Curriculum / Global Curriculum / Grade 9

Grade 9 Science.

10textbooks

250lessons

146competencies

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The whole year, lesson by lesson.

Textbook 1Independent Investigation, Quantitative Data, Models, and Engineering Systems

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Independent Questions, Methods, and Documented Technique

Chapter 2

Sensors, Spreadsheets, Graphs, and Quantitative Evidence

Chapter 3

Testing Models Against Evidence

Chapter 4

Systems Engineering, Technology Ethics, and Scientific Decision-Making

Textbook 2Atomic Theory, Electron Arrangement, Periodic Trends, Valence, and Gas Behavior

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Developing Atomic Theory and Electron Arrangement

Chapter 2

Periodicity and Chemical Trends

Chapter 3

Valence, Ions, Formulas, and Structure

Chapter 4

Gas Pressure, Volume, Temperature, and Particle Number

Textbook 3The Mole, Balanced Equations, and Basic Stoichiometry

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

The Mole and Molar Mass

Chapter 2

Balancing Chemical Equations

Chapter 3

Mole Ratios and Basic Stoichiometry

Chapter 4

Limiting Reactants, Yield, and Quantitative Reaction Evidence

Textbook 4Kinematics, Newton’s Laws, Work, Energy, Power, and Efficiency

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Displacement, Velocity, Acceleration, and Motion Graphs

Chapter 2

Newton’s Laws and Free-Body Diagrams

Chapter 3

Work, Kinetic Energy, and Gravitational Potential Energy

Chapter 4

Power, Efficiency, and Engineered Mechanical Systems

Textbook 5Waves, Optics, Electricity, and Electromagnetism

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Wave Calculations and Diffraction

Chapter 2

Reflection, Refraction, Mirrors, and Lenses

Chapter 3

Current, Voltage, Resistance, and Circuit Calculations

Chapter 4

Electrical Power, Magnetic Forces, and Induction

Textbook 6Macromolecules, Enzymes, Cell Transport, and Cell Division

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Biological Macromolecules

Chapter 2

Enzymes and Factors Affecting Activity

Chapter 3

Diffusion, Osmosis, and Active Transport

Chapter 4

Mitosis, Meiosis, Growth, and Reproduction

Textbook 7DNA, Molecular Genetics, Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

DNA Structure and the Path from Gene to Trait

Chapter 2

Evolutionary Mechanisms, Speciation, and Evidence

Chapter 3

Quantitative Population and Community Ecology

Chapter 4

Energy Flow, Nutrient Cycles, and Biodiversity

Textbook 8Human Anatomy, Homeostasis, Reproduction, Disease, Epidemiology, and Public Health

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Human Physiology and Homeostasis

Chapter 2

Human Reproduction, Hormones, Inheritance, and Development

Chapter 3

Nutrition, Immunity, and Disease

Chapter 4

Epidemiology, Prevention, and Public-Health Decisions

Textbook 9Minerals, Rocks, Geological Time, Resources, and Environmental Systems

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Mineral Identification and Rock Interpretation

Chapter 2

Soil, Groundwater, and Environmental Geology

Chapter 3

Geological Time, Correlation, and Dating

Chapter 4

Resource Cycles, Environmental Systems, and Technology Decisions

Textbook 10Meteorology, Oceanography, Climate Systems, Orbital Motion, Stars, and Spectra

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Meteorology and Weather-System Analysis

Chapter 2

Ocean Circulation and Ocean–Atmosphere Exchange

Chapter 3

Climate Records, Variability, Forcing, and Feedback

Chapter 4

Orbital Motion, Stars, Spectra, and Astronomical Evidence

Every coin is a 15-minute lesson.

Explained simply, shown with pictures, then put to the test. Stars are chapter reviews. The trophy is the final review.

See how a lesson works

Every competency, covered.

The 146 competencies set for Grade 9 Science, and every one has lessons behind it.

Independent Investigation, Quantitative Data, Models, and Engineering Systems

28 competencies

Analyze quantitative scientific data using spreadsheets, sensors, formulas, appropriate graphs, and calculated summaries.
Select a graph or representation suited to categorical, continuous, time-series, distributional, or relational data.
Test a scientific model against observations or measurements and identify where predictions succeed or fail.
Use mathematical relationships to make predictions and compare predicted values with measured results.
Interpret gradients, intercepts, areas, distributions, ratios, and proportional relationships where scientifically appropriate.
Identify uncertainty arising from measurement, sampling, assumptions, model structure, and missing variables.
Distinguish a statistically or visually apparent relationship from a scientifically supported causal mechanism.
Define a systems-design problem using measurable requirements, constraints, risks, stakeholders, and system boundaries.
Apply scientific and mathematical principles to analyze possible solutions.
Use computing, simulation, sensors, or spreadsheets to test or compare designs.
Analyze failure modes, safety, reliability, efficiency, and environmental impact.
Revise and document a system design in response to evidence.
Compare technologies through benefits, risks, costs, uncertainty, accessibility, and ethical considerations.
Communicate an engineering recommendation while distinguishing scientific evidence from stakeholder values.
Identify scientific misinformation, disinformation, unsupported certainty, and misleading presentation.
Evaluate claims using primary evidence, source expertise, method quality, replication, and consensus where relevant.
Explain how uncertainty may be misrepresented to exaggerate or dismiss scientific findings.
Analyze environmental, public-health, and technology decisions through evidence and systems effects.
Distinguish scientific feasibility from ethical acceptability, legal permission, affordability, or political preference.
Communicate a scientifically grounded decision while acknowledging trade-offs and affected groups.
Formulate an independently testable scientific question and hypothesis grounded in an established model or prior evidence.
Select and justify an experimental, observational, modeling, simulation, or secondary-data method appropriate to the question.
Identify independent, dependent, controlled, and confounding variables and explain how they affect validity.
Produce a documented method containing equipment, measurement ranges, sampling approach, calibration, risk controls, data processing, and ethical considerations where relevant.
Conduct investigations using appropriate scientific technique, calibrated tools, digital sensors, and traceable records.
Evaluate reliability, accuracy, precision, validity, and uncertainty at an introductory applied level.
Revise a method in response to evidence, risk, measurement limitations, anomalous results, or model–data disagreement.
Communicate a defensible conclusion whose confidence matches the strength and limits of the evidence.

Atomic Theory, Electron Arrangement, Periodic Trends, Valence, and Gas Behavior

12 competencies

Describe the development of atomic theory using evidence from successive scientific models.
Represent electron arrangement in simple shell-based models for selected elements.
Relate electron arrangement to period and group position.
Explain broad periodic trends in atomic size, metallic character, reactivity, and ion formation qualitatively.
Use valence to predict simple ion charges.
Construct simple ionic formulas from ion charges.
Interpret simple covalent formulas and molecular composition.
Compare ionic, molecular, metallic, and giant covalent structures at a foundational level.
Relate broad structure and bonding models to conductivity, melting behavior, hardness, and state.
Explain gas pressure through particle collisions with container surfaces.
Explain qualitative relationships among gas pressure, volume, temperature, and particle number.
Analyze supplied or collected gas data using proportional reasoning and graphs.

The Mole, Balanced Equations, and Basic Stoichiometry

10 competencies

Define the mole as an amount containing a fixed number of particles.
Relate moles, particle number, molar mass, and measured mass in straightforward calculations.
Calculate relative formula mass from supplied atomic masses.
Balance chemical equations through atom conservation.
Interpret balanced equations as mole and particle ratios.
Perform basic mole-to-mole stoichiometric calculations.
Perform basic mass-to-mole and mole-to-mass calculations.
Identify the limiting reactant conceptually in simple supplied examples.
Explain theoretical and actual yield qualitatively without advanced yield analysis.
Use quantitative evidence to evaluate conservation of mass in a reaction.

Kinematics, Newton’s Laws, Work, Energy, Power, and Efficiency

23 competencies

Define a systems-design problem using measurable requirements, constraints, risks, stakeholders, and system boundaries.
Apply scientific and mathematical principles to analyze possible solutions.
Use computing, simulation, sensors, or spreadsheets to test or compare designs.
Analyze failure modes, safety, reliability, efficiency, and environmental impact.
Revise and document a system design in response to evidence.
Compare technologies through benefits, risks, costs, uncertainty, accessibility, and ethical considerations.
Communicate an engineering recommendation while distinguishing scientific evidence from stakeholder values.
Distinguish scalar distance from directional displacement.
Calculate speed and velocity in one-dimensional contexts.
Calculate acceleration as change in velocity divided by time.
Interpret and construct displacement–time, velocity–time, and acceleration–time graphs for simple one-dimensional motion.
Use graph gradients and areas in basic motion analysis where appropriate.
Apply Newton’s first law to inertia and constant-velocity motion.
Apply F = ma to one-dimensional force, mass, and acceleration problems.
Apply Newton’s third law to interaction pairs acting on separate objects.
Construct and interpret one-dimensional free-body diagrams.
Distinguish mass from weight and calculate weight using gravitational field strength in supplied contexts.
Calculate work done when a force moves an object through a distance in the force direction.
Calculate kinetic energy.
Calculate gravitational potential-energy change near Earth’s surface.
Calculate power as energy transferred or work done per unit time.
Calculate efficiency as useful output divided by total input.
Apply conservation of energy quantitatively in simple mechanical systems.

Waves, Optics, Electricity, and Electromagnetism

21 competencies

Define a systems-design problem using measurable requirements, constraints, risks, stakeholders, and system boundaries.
Apply scientific and mathematical principles to analyze possible solutions.
Use computing, simulation, sensors, or spreadsheets to test or compare designs.
Analyze failure modes, safety, reliability, efficiency, and environmental impact.
Revise and document a system design in response to evidence.
Compare technologies through benefits, risks, costs, uncertainty, accessibility, and ethical considerations.
Communicate an engineering recommendation while distinguishing scientific evidence from stakeholder values.
Apply v = fλ to straightforward wave calculations.
Apply reflection laws to ray diagrams and image formation.
Explain and calculate simple refraction using supplied relationships or refractive-index information.
Explain diffraction through openings and around obstacles qualitatively and through simple measurements.
Construct basic ray diagrams for plane mirrors and simple lenses.
Explain image characteristics using ray models and identify model limitations.
Apply V = IR to straightforward circuit calculations.
Calculate electrical power using suitable relationships.
Analyze total resistance in simple series circuits.
Analyze current and potential difference in simple parallel circuits.
Interpret current–voltage data for selected components at a foundational level.
Explain magnetic effects around currents using field models.
Explain force on a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field qualitatively.
Explain electromagnetic induction through changing magnetic conditions qualitatively and through simple measured data.

Macromolecules, Enzymes, Cell Transport, and Cell Division

13 competencies

Identify carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids as major biological macromolecules.
Relate monomers and larger biological molecules at an introductory level.
Explain broad functions of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.
Explain enzymes as biological catalysts.
Explain how temperature, pH, and substrate concentration affect enzyme activity qualitatively and through data.
Explain diffusion as net particle movement down a concentration gradient.
Explain osmosis as net water movement across a partially permeable membrane.
Explain active transport as movement requiring cellular energy.
Compare diffusion, osmosis, and active transport.
Explain the role of the cell membrane in regulating exchange.
Explain the purpose and major stages of mitosis.
Explain the purpose and broad outcome of meiosis.
Compare mitosis and meiosis.

DNA, Molecular Genetics, Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity

13 competencies

Describe DNA’s double-helix structure at an introductory molecular level.
Explain complementary base pairing.
Explain broadly how a gene’s base sequence contributes to protein production and trait development.
Distinguish DNA, genes, chromosomes, and genomes.
Explain natural selection through inherited variation and differential reproduction.
Explain speciation as populations becoming reproductively isolated and increasingly different.
Evaluate fossil, anatomical, molecular, and observed-change evidence for evolution.
Calculate or interpret basic population density, percentage change, and sampling estimates.
Interpret population-growth curves and limiting factors.
Analyze energy flow and nutrient cycles quantitatively at an introductory level.
Analyze species interactions within populations and communities.
Use biodiversity data to compare habitats or communities.
Evaluate sampling methods used to estimate abundance and biodiversity.

Human Anatomy, Homeostasis, Reproduction, Disease, Epidemiology, and Public Health

15 competencies

Explain homeostasis as maintenance of internal conditions within ranges.
Explain negative feedback using temperature or blood-glucose regulation at a foundational level.
Explain how nervous and endocrine systems contribute to homeostasis.
Explain ventilation, gas exchange, circulation, digestion, excretion, and thermoregulation through coordinated physiology.
Relate organ structure to physiological function.
Explain human reproductive cycles and hormonal regulation at a foundational level.
Explain fertilization, implantation, pregnancy, fetal development, and birth biologically.
Connect meiosis, inheritance, and variation to human reproduction.
Explain broad nutritional requirements and energy balance without prescribing individualized diets.
Explain innate and adaptive immunity at an applied foundational level.
Distinguish infectious, genetic, nutritional, environmental, degenerative, and lifestyle-related disease categories.
Explain epidemiological measures including incidence, prevalence, risk, and rate at an introductory level.
Interpret outbreak curves, transmission patterns, and public-health data.
Evaluate prevention approaches through effectiveness, risk, access, uncertainty, and population context.
Evaluate health claims for evidence, causation, source expertise, study design, and conflicts of interest.

Minerals, Rocks, Geological Time, Resources, and Environmental Systems

18 competencies

Identify minerals using hardness, streak, luster, cleavage, density, crystal form, and other diagnostic properties.
Relate mineral composition and texture to rock classification and formation.
Apply the rock cycle to field, sample, or diagram evidence.
Explain weathering, erosion, deposition, burial, metamorphism, melting, crystallization, uplift, and tectonic recycling.
Analyze soil formation, profile development, fertility, degradation, and conservation.
Explain groundwater storage, movement, recharge, extraction, and contamination.
Trace selected mineral, water, soil, and fuel resources through extraction, processing, use, recycling, and disposal.
Evaluate geological-resource use through benefits, impacts, limits, and system trade-offs.
Apply relative-dating principles to complex geological sequences.
Apply conceptual radiometric-dating relationships to supplied geological evidence.
Correlate rock layers using fossils, marker beds, and geological evidence.
Reconstruct an applied geological history from maps, cross-sections, fossils, and dates.
Identify scientific misinformation, disinformation, unsupported certainty, and misleading presentation.
Evaluate claims using primary evidence, source expertise, method quality, replication, and consensus where relevant.
Explain how uncertainty may be misrepresented to exaggerate or dismiss scientific findings.
Analyze environmental, public-health, and technology decisions through evidence and systems effects.
Distinguish scientific feasibility from ethical acceptability, legal permission, affordability, or political preference.
Communicate a scientifically grounded decision while acknowledging trade-offs and affected groups.

Meteorology, Oceanography, Climate Systems, Orbital Motion, Stars, and Spectra

14 competencies

Test a scientific model against observations or measurements and identify where predictions succeed or fail.
Integrate evidence from experiments, observations, models, simulations, and published sources into a scientific argument.
Explain atmospheric pressure, humidity, cloud formation, stability, and precipitation through meteorological models.
Interpret weather maps containing fronts, pressure systems, wind, temperature, humidity, and precipitation.
Explain the formation and movement of major weather systems.
Explain ocean temperature, salinity, density, surface currents, and deep circulation qualitatively and through introductory data.
Explain exchanges of heat, water, carbon, and momentum between oceans and atmosphere.
Interpret climate records and distinguish variability, trend, forcing, and feedback.
Analyze orbital motion using gravitational-force and centripetal-motion concepts at a foundational level.
Apply Kepler-style orbital patterns qualitatively and through supplied quantitative relationships.
Explain how spectra reveal stellar composition, temperature, and motion.
Use brightness, distance, color, and spectral evidence to compare stars.
Evaluate evidence supporting models of the solar system, stars, galaxies, and cosmic change.
Distinguish observation, inference, and model dependence in astronomy.

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The whole year, lesson by lesson.

Textbook 1Independent Investigation, Quantitative Data, Models, and Engineering Systems

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Independent Questions, Methods, and Documented Technique

Chapter 2

Sensors, Spreadsheets, Graphs, and Quantitative Evidence

Chapter 3

Testing Models Against Evidence

Chapter 4

Systems Engineering, Technology Ethics, and Scientific Decision-Making

Textbook 2Atomic Theory, Electron Arrangement, Periodic Trends, Valence, and Gas Behavior

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Developing Atomic Theory and Electron Arrangement

Chapter 2

Periodicity and Chemical Trends

Chapter 3

Valence, Ions, Formulas, and Structure

Chapter 4

Gas Pressure, Volume, Temperature, and Particle Number

Textbook 3The Mole, Balanced Equations, and Basic Stoichiometry

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

The Mole and Molar Mass

Chapter 2

Balancing Chemical Equations

Chapter 3

Mole Ratios and Basic Stoichiometry

Chapter 4

Limiting Reactants, Yield, and Quantitative Reaction Evidence

Textbook 4Kinematics, Newton’s Laws, Work, Energy, Power, and Efficiency

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Displacement, Velocity, Acceleration, and Motion Graphs

Chapter 2

Newton’s Laws and Free-Body Diagrams

Chapter 3

Work, Kinetic Energy, and Gravitational Potential Energy

Chapter 4

Power, Efficiency, and Engineered Mechanical Systems

Textbook 5Waves, Optics, Electricity, and Electromagnetism

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Wave Calculations and Diffraction

Chapter 2

Reflection, Refraction, Mirrors, and Lenses

Chapter 3

Current, Voltage, Resistance, and Circuit Calculations

Chapter 4

Electrical Power, Magnetic Forces, and Induction

Textbook 6Macromolecules, Enzymes, Cell Transport, and Cell Division

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Biological Macromolecules

Chapter 2

Enzymes and Factors Affecting Activity

Chapter 3

Diffusion, Osmosis, and Active Transport

Chapter 4

Mitosis, Meiosis, Growth, and Reproduction

Textbook 7DNA, Molecular Genetics, Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

DNA Structure and the Path from Gene to Trait

Chapter 2

Evolutionary Mechanisms, Speciation, and Evidence

Chapter 3

Quantitative Population and Community Ecology

Chapter 4

Energy Flow, Nutrient Cycles, and Biodiversity

Textbook 8Human Anatomy, Homeostasis, Reproduction, Disease, Epidemiology, and Public Health

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Human Physiology and Homeostasis

Chapter 2

Human Reproduction, Hormones, Inheritance, and Development

Chapter 3

Nutrition, Immunity, and Disease

Chapter 4

Epidemiology, Prevention, and Public-Health Decisions

Textbook 9Minerals, Rocks, Geological Time, Resources, and Environmental Systems

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Mineral Identification and Rock Interpretation

Chapter 2

Soil, Groundwater, and Environmental Geology

Chapter 3

Geological Time, Correlation, and Dating

Chapter 4

Resource Cycles, Environmental Systems, and Technology Decisions

Textbook 10Meteorology, Oceanography, Climate Systems, Orbital Motion, Stars, and Spectra

4 chapters · 25 lessons

Chapter 1

Meteorology and Weather-System Analysis

Chapter 2

Ocean Circulation and Ocean–Atmosphere Exchange

Chapter 3

Climate Records, Variability, Forcing, and Feedback

Chapter 4

Orbital Motion, Stars, Spectra, and Astronomical Evidence

Every competency, covered.

The 146 competencies set for Grade 9 Science, and every one has lessons behind it.

Independent Investigation, Quantitative Data, Models, and Engineering Systems

28 competencies

Analyze quantitative scientific data using spreadsheets, sensors, formulas, appropriate graphs, and calculated summaries.
Select a graph or representation suited to categorical, continuous, time-series, distributional, or relational data.
Test a scientific model against observations or measurements and identify where predictions succeed or fail.
Use mathematical relationships to make predictions and compare predicted values with measured results.
Interpret gradients, intercepts, areas, distributions, ratios, and proportional relationships where scientifically appropriate.
Identify uncertainty arising from measurement, sampling, assumptions, model structure, and missing variables.
Distinguish a statistically or visually apparent relationship from a scientifically supported causal mechanism.
Define a systems-design problem using measurable requirements, constraints, risks, stakeholders, and system boundaries.
Apply scientific and mathematical principles to analyze possible solutions.
Use computing, simulation, sensors, or spreadsheets to test or compare designs.
Analyze failure modes, safety, reliability, efficiency, and environmental impact.
Revise and document a system design in response to evidence.
Compare technologies through benefits, risks, costs, uncertainty, accessibility, and ethical considerations.
Communicate an engineering recommendation while distinguishing scientific evidence from stakeholder values.
Identify scientific misinformation, disinformation, unsupported certainty, and misleading presentation.
Evaluate claims using primary evidence, source expertise, method quality, replication, and consensus where relevant.
Explain how uncertainty may be misrepresented to exaggerate or dismiss scientific findings.
Analyze environmental, public-health, and technology decisions through evidence and systems effects.
Distinguish scientific feasibility from ethical acceptability, legal permission, affordability, or political preference.
Communicate a scientifically grounded decision while acknowledging trade-offs and affected groups.
Formulate an independently testable scientific question and hypothesis grounded in an established model or prior evidence.
Select and justify an experimental, observational, modeling, simulation, or secondary-data method appropriate to the question.
Identify independent, dependent, controlled, and confounding variables and explain how they affect validity.
Produce a documented method containing equipment, measurement ranges, sampling approach, calibration, risk controls, data processing, and ethical considerations where relevant.
Conduct investigations using appropriate scientific technique, calibrated tools, digital sensors, and traceable records.
Evaluate reliability, accuracy, precision, validity, and uncertainty at an introductory applied level.
Revise a method in response to evidence, risk, measurement limitations, anomalous results, or model–data disagreement.
Communicate a defensible conclusion whose confidence matches the strength and limits of the evidence.

Atomic Theory, Electron Arrangement, Periodic Trends, Valence, and Gas Behavior

12 competencies

Describe the development of atomic theory using evidence from successive scientific models.
Represent electron arrangement in simple shell-based models for selected elements.
Relate electron arrangement to period and group position.
Explain broad periodic trends in atomic size, metallic character, reactivity, and ion formation qualitatively.
Use valence to predict simple ion charges.
Construct simple ionic formulas from ion charges.
Interpret simple covalent formulas and molecular composition.
Compare ionic, molecular, metallic, and giant covalent structures at a foundational level.
Relate broad structure and bonding models to conductivity, melting behavior, hardness, and state.
Explain gas pressure through particle collisions with container surfaces.
Explain qualitative relationships among gas pressure, volume, temperature, and particle number.
Analyze supplied or collected gas data using proportional reasoning and graphs.

The Mole, Balanced Equations, and Basic Stoichiometry

10 competencies

Define the mole as an amount containing a fixed number of particles.
Relate moles, particle number, molar mass, and measured mass in straightforward calculations.
Calculate relative formula mass from supplied atomic masses.
Balance chemical equations through atom conservation.
Interpret balanced equations as mole and particle ratios.
Perform basic mole-to-mole stoichiometric calculations.
Perform basic mass-to-mole and mole-to-mass calculations.
Identify the limiting reactant conceptually in simple supplied examples.
Explain theoretical and actual yield qualitatively without advanced yield analysis.
Use quantitative evidence to evaluate conservation of mass in a reaction.

Kinematics, Newton’s Laws, Work, Energy, Power, and Efficiency

23 competencies

Define a systems-design problem using measurable requirements, constraints, risks, stakeholders, and system boundaries.
Apply scientific and mathematical principles to analyze possible solutions.
Use computing, simulation, sensors, or spreadsheets to test or compare designs.
Analyze failure modes, safety, reliability, efficiency, and environmental impact.
Revise and document a system design in response to evidence.
Compare technologies through benefits, risks, costs, uncertainty, accessibility, and ethical considerations.
Communicate an engineering recommendation while distinguishing scientific evidence from stakeholder values.
Distinguish scalar distance from directional displacement.
Calculate speed and velocity in one-dimensional contexts.
Calculate acceleration as change in velocity divided by time.
Interpret and construct displacement–time, velocity–time, and acceleration–time graphs for simple one-dimensional motion.
Use graph gradients and areas in basic motion analysis where appropriate.
Apply Newton’s first law to inertia and constant-velocity motion.
Apply F = ma to one-dimensional force, mass, and acceleration problems.
Apply Newton’s third law to interaction pairs acting on separate objects.
Construct and interpret one-dimensional free-body diagrams.
Distinguish mass from weight and calculate weight using gravitational field strength in supplied contexts.
Calculate work done when a force moves an object through a distance in the force direction.
Calculate kinetic energy.
Calculate gravitational potential-energy change near Earth’s surface.
Calculate power as energy transferred or work done per unit time.
Calculate efficiency as useful output divided by total input.
Apply conservation of energy quantitatively in simple mechanical systems.

Waves, Optics, Electricity, and Electromagnetism

21 competencies

Define a systems-design problem using measurable requirements, constraints, risks, stakeholders, and system boundaries.
Apply scientific and mathematical principles to analyze possible solutions.
Use computing, simulation, sensors, or spreadsheets to test or compare designs.
Analyze failure modes, safety, reliability, efficiency, and environmental impact.
Revise and document a system design in response to evidence.
Compare technologies through benefits, risks, costs, uncertainty, accessibility, and ethical considerations.
Communicate an engineering recommendation while distinguishing scientific evidence from stakeholder values.
Apply v = fλ to straightforward wave calculations.
Apply reflection laws to ray diagrams and image formation.
Explain and calculate simple refraction using supplied relationships or refractive-index information.
Explain diffraction through openings and around obstacles qualitatively and through simple measurements.
Construct basic ray diagrams for plane mirrors and simple lenses.
Explain image characteristics using ray models and identify model limitations.
Apply V = IR to straightforward circuit calculations.
Calculate electrical power using suitable relationships.
Analyze total resistance in simple series circuits.
Analyze current and potential difference in simple parallel circuits.
Interpret current–voltage data for selected components at a foundational level.
Explain magnetic effects around currents using field models.
Explain force on a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field qualitatively.
Explain electromagnetic induction through changing magnetic conditions qualitatively and through simple measured data.

Macromolecules, Enzymes, Cell Transport, and Cell Division

13 competencies

Identify carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids as major biological macromolecules.
Relate monomers and larger biological molecules at an introductory level.
Explain broad functions of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.
Explain enzymes as biological catalysts.
Explain how temperature, pH, and substrate concentration affect enzyme activity qualitatively and through data.
Explain diffusion as net particle movement down a concentration gradient.
Explain osmosis as net water movement across a partially permeable membrane.
Explain active transport as movement requiring cellular energy.
Compare diffusion, osmosis, and active transport.
Explain the role of the cell membrane in regulating exchange.
Explain the purpose and major stages of mitosis.
Explain the purpose and broad outcome of meiosis.
Compare mitosis and meiosis.

DNA, Molecular Genetics, Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity

13 competencies

Describe DNA’s double-helix structure at an introductory molecular level.
Explain complementary base pairing.
Explain broadly how a gene’s base sequence contributes to protein production and trait development.
Distinguish DNA, genes, chromosomes, and genomes.
Explain natural selection through inherited variation and differential reproduction.
Explain speciation as populations becoming reproductively isolated and increasingly different.
Evaluate fossil, anatomical, molecular, and observed-change evidence for evolution.
Calculate or interpret basic population density, percentage change, and sampling estimates.
Interpret population-growth curves and limiting factors.
Analyze energy flow and nutrient cycles quantitatively at an introductory level.
Analyze species interactions within populations and communities.
Use biodiversity data to compare habitats or communities.
Evaluate sampling methods used to estimate abundance and biodiversity.

Human Anatomy, Homeostasis, Reproduction, Disease, Epidemiology, and Public Health

15 competencies

Explain homeostasis as maintenance of internal conditions within ranges.
Explain negative feedback using temperature or blood-glucose regulation at a foundational level.
Explain how nervous and endocrine systems contribute to homeostasis.
Explain ventilation, gas exchange, circulation, digestion, excretion, and thermoregulation through coordinated physiology.
Relate organ structure to physiological function.
Explain human reproductive cycles and hormonal regulation at a foundational level.
Explain fertilization, implantation, pregnancy, fetal development, and birth biologically.
Connect meiosis, inheritance, and variation to human reproduction.
Explain broad nutritional requirements and energy balance without prescribing individualized diets.
Explain innate and adaptive immunity at an applied foundational level.
Distinguish infectious, genetic, nutritional, environmental, degenerative, and lifestyle-related disease categories.
Explain epidemiological measures including incidence, prevalence, risk, and rate at an introductory level.
Interpret outbreak curves, transmission patterns, and public-health data.
Evaluate prevention approaches through effectiveness, risk, access, uncertainty, and population context.
Evaluate health claims for evidence, causation, source expertise, study design, and conflicts of interest.

Minerals, Rocks, Geological Time, Resources, and Environmental Systems

18 competencies

Identify minerals using hardness, streak, luster, cleavage, density, crystal form, and other diagnostic properties.
Relate mineral composition and texture to rock classification and formation.
Apply the rock cycle to field, sample, or diagram evidence.
Explain weathering, erosion, deposition, burial, metamorphism, melting, crystallization, uplift, and tectonic recycling.
Analyze soil formation, profile development, fertility, degradation, and conservation.
Explain groundwater storage, movement, recharge, extraction, and contamination.
Trace selected mineral, water, soil, and fuel resources through extraction, processing, use, recycling, and disposal.
Evaluate geological-resource use through benefits, impacts, limits, and system trade-offs.
Apply relative-dating principles to complex geological sequences.
Apply conceptual radiometric-dating relationships to supplied geological evidence.
Correlate rock layers using fossils, marker beds, and geological evidence.
Reconstruct an applied geological history from maps, cross-sections, fossils, and dates.
Identify scientific misinformation, disinformation, unsupported certainty, and misleading presentation.
Evaluate claims using primary evidence, source expertise, method quality, replication, and consensus where relevant.
Explain how uncertainty may be misrepresented to exaggerate or dismiss scientific findings.
Analyze environmental, public-health, and technology decisions through evidence and systems effects.
Distinguish scientific feasibility from ethical acceptability, legal permission, affordability, or political preference.
Communicate a scientifically grounded decision while acknowledging trade-offs and affected groups.

Meteorology, Oceanography, Climate Systems, Orbital Motion, Stars, and Spectra

14 competencies

Test a scientific model against observations or measurements and identify where predictions succeed or fail.
Integrate evidence from experiments, observations, models, simulations, and published sources into a scientific argument.
Explain atmospheric pressure, humidity, cloud formation, stability, and precipitation through meteorological models.
Interpret weather maps containing fronts, pressure systems, wind, temperature, humidity, and precipitation.
Explain the formation and movement of major weather systems.
Explain ocean temperature, salinity, density, surface currents, and deep circulation qualitatively and through introductory data.
Explain exchanges of heat, water, carbon, and momentum between oceans and atmosphere.
Interpret climate records and distinguish variability, trend, forcing, and feedback.
Analyze orbital motion using gravitational-force and centripetal-motion concepts at a foundational level.
Apply Kepler-style orbital patterns qualitatively and through supplied quantitative relationships.
Explain how spectra reveal stellar composition, temperature, and motion.
Use brightness, distance, color, and spectral evidence to compare stars.
Evaluate evidence supporting models of the solar system, stars, galaxies, and cosmic change.
Distinguish observation, inference, and model dependence in astronomy.