh trade-offs in sustaining living systems.
• D06.S2.12.02 Hold scientific accounts of life's origin and diversity alongside cultural and spiritual accounts, and articulate how they relate.
• D06.S3.12.01 Explain the fundamental forces and particles that make up matter, and how they unify physical explanations.
• D06.S3.12.02 Weigh the promise and risk of physical technologies (energy, materials, and computing) for a just and sustainable future.
• D06.S4.12.01 Weigh cosmological models and geological evidence, and the relationship between scientific and other ways of knowing about origins.
• D06.S4.12.02 Articulate a considered position on the origins of the cosmos and life that holds scientific evidence and other ways of knowing in respectful relation.

Essential questions

• How do I evaluate competing scientific explanations, and reflect on the ethics of science — who asks the questions, who benefits, and how knowledge is used?
• How are ecosystems, economies, and human health coupled, and how do I hold scientific and cultural accounts of life side by side?
• What are the fundamental forces and particles of matter, and how do I weigh cosmological and geological evidence — and my own considered position — on origins?

Big ideas

• Competing scientific explanations are weighed by evidence, coherence, and falsifiability, and science carries an ethics: who asks the questions, who benefits, and how knowledge is used.
• Ecosystems, economies, and human health are coupled, and scientific accounts of life's origin and diversity can be held alongside cultural and spiritual accounts, in respectful relation.
• Matter is made of fundamental forces and particles that unify physical explanation, and origins are best held as a considered position that honors evidence and other ways of knowing.

Lessons

1. 1 Weighing Competing Explanations 55 minutes
2. 2 Evidence, Coherence, and Falsifiability 55 minutes
3. 3 Who Asks the Questions? Who Benefits? 55 minutes
4. 4 Proposing a More Just Science 55 minutes
5. 5 Coupled Systems: Ecosystems, Economies, and Health 55 minutes
6. 6 Trade-offs in Sustaining Living Systems 55 minutes
7. 7 Accounts of Life's Origin and Diversity 55 minutes
8. 8 Science and Culture, Side by Side 55 minutes
9. 9 Fundamental Forces 55 minutes
10. 10 Particles and the Unification of Matter 55 minutes
11. 11 Energy, Materials, and Computing: Promise and Risk 55 minutes
12. 12 Toward a Just and Sustainable Physics 55 minutes
13. 13 Cosmological Models and Geological Evidence 55 minutes
14. 14 A Considered Position on Origins 55 minutes

Assessment plan

A competing-explanation evaluation using evidence, coherence, and falsifiability; a science-ethics reflection with a more-just-practice proposal; a coupled-systems trade-off analysis; a science-and-culture origins relation; a fundamental-forces-and- particles explanation; a promise-versus-risk technology weighing; a cosmological- models and geological evidence weighing; and a considered origins position, gathered as capstone portfolio artifacts.