Search every subject world, from Preschool to Grade 12. The first five courses of every subject path are free.
144 courses
Science · Preschool
Olly the owl shows children how to look closely: name colors and shapes, count small parts and look more than once. Children compare two things to find what is the same and what is different, then turn something they notice into an 'I wonder' question. A short walk with a grown-up puts the habit into the real world.
Science · Preschool
Children meet their five senses and the body part that goes with each one, then choose the sense that answers a question such as 'Is it soft?' or 'Is it loud?'. They learn that a magnifier makes small things look bigger and practise the safety rules that keep exploring safe: only taste food a grown-up gives you, and never look at the sun.
Science · Preschool
Children touch and describe everyday things with words like hard, soft, bendy and stiff, then sort a pile of objects using one question at a time. They compare which of two things is heavier by holding them, and discover that a big thing is not always the heavier one.
Science · Preschool
Children guess and test which things roll (round things and things with wheels) and which slide. They find out that a push makes a still thing move, that a bigger push sends it farther, and that a higher ramp sends a toy car farther, using a simple ramp at home and Olly's ramp simulation.
Science · Preschool
Children learn that plants need water, light and a place to grow, and compare a cared-for plant with one left dry. They put the steps of a bean plant's growth in order (seed, sprout, bigger plant) and start their own bean in a cup, watering it and looking at it each day with a grown-up.
Science · Preschool
Children learn that animals need food, water, air and a safe home. They match animals to the foods they eat and the homes they live in, give each pet its own bowl of water, and practise kind, safe ways to be around animals, such as asking a grown-up before petting a dog.
Science · Preschool
Children look out the window and name the weather: sunny, cloudy, rainy, windy or snowy. They choose what to wear and bring for each kind of weather, then keep a simple picture chart of the weather for a week and count how many days were sunny or rainy.
Science · Preschool
Olly needs a tall tower and a bridge for a toy car. Children learn the builder's cycle: build it, try it, change one thing and try again. They choose materials that stay put instead of rolling away, find out that a wide bottom helps a tower stand, and build and improve their own block bridge at home.
Science · Pre-K
Children discover that some questions can be answered by trying something (Will the apple float?) while others are answered by asking someone (What is your friend's name?). They make a prediction, test which things sink or float, and tell honestly what happened, even when the result surprises them.
Science · Pre-K
Children watch things change over time: ice melts into water, a puddle dries up, a seed sprouts. They put before-and-after pictures in order, run an ice-melt race between a sunny spot and a shady spot, and learn to record what they see with drawings and marks so they can count and remember it later.
Science · Pre-K
Children name what everyday things are made of (wood, metal, cloth, paper, plastic, glass) and run two simple tests: a drip test to see which materials soak up water and which keep it out, and a look-through test to see which materials are see-through. They use what they found to pick a material for a raincoat and a window.
Science · Pre-K
Children sort everyday actions into pushes (away from you) and pulls (toward you). With a ramp simulation and a real ramp, they find that a higher ramp sends a toy car farther, then run their first fair test: same ramp, same car, only the floor changes, and the bumpy carpet stops the car sooner than smooth wood.
Science · Pre-K
Children learn that living things grow and change, while things like rocks and balls do not. They match young animals to grown-ups, put the steps of a chick's and a frog's life in order, and measure a growing plant with blocks to see that it gets taller over days.
Science · Pre-K
Children learn that a habitat is a place where an animal finds food, water and shelter. They explore three habitats close to home (a tree, a pond and the damp ground under a log), sort animals into the habitats where they live, and practise being gentle habitat explorers who look closely, count what they find and put everything back.
Science · Pre-K
Children sort daytime and nighttime, find things that give off light, and discover that a shadow appears when something blocks the light. They follow the sun's pattern across one day (low in the morning, high at midday, low in the evening, then night) and trace their own shadow to see it change from long to short to long.
Science · Pre-K
Olly's toy bunny needs a shelter from rain, wind and hot sun. Children decide what a good shelter must do, test shelters with a gentle 'rain' from a watering can and a 'wind' from a fan, compare two designs fairly and improve the one that failed by choosing a better material, using what they learned about waterproof materials.
Science · Kindergarten
Kindergarten scientists choose the right tool for a job (magnifier, cubes, balance), measure and compare lengths with cubes laid end to end, compare weights with a balance, and learn to back up what they say with evidence: 'I know because I saw, measured or felt it.'
Science · Kindergarten
Children find out that pushes and pulls can start something moving, stop it or change its direction, including when a ball bumps into a wall. They compare strong and gentle pushes, read a simple bar chart from a ramp investigation, and use test results to decide which design really turns a marble into a cup or slows a toy car down.
Science · Kindergarten
Children describe materials by their properties (strong, bendy, waterproof, soft, see-through) and explain why things are made of the materials they are: windows of glass, boots of rubber, pillows of soft cloth. Then they test paper, foil and cardboard as a bridge for toy animals, count how many blocks each holds, and choose the best material using the data.
Science · Kindergarten
Children run a plant investigation in a simulation, changing the hours of light and whether the plant gets water, and read the results to find that plants need both light and water to grow well. They sort animals by whether they eat plants, other animals or both, and find the big pattern: all living things need water, plants use light to make their own food, and animals must eat.
Science · Kindergarten
Squirrels dig holes to hide acorns, beavers dam streams, tree roots crack sidewalks and people build roads. Children find out how living things change the places they live to meet their needs, use a picture model to match living things to places that meet their needs, and choose everyday actions that reduce the harm people do to land, water, air and other living things.
Science · Kindergarten
Children describe the weather from clues and a thermometer, record it on a chart, and read a month of weather records to find patterns, such as more snowy days in January than in July where winters are cold. They learn how weather forecasts help families prepare for severe weather and practise the safe action for thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods and blizzards.
Science · Kindergarten
Why is the slide hot on a sunny afternoon? Children observe that sunlight warms the things it shines on, compare thermometer readings for sand and water in the sun and in the shade, and then design shade structures. They test which cover keeps an ice cube from melting longest and learn which materials block sunlight and which let it through.
Science · Kindergarten
The class bean plant will be alone for a long weekend. Who will water it? Children work like engineers: they ask questions to understand the problem, draw and label a design (a string that carries water from a jar into the soil), explain how its parts help it work, and compare test results from three designs to choose the one that keeps the soil damp.
Science · Grade 1
First graders plan a real investigation: which ball bounces highest? They learn which questions can be investigated, the steps of a fair investigation, the tools scientists use to measure and record, and how to answer a question with a claim backed by evidence from a data table.
Science · Grade 1
Why can't you see your toy in a dark closet? Learners discover that we see objects only when light shines on them and reaches our eyes. With a flashlight test they sort materials that let light through, let some light through, block light and make shadows, or bounce light like a mirror, then use their evidence to choose materials for curtains, windows and a shadow-puppet screen.
Science · Grade 1
Learners twang a ruler, stretch rubber bands and watch rice jump on a plastic-wrap drum to gather evidence that vibrating materials make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate. A string simulation shows how shorter or tighter strings vibrate faster and sound higher, and a harder pluck makes a louder sound.
Science · Grade 1
Lighthouses, sirens, traffic lights and whistles all send messages across a distance. Learners sort light and sound signals, invent a flash-and-beep code and decode messages, then build a cup-and-string phone, test it and use the results to improve it. They finish by choosing the best signal for new situations, such as calling a friend around a corner.
Science · Grade 1
Roots, stems, leaves and flowers each do a job for a plant. Beaks, claws, shells, fins and fur each help an animal find food, stay safe, move or sense the world. Learners label plant parts, sort animal parts by their jobs, and explain how the shape of a part fits its job, from an eagle's hooked beak to a duck's webbed feet.
Science · Grade 1
A kitten grows up to be a cat and an acorn grows into an oak tree: young living things are like their parents. But the kittens in one litter don't look exactly alike. Learners compare parents and offspring, find what is the same and what varies, and discover how parents and offspring behave in ways that help the young survive, from penguins warming eggs to ducklings following their mother.
Science · Grade 1
The sky follows patterns we can predict. Learners track the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, watch the moon's shape change over about a month, explain why stars are visible at night but not in the day, and read a year of daylight data to discover that summer days have more hours of daylight than winter days.
Science · Grade 1
Plants and animals have parts that solve problems: shells protect, webbed feet push water, thick fur keeps out the cold. People copy these ideas to solve human problems, from helmets to hook-and-loop fasteners inspired by sticky burrs. Learners match inventions to the nature ideas behind them, then design a 'duck-foot' paddle glove, test it against a bare hand and use the results to improve it.
Science · Grade 2
Second graders become material detectives. They describe materials by observable properties (color, texture, hardness, flexibility, absorbency, sinking or floating), run tests to find those properties, classify the same objects in different ways using a clear sorting rule, and tell solids from liquids by whether they keep their own shape.
Science · Grade 2
Why are towels cotton and pot handles wood or plastic? Learners connect properties to purposes, then analyze data from material tests, including a simulation that heats one end of metal, wood and plastic spoons, to choose the best material for a job. Finally they take apart a block building and rebuild the same pieces into something new, discovering that small pieces can make many different objects.
Science · Grade 2
Heating and cooling change materials: ice melts, chocolate softens, eggs cook and paper burns. Learners sort these changes into ones that can be reversed (changed back) and ones that cannot, and practise building an argument with evidence: a claim, the observations that support it, and why those observations matter.
Science · Grade 2
Learners plan a fair plant investigation, changing only the hours of light, then measure and compare plant heights to show that plants need light and water to grow. They discover how wind, water and animals carry seeds to new places, and use a cotton-swab 'bee' model to show how animals move pollen between flowers so plants can make seeds.
Science · Grade 2
Forests, deserts, oceans and ponds are home to very different living things. Learners match plants and animals to habitats that meet their needs, then act like field scientists: they count how many different kinds of living things are found in each habitat, compare the numbers in tables and bar charts, and explain why some habitats hold a greater variety of life.
Science · Grade 2
Some changes to Earth's surface happen in minutes: a volcano erupts, an earthquake shakes, a landslide rushes downhill. Others take so long that no one could watch them happen, like a river carving a canyon. Learners sort Earth events by how fast they happen, place them on timelines, and use evidence from several sources (photos, measurements and eyewitness reports) to show that a change happened.
Science · Grade 2
Learners name the shapes of land (mountains, hills, valleys, plains, islands) and bodies of water (oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds), label them on a model, and read maps as flat models of Earth, finding oceans on a world map. Then they discover where Earth's water is: almost all of it in the salty oceans, some frozen as ice and snow, and only a little as liquid fresh water.
Science · Grade 2
Rain washes soil off a hillside, a river eats away at its bank, and wind blows sand dunes across a road. Learners explain how wind and water change the shape of land, explore engineering solutions (plants, rock walls, fences and rows of trees), and compare data from a model 'rainstorm' test to decide which solution best slows erosion, while thinking about tradeoffs such as cost and time.
Science · Grade 3
Third graders learn to plan investigations like scientists: identify the one variable to change, the variables to keep the same and the result to measure. Using a ramp simulation with two variables (ramp height and floor surface), they spot unfair tests, collect repeated trials in a table, find the middle value and write a conclusion the data actually supports.
Science · Grade 3
Every push or pull has a strength and a direction. Learners draw force arrows, discover that balanced forces leave motion unchanged while unbalanced forces start, stop, speed up, slow down or turn objects, and explain a tug-of-war and a stuck box. Then they time a pendulum in a simulation, find the pattern in their measurements and use it to predict future motion.
Science · Grade 3
Magnets can push and pull without touching. Learners test which materials a magnet attracts (only some metals!), discover that like poles repel and opposite poles attract, and gather data showing the magnetic pull gets weaker with distance. They meet static electricity as another force that acts without touching, then define and compare designs for a problem that magnets can solve.
Science · Grade 3
A butterfly, a frog, a bean plant and a dog all have life cycles: birth, growth, reproduction and death. Learners build and label life-cycle models, compare cycles that include dramatic changes in body shape with cycles where the young look like small adults, and analyze data from puppy litters and rabbit families to show that traits are inherited from parents and vary within a group.
Science · Grade 3
Why do brown beetles survive better than green beetles on brown tree bark? Learners use data to explain how small differences between individuals of the same kind can help some survive and have more offspring. They find evidence that the environment also shapes traits (plants grown in shade stay shorter), and argue that living in groups helps animals such as wolves, fish and meerkats survive.
Science · Grade 3
Fish fossils on a mountaintop? Fern fossils in icy Antarctica? Learners discover how fossils form and use them as evidence of what lived long ago and what the environment was like. They argue why, in any habitat, some living things survive well, some less well and some not at all, and evaluate solutions to problems that arise when a habitat changes, such as a road cutting through a forest.
Science · Grade 3
Learners turn weather records into tables and graphs to describe the weather a town can expect in each season, then tell weather (today) from climate (the pattern over many years) and compare climates around the world. Finally they evaluate designs that reduce the damage from weather hazards, such as flood barriers, storm shutters and lightning rods, using evidence and tradeoffs.
Science · Grade 3
The class needs a package that keeps a fragile cracker from breaking when it is dropped. Learners define the problem with criteria and constraints, compare three designs in a decision table, run fair drop tests to find each design's failure points, improve the best one and defend their final choice with evidence, the way real engineering teams do.
Science · Grade 4
Fourth graders sharpen the tools of investigation. They choose the right tool and metric unit for each measurement and read scales carefully, run a simulated investigation on how water temperature affects dissolving time, calculate the average of repeated trials and spot measurement errors, and separate observations from inferences when building a claim with evidence and reasoning.
Science · Grade 4
A faster ball knocks over more pins. Why? Learners gather evidence that the faster an object moves, the more energy it has, using a ramp simulation and collision data. They trace where the energy goes when objects collide (into the motion of the other object, sound and a little warming), predict collision outcomes and write an explanation that connects speed and energy.
Science · Grade 4
Energy travels: heat moves along a metal spoon, light crosses a room, sound reaches your ear and electric current flows through wires to light a bulb. Learners gather evidence of each kind of transfer with heat and circuit simulations, discover what makes a bulb brighter or dimmer, trace the energy conversions inside everyday devices and refine a design of their own.
Science · Grade 4
Waves carry energy without carrying the water along: a floating cork just bobs up and down. Learners model waves with amplitude and wavelength, then model how we see: light from a source bounces off objects and enters our eyes. Finally they use patterns such as flash codes and pixel grids to send information, and compare different solutions for communicating across a distance.
Science · Grade 4
Plants and animals are built from structures that work together: outside ones like thorns, shells and eyes, and inside ones like hearts, lungs, stems' water tubes and skeletons. Learners connect each structure to how it helps the organism survive, grow, behave and reproduce, model how senses send information to the brain so an animal can respond, and build arguments about structures from evidence.
Science · Grade 4
A canyon wall is like a history book written in stone. Learners model how layers of sediment become rock, use the rule that lower layers are usually older, and read the fossils in each layer to work out how a place changed from ocean to swamp to dry land. They then explain how patterns in rock formations, such as a river-cut canyon, show that landscapes change over very long times.
Science · Grade 4
Water, ice, wind and roots break rock apart (weathering) and carry the pieces away (erosion). Learners measure weathering in a model, read maps to find patterns in where mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes occur, and compare engineering solutions that reduce the impact of natural hazards on people, from earthquake-resistant buildings to tsunami warning systems.
Science · Grade 4
Where does the energy for our lights and buses come from? Learners trace energy and fuels back to natural resources, sort them into renewable and nonrenewable, and combine information about how getting and using each resource affects the environment. Then, as engineers for a fictional town, they compare energy options in a decision table and recommend a plan that balances criteria, constraints and tradeoffs.
Science · Grade 5
Fifth graders build the toolkit for the rest of the year. They measure volume by water displacement and convert between metric units, examine what physical models, diagrams and computer simulations can and cannot show, and plan fair tests with controlled variables. A sampling simulation shows why bigger samples and repeated trials give more trustworthy results.
Science · Grade 5
Learners ask whether the amount of matter changes when it melts, dissolves or makes a gas. They build a simplified particle model, predict, run a safe simulated investigation in closed and open containers, record masses and compare evidence. They finish by writing a claim-evidence-reasoning explanation and stating what the simulation can and cannot establish.
Science · Grade 5
Learners act as materials detectives: they identify substances by measured properties such as density, magnetism and solubility, then mix materials and look for evidence. Some mixtures can be separated again because each substance keeps its properties; other combinations make new substances, shown by gas bubbles, a new solid, a color change or a temperature change. A dissolving simulation and a sink-or-float simulation provide data, and each states what it cannot establish.
Science · Grade 5
The energy in your breakfast was once sunlight. Learners use models to trace the energy in food back to the sun, then argue from historical and simulated evidence that a plant builds its body mostly from air and water, not soil. Finally they follow energy along food chains and describe how animals use food energy for growth, repair, motion and warmth.
Science · Grade 5
In a healthy ecosystem, matter is used again and again. Learners build food webs with producers, consumers and decomposers, then model how the materials of life cycle: plants take in carbon dioxide, water and minerals; animals eat plants and each other; and decomposers return matter to the soil and air. A predator-prey simulation shows how changing one population ripples through the others, and what such a simple model cannot tell us.
Science · Grade 5
Earth works as four connected systems: rock and soil (geosphere), water (hydrosphere), air (atmosphere) and living things (biosphere). Learners model how the systems interact, from rain wearing down mountains to roots cracking rock. They graph where Earth's water is (almost all salty, most fresh water frozen or underground), follow water through the water cycle, and explain how communities protect the small share of fresh water we can use.
Science · Grade 5
Why don't people on the other side of the world fall off? Why does the sun look so much brighter than every other star? Learners argue from evidence that Earth's gravity pulls everything toward its center, that the sun looks brighter because it is so much closer, and they graph shadow data and star observations to find the daily and seasonal patterns caused by Earth spinning and orbiting the sun.
Science · Grade 5
In this capstone course, learners act as environmental engineers for a fictional school. They combine information about how human activities affect land, water, air and living things and how communities use science to protect them. Then they define a stewardship problem (too much cafeteria waste going to the landfill), analyze a waste audit, compare solutions with criteria and constraints, and recommend a plan backed by data and honest tradeoffs.
Science · Grade 6
Engineering starts with people, not gadgets. Learners observe and listen to users and stakeholders to find a genuine need, plan respectful user research with neutral questions, write solution-neutral problem statements with a sensible scope, and turn a client's wish list into a specification: firm constraints plus measurable criteria with target values, units and test methods. An optional Going further lesson adds factors of safety, shared budgets and breaking a large problem into sub-problems.
Science · Grade 6
Learners turn everyday questions into testable ones, name the independent, dependent and controlled variables, and measure length, mass, volume and temperature in SI units with sensible precision. They run a ramp simulation one variable at a time, use a simple mathematical model to predict, and compare physical, conceptual and mathematical models, always asking what a model shows and what it leaves out.
Science · Grade 6
Learners use the particle model to explain the properties of solids, liquids and gases, then follow particles through melting, freezing, evaporation, boiling and condensation. They read heating and cooling curves and explain why temperature stays level during a change of state, calculate density from mass and volume to predict floating and sinking, and distinguish dissolving from melting while keeping track of mass.
Science · Grade 6
Learners take a defined problem (a tablet stand for a school's video-call corner) from research to a modelled concept. They analyse existing solutions function by function and record sources honestly, generate many ideas before judging, select concepts by screening against constraints and comparing with a reference design, communicate with annotated sketches and orthographic views, convert between drawing and real lengths with scales, and choose physical, digital or mathematical models while stating their limits. An optional Going further lesson explores how areas and masses change when models are scaled, and counts concepts in a morphological chart.
Science · Grade 6
Learners equip a school's outdoor classroom. They choose materials by matching whole property profiles (strength, stiffness, density, toughness, durability, conductivity, cost) to requirements, using density data from a float simulation; explain tension, compression, triangulation, trusses and deep beams; and use levers, pulleys, wheels and axles and gears, calculating ideal mechanical advantage and the force-for-distance tradeoff. An optional Going further lesson calculates work, efficiency and compound gear ratios.
Science · Grade 6
Learners separate temperature (how fast particles move on average) from thermal energy (the total energy of all the particles' motion) and predict that energy always moves from warmer to cooler objects. They identify conduction, convection and radiation, use heat-transfer simulation data and temperature–time graphs to compare conductors and insulators, then apply criteria and constraints to evaluate and improve an insulated container.
Science · Grade 6
Learners describe forces as interactions between two objects, define a system and its surroundings, and combine forces along a line to find the net force and predict changes in motion. They investigate friction with the ramp simulation, calculate average speed with units, and read and draw distance–time graphs in which steepness shows speed.
Science · Grade 6
Learners treat devices as systems. They trace energy chains through devices and separate useful outputs from energy that spreads to the surroundings; describe a school greenhouse's cooling system as inputs, processes and outputs with sensors, a controller, actuators and a power source; compare open-loop and closed-loop control and write and trace flowcharts; and use a circuit simulation to choose series or parallel arrangements for a lantern. An optional Going further lesson calculates power, energy budgets, battery run time and efficiency, and adds a switching band (hysteresis) to on/off control.
Science · Grade 6
Learners examine the evidence behind cell theory, use microscope calculations for total magnification and image size, and compare plant and animal cells by matching cell parts to their jobs. They order the levels of organisation from cell to organism, explain how body systems work together during exercise and eating, and compare how unicellular and multicellular organisms carry out life functions.
Science · Grade 6
Learners choose prototypes of the right fidelity for each design question, then use two simulations as virtual prototypes: a ramp model to map a design space and find every setting that lands a toy car in a target zone, and a heat-transfer model to screen handle materials for a camping mug. They list what each simulation leaves out, separate questions a model can answer from those that need a physical test, and plan safe physical prototyping with a hazard–risk–control assessment. An optional Going further lesson calibrates a model against real measurements and contrasts interpolation with extrapolation.
Science · Grade 6
A maker club's recycled-card shelf brackets keep failing, and learners use them to practise the testing half of engineering. They write test plans tied to specific requirements with pass thresholds and repeated trials, choose instruments with suitable resolution, summarise repeated measurements, handle odd results honestly, and use a sampling simulation to see why quality checks need large enough samples. They analyse failures with the 'five whys' to separate symptoms from root causes, then make data-driven iterations, one change at a time, and decide when to stop. An optional Going further lesson quantifies measurement uncertainty and compares designs whose results overlap.
Science · Grade 6
Learners classify organisms as producers, consumers and decomposers and trace energy and matter through food chains and food webs. They classify competition, predation, mutualism and parasitism across different ecosystems, use population graphs to explain limiting factors and carrying capacity, and run a predator–prey simulation to explain why predator numbers rise and fall after their prey's.
Science · Grade 6
Good designs work for the full range of people who will use them and do as little harm as possible across their whole life. Learners apply universal-design principles and check accessibility with real users, trace a product's environmental impact through its life cycle, and weigh competing criteria with a weighted decision matrix and a sensitivity check. A Going further lesson compares options quantitatively with functional units, break-even points and payback times.
Science · Grade 6
Learners model the water cycle as water moving among oceans, air, land, ice and living things, driven by energy from the Sun and by gravity. They explain humidity, dew point and cloud formation, link air pressure to wind and weather, use weather-station data to identify a passing front, and distinguish day-to-day weather from long-term climate using data tables and graphs.
Science · Grade 6
In this year capstone, learners work as an engineering team helping a community garden club. They define a design problem with measurable criteria and constraints, plan a fair test, generate data with the plant-growth and heat-transfer simulations, analyse means, ranges and outliers, write claim–evidence–reasoning explanations, and use test results to improve a design while weighing trade-offs.
Science · Grade 6
The final course turns a design project into evidence other people can trust and build on. Learners keep an honest engineering notebook, structure a design report that traces every requirement to a test and a result, present data clearly and truthfully, credit sources and teammates, and plan an accessible demonstration that invites critique. A Going further lesson adds a bill of materials, safety margins and a verification summary.
Science · Grade 7
Learners turn observations into testable questions, hypotheses and predictions, then design fair tests with one independent variable, a measured dependent variable, controlled variables and a control group. They use simulations to see why repeated trials and larger, representative samples matter, summarise repeated measurements with mean, median and range, decide what to do with outliers, and judge data quality by separating accuracy from precision and spotting bias.
Science · Grade 7
Learners identify substances by their characteristic properties, then use property data from before and after an interaction to decide whether a new substance formed. They build atoms into molecules, read simple formulas and count atoms, and explain a chemical reaction as the same atoms rearranging into new substances. They test conservation of mass in closed and open containers and balance a few very simple equations by counting atoms.
Science · Grade 7
Learners use data to describe how kinetic energy depends on mass and speed, and treat potential energy as energy stored by the arrangement of interacting objects, calculating gravitational potential energy as weight × height. They account for energy as it is transferred and converted, including the share that spreads into the surroundings. They then classify reactions and processes as exothermic or endothermic from temperature data and finish by evaluating hand-warmer and cold-pack prototypes against criteria and constraints.
Science · Grade 7
Learners describe waves by amplitude, wavelength, frequency and period, link amplitude to the energy a wave carries, and calculate with wave speed = frequency × wavelength. They compare mechanical waves, which need a medium, with electromagnetic waves, use a string simulation to connect frequency and pitch, and explain how materials reflect, absorb or transmit waves. The course ends with analog and digital signals and how many messages a code of bits can carry.
Science · Grade 7
Learners trace how information travels from sensory receptors along neurons to the brain or spinal cord and out to muscles, and compare fast automatic reflexes with slower voluntary responses that can change through memory and practice. They analyse reaction-time data from a ruler-drop investigation, explain homeostasis as negative feedback using body temperature, and use exercise data to argue that the respiratory, circulatory, muscular and nervous systems work together.
Science · Grade 7
Learners compare asexual reproduction, which copies one parent's genetic information, with sexual reproduction, which combines half from each parent and produces variation. They connect chromosomes, genes and alleles to dominant and recessive traits, use Punnett squares to predict offspring as fractions and percentages, and compare predictions with real counts. They then explain mutations and environmental effects as sources of variation, and use evidence to explain how animal behaviours and plant structures increase reproductive success.
Science · Grade 7
Learners model how energy flows one way through an ecosystem while matter cycles, and use energy pyramids and the approximately 10% rule to calculate the energy available at each level. They describe biodiversity and the services ecosystems provide, use data and a predator–prey simulation to argue how disruptions ripple through populations, and evaluate competing solutions for protecting biodiversity against criteria, constraints and evidence.
Science · Grade 7
Learners explain why oil, coal, metal ores and groundwater are found in some places and not others, using the geologic processes that formed and concentrated them. They classify resources as renewable or non-renewable, compare rates of use with rates of replacement, and calculate total impact as per-person use × population. They then use weighted decision matrices to compare solutions and plan, monitor and improve a design that reduces a human impact.
Science · Grade 8
Learners discover why careful repeated measurements still differ, and report results honestly as a mean plus or minus an uncertainty. They write very large and very small quantities in scientific notation and convert metric units, test a pendulum model against data by comparing ranges, and use best-fit lines to describe trends and make predictions while recognising the limits of extrapolation.
Science · Grade 8
Learners describe motion precisely with velocity and acceleration and read and draw velocity–time graphs. They use Newton's first and second laws to connect net force, mass and acceleration with F = ma calculations, identify action–reaction pairs and explain collisions with momentum, and finish by explaining how gravity depends on mass and distance and why mass and weight are different.
Science · Grade 8
Learners use proportional reasoning to show that kinetic energy grows with mass and with the square of speed, calculate gravitational potential energy and describe energy stored in gravitational and magnetic fields. They compare series and parallel circuits with a simplified simulation, track energy transfers and efficiency in electrical devices, and use investigation data to find what makes an electromagnet stronger.
Science · Grade 8
Learners use a wave model of light to explain reflection, refraction, absorption, transmission and colour, then explore the whole electromagnetic spectrum, its uses and hazards, and calculate wavelengths with c = fλ. They see how sound and other signals are digitised by sampling and bits, argue with evidence why digital signals are more reliable, and connect the energy a wave carries to its amplitude.
Science · Grade 8
Learners model how a gene's sequence codes for a protein and how mutations can be harmful, beneficial or neutral. They explain natural selection through variation, inheritance, selection and time, track changing trait frequencies with percentages and graphs, and compare artificial selection with genetic engineering, weighing benefits and concerns and separating scientific questions from questions of values.
Science · Grade 8
Learners read rock layers like pages of a history book, using superposition, cross-cutting relationships and index fossils to put events in order. They organise Earth's 4.6-billion-year history with fossils and the geologic time scale, weigh the evidence for plate tectonics, model the rock cycle and the energy that drives it, and calculate how centimetres per year add up to hundreds of kilometres over millions of years.
Science · Grade 8
Learners use an Earth–Sun–Moon model to explain the Moon's phases, eclipses and the seasons, then explain how gravity shapes orbits and grasp the true scale of the solar system. They connect energy from the Sun to the greenhouse effect, analyse real-world carbon dioxide and temperature data, and evaluate ways of reducing human impacts on climate with numbers and evidence.
Science · Grade 8
In this capstone, learners take on one design challenge from start to finish: a bus-stop shelter that keeps people cooler without electricity. They define precise criteria and constraints using heat-transfer science, test materials with a simulation, analyse prototype data with means and uncertainty, choose between designs with a weighted decision matrix, plan iterations that change one feature at a time, and communicate the result in an honest written report.
Science · Grade 9
Learners turn observations of living things into testable questions, hypotheses and predictions, and learn what observational and experimental evidence can each show. They plan safe and ethical biology work, design controlled experiments that allow for biological variability, analyse data with means, ranges and percentage change, and use microscope calculations to measure cells.
Science · Grade 9
Learners explain how the polarity of water and hydrogen bonding give water the properties living things depend on, classify carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids by their building blocks and functions, and write balanced equations for the condensation and hydrolysis reactions that build and break them. They finish by modelling enzymes as shaped protein catalysts and interpreting temperature, pH and rate data, including denaturation.
Science · Grade 9
Learners compare prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and follow a protein through the organelles that make and export it. They model the cell membrane as a phospholipid bilayer studded with proteins, explain and predict diffusion and osmosis in animal and plant cells using real-style data, distinguish passive, active and bulk transport by energy use and direction, and calculate surface-area-to-volume ratios to explain why cells stay small.
Science · Grade 9
Learners explain ATP as the energy currency that links energy-releasing and energy-using processes, then model photosynthesis and cellular respiration with balanced equations, organelle locations and stages. They analyse limiting factors and the balance between photosynthesis and respiration with a growth model and gas-exchange data, and finish by tracking atoms and energy through plants, animals and decomposers, including where a tree's mass comes from.
Science · Grade 9
Learners model the cell cycle and mitosis, track chromosome and DNA numbers through each stage, and estimate how long each phase lasts from root-tip counts. They explain how checkpoints and control genes keep division in check and how cancer arises when that control is lost, then explore how differentiation and stem cells turn one fertilised egg into many specialised cell types, including the scientific and ethical questions stem cell research raises.
Science · Grade 9
Learners explain how meiosis makes haploid gametes and shuffles alleles, then use Mendel's model, Punnett squares and the rules of probability to predict monohybrid and dihybrid crosses as fractions and expected counts. They extend the model to incomplete dominance, codominance, multiple alleles and sex-linked traits, and finish by reading pedigrees to infer how a trait is inherited and to calculate family probabilities.
Science · Grade 9
Learners model DNA's structure and its semi-conservative replication, then follow a gene to a protein by transcribing DNA and translating mRNA with a codon table. They classify mutations and predict their effects, explain how genes are switched on and off, and finish with the science and ethics of PCR, gel electrophoresis and gene editing.
Science · Grade 9
Learners explain natural selection as a mechanism acting on heritable variation, weigh fossil, anatomical, embryological, molecular and biogeographic evidence for common ancestry, and measure evolution as changing allele frequencies, including the role of chance in small populations. They finish by explaining how reproductive isolation produces new species and by reading cladograms built from shared derived characters.
Science · Grade 9
Learners model population growth with exponential and logistic equations, explain carrying capacity with density-dependent and density-independent limiting factors, and analyse predator–prey cycles with a simulation whose rule they take apart. They classify species interactions by their effects on each partner and estimate real population sizes with quadrats and mark–recapture, stating the assumptions behind every estimate.
Science · Grade 9
Learners place organisms at trophic levels in food webs, calculate gross and net primary production and the efficiency of energy transfer between levels, and explain pyramids of numbers, biomass and energy, including inverted ones. They then model the carbon cycle at ecosystem and global scale, including anaerobic decomposition and fossil carbon, and the nitrogen cycle with its microbes, writing balanced equations for key steps.
Science · Grade 9
Learners analyse how habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive species, overharvesting, pollution and climate change affect populations, using species–area, sustainable-yield, biomagnification and timing data. They explain why biodiversity and genetic diversity matter for ecosystem services and resilience, and finish by evaluating conservation and restoration solutions with criteria, constraints, weighted decision matrices and monitoring data.
Science · Grade 9
In this capstone, learners carry out a complete biology investigation into how light affects seedling growth. They plan it with variables, controls, replication and a risk assessment, run a virtual lab and process its data into a graph with a meaningful gradient, analyse a realistic class data set with means, uncertainties and anomalies, evaluate errors, validity and the limits of virtual labs, and write report sections that a teacher reviews.
Science · Grade 10
The opening chemistry unit builds the habits every later course depends on: reading hazard information and planning safe work, using SI units and scientific notation, recording measurements with honest precision and significant figures, calculating density with dimensional analysis, and judging what a chemical model shows and leaves out.
Science · Grade 10
Learners use atomic number and mass number to count the particles in atoms, ions and isotopes, follow the experimental evidence that forced the atomic model to change from Dalton to Bohr, calculate average atomic mass from isotope data, and connect electron energy levels to the line spectra that identify elements, even in distant stars.
Science · Grade 10
Learners read the periodic table as a model: position tells the number of shells and valence electrons. They explain trends in atomic radius, ionization energy and electronegativity with one idea (the attraction between the nucleus and outer electrons), test those explanations against real data, and use them to predict the behaviour of elements they have never studied.
Science · Grade 10
Learners explain why atoms bond: by transferring electrons to form ions, or by sharing pairs of electrons. They write formulas for ionic compounds, build Lewis structures, predict molecular shapes and polarity, and then use bonding and intermolecular forces to explain melting points, boiling points and electrical conductivity, including the unusual behaviour of water.
Science · Grade 10
Learners read chemical formulas as atom inventories, connect particle models of reactions to symbolic equations, and balance equations by changing coefficients only, never the identities of substances. They then explain conservation of mass as atoms rearranging, test that idea against open and closed systems, and finish with unseen reactions and a clear statement of what a balanced equation can and cannot tell us.
Science · Grade 10
Learners meet the mole, the chemist's counting unit that links the invisible world of particles to masses we can weigh. They calculate molar masses, convert between mass, moles and numbers of particles with dimensional analysis, and use percent composition data to work out empirical and molecular formulas.
Science · Grade 10
Balanced equations become quantitative tools. Learners use mole ratios to predict amounts, carry out mass-to-mass calculations and check them against conservation of mass, decide which reactant runs out first, and compare the theoretical yield with what a real reaction produces.
Science · Grade 10
Learners use the kinetic-molecular model to explain gas pressure and temperature, then derive and apply the gas laws: Boyle's, Charles's, Gay-Lussac's, the combined law and the ideal gas law. They link gas volumes to stoichiometry and finish by asking when the ideal model breaks down for real gases.
Science · Grade 10
Learners explain dissolving with particle attractions ('like dissolves like'), separate how FAST something dissolves from how MUCH can dissolve, read solubility curves to predict crystallisation, and calculate concentrations as molarity and parts per million. They finish by planning safe dilutions with M₁V₁ = M₂V₂.
Science · Grade 10
Learners track energy in reactions: they classify exothermic and endothermic changes from data and energy diagrams, measure heat with q = mcΔT, and estimate enthalpy changes from bond energies. They then explain reaction rates with collision theory and activation energy, analyse gas-volume data and design a fair rate investigation.
Science · Grade 10
Learners discover that many reactions run in both directions and settle into a dynamic equilibrium, and they predict how equilibria respond to changes using Le Chatelier's principle. They then define acids and bases by proton transfer, connect pH to hydrogen-ion concentration on a logarithmic scale, balance neutralisation equations and calculate unknown concentrations from titration data.
Science · Grade 10
The chemistry capstone takes learners through a complete investigation of how temperature affects reaction rate: planning with a risk assessment, collecting and processing repeated measurements, analysing trends and uncertainty, and writing a lab report that a teacher reviews. A simulation provides practice data, and an optional supervised low-risk practical provides real evidence; the course is explicit about what each can and cannot establish.
Science · Grade 11
Learners build the measurement toolkit that every later physics course relies on: SI units, prefixes and dimensional checks; reporting measurements with absolute and percent uncertainty and matching significant figures; and combining uncertainties in calculations. They then linearise data (T² against L for a pendulum) to extract a physical constant from a gradient, and judge physics models by their assumptions, their domain of validity and whether they agree with data within uncertainty.
Science · Grade 11
Learners describe motion precisely with vectors, read and draw position–time and velocity–time graphs (gradient and area), and solve problems with the constant-acceleration equations, including free fall. They finish by analysing projectiles as two independent motions, constant velocity horizontally and constant acceleration vertically, linked only by time.
Science · Grade 11
Learners identify the forces on an object and draw free-body diagrams, then use Newton's first and second laws to predict motion for single objects, connected objects and people in lifts. They model friction with static and kinetic coefficients, resolve weight on inclines, and finish by separating Newton's third-law pairs from balanced forces on one object.
Science · Grade 11
Learners treat momentum as a vector, connect impulse to force–time graphs, and derive conservation of momentum from Newton's third law. They apply it to collisions, recoil and explosions, use kinetic energy to tell elastic from inelastic collisions, and finish by using impulse to evaluate and design devices that reduce collision forces, from crumple zones to helmet liners.
Science · Grade 11
Learners define work as energy transferred by a force (W = Fd cos θ) and connect it to kinetic energy through the work–energy theorem. They calculate kinetic, gravitational and elastic potential energy, apply conservation of energy with and without friction (including a ramp simulation whose limits are stated), and finish with power and efficiency, tracking where energy goes in real machines.
Science · Grade 11
Learners show that an object moving in a circle at constant speed is accelerating toward the centre (a = v²/r) and identify the real forces that supply that centripetal force on roads, strings and loops. They then use Newton's law of universal gravitation and the inverse-square relationship to calculate forces and field strengths, model circular orbits, explain apparent weightlessness, and linearise planetary data to confirm Kepler's third law and even estimate Earth's mass.
Science · Grade 11
Learners model waves as travelling disturbances that carry energy, not matter, and describe them quantitatively with amplitude, wavelength, period, frequency and speed. They use v = fλ, apply the principle of superposition to predict constructive and destructive interference from path differences, and analyse standing waves on strings, including harmonics and a simulated string investigation.
Science · Grade 11
Learners apply the wave model to sound and light. They relate loudness to intensity with the inverse-square law and the decibel scale, explain the Doppler effect, use c = fλ across the electromagnetic spectrum, calculate refraction with Snell's law and explain total internal reflection, and predict images formed by converging lenses with ray rules and the lens equation.
Science · Grade 11
Learners explain charging as the transfer of electrons, with charge conserved and quantised, and use Coulomb's law to calculate electric forces and compare them with gravity. They model the space around charges as an electric field (E = F/q, E = kQ/r², field-line rules), define potential difference as energy per unit charge, and use uniform fields between plates and energy conservation (qV = ½mv²) to predict how charged particles move.
Science · Grade 11
Learners treat current as a flow of conserved charge driven by a potential difference, use Ohm's law and current–voltage graphs to distinguish ohmic resistors from filament lamps, and apply the rules of series and parallel circuits, including combinations. They calculate electrical power, energy and cost in kilowatt-hours, then use a deliberately simplified bulb simulation, compare its predictions with real lamp data, and reason about parallel household wiring and fuses.
Science · Grade 11
Learners build the electromagnetic model step by step: magnetic fields of magnets and currents, the force on a current in a field and how it drives motors, electromagnetic induction and Lenz's law in generators, and transformers that make long-distance power transmission efficient. The course ends by connecting changing electric and magnetic fields to electromagnetic waves.
Science · Grade 11
The physics capstone is a complete investigation of how far a rolling car travels across a surface after leaving a ramp. Learners derive a prediction from energy conservation (distance proportional to release height, with gradient 1/μ), plan a safe fair test, process repeated measurements with uncertainties, find a gradient and intercept with maximum and minimum lines, and evaluate their evidence in a report reviewed by the teacher. A simulation provides practice data; an optional low-risk practical provides real evidence.
Science · Grade 12
Learners break real environmental questions into parts that evidence can answer and parts that values must decide, and name the Earth systems and disciplines each part involves. They then model environmental systems as stocks and flows, calculate residence times with units, trace reinforcing and balancing feedback loops, and finish by testing the assumptions that make a simple box model trustworthy or misleading.
Science · Grade 12
Learners explain where biomes occur using temperature, precipitation and altitude, then measure biodiversity quantitatively with species richness, evenness and Simpson's diversity index. They classify ecosystem services, trace trophic cascades from keystone species, compare the resistance and resilience of ecosystems with disturbance data, and evaluate evidence about whether a changed ecosystem has recovered or shifted to a new state.
Science · Grade 12
Learners treat a population as a stock with births and immigration flowing in and deaths and emigration flowing out. They calculate growth rates and doubling times with the rule of 70, explain the demographic transition, read age structures and dependency ratios to predict population momentum, and use logistic growth to reason about carrying capacity, overshoot and dieback. The course ends with ecological footprints, biocapacity and the IPAT relation, and with the limits of each measure.
Science · Grade 12
Learners build the physical case for climate change step by step. They describe the atmosphere's layers and lapse rate, calculate Earth's energy balance and explain the greenhouse effect at the molecular level, then track carbon between reservoirs in gigatonnes and parts per million. They analyse the carbon dioxide and temperature records, weigh independent lines of evidence for a human cause, and interpret feedbacks, climate sensitivity and model projections with their uncertainty ranges.
Science · Grade 12
Learners balance a watershed's water budget in millimetres and cubic metres, then follow water underground to explain how aquifers store and transmit it and to calculate how fast over-pumping lowers a water table. They compare water use by sector, separate withdrawal from consumption, and test claims about irrigation efficiency. Finally they explain how soils form and are layered, convert erosion rates into lost depth, and evaluate land-use and farming practices with data and tradeoffs.
Science · Grade 12
Learners trace fossil, nuclear and renewable energy back to its origins and follow the conversions to electricity. They calculate efficiencies of devices and whole energy chains, separate power from energy, and use capacity factors to turn a plant's rating into realistic annual output. With life-cycle emissions intensities they compare sources fairly, and they finish by analysing multi-criteria tradeoffs: removing dominated options, weighting criteria and testing whether a ranking survives a change in priorities.
Science · Grade 12
Learners classify air and water pollutants by source and chemistry, balance the reactions behind acid deposition, and measure pollution quantitatively in percent, ppm, ppb and mg/L against guideline values. They trace eutrophication from nutrient runoff to oxygen-starved water, interpret dissolved-oxygen data, and read dose–response curves, LD50 values, reference doses and biomagnification with attention to the limits of toxicity data. The course ends by comparing prevention, treatment and remediation by cost-effectiveness.
Science · Grade 12
Learners design environmental sampling plans and use a sampling simulation to see how sample size and bias affect estimates. They separate random from systematic measurement error, summarise repeated measurements with standard deviation and standard error, extract trends from noisy time series with units, and test causal claims against confounding, reverse causation and study design. The course ends with reporting and comparing results as ranges, so that conclusions match the strength of the data.
Science · Grade 12
Learners act as sustainability engineers for a fictional rural school that needs safe water and a more comfortable building. They define the problem with measurable criteria and constraints, run simplified life-cycle assessments with functional units and break-even points, and design for reuse, repair and recycling using material-flow calculations. They then build a weighted decision matrix from raw data, normalising each criterion and testing its sensitivity, and apply everything to drinking-water treatment and to heat flow through a building's envelope.
Science · Grade 12
Environmental decisions mix scientific evidence with values and costs. Learners separate empirical claims from value judgements and recommendations, judge how strong the evidence behind a claim is, compare options with cost-effectiveness and benefit–cost reasoning under uncertainty, describe policy instruments neutrally, and communicate uncertainty honestly in a short evidence-based policy brief.
Science · Grade 12
One environmental story, rising carbon dioxide, is examined through three disciplinary lenses. After a shared lesson on how each science frames questions, learners take a biology extension (ocean acidification and shell-building organisms), a chemistry extension (carbonate chemistry and the logarithmic pH scale) and a physics extension (Earth's radiation balance, albedo and solar energy). Teachers may assign one strand in depth; the quiz samples all three.
Science · Grade 12
The capstone guides learners through a genuine small research project: framing a focused question from a source review, evaluating and citing sources, designing an ethical, safe sampling study, analysing data with means, uncertainty and trends, and communicating results through an abstract and peer review. A worked example follows a student lichen survey of roadside air quality; learners then plan and report their own study for teacher review.
