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How to learn High school: Science

Washington academic standards: Science, High school

0 of 24 concepts ready to learn · Markdown, for your AI

1. Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer · Evaluate the validity and reliability of claims behind the idea that electromagnetic radiation can be described by a wave model

  1. Waves & Different Materials: Explain how waves can be absorbed, transmitted, or reflected by different materials, and apply these interactions to explain colour perception, sight, communication technologies, and the effects of different surfaces on wave behaviour

2. Energy · Use models and investigations to represent and understand the energy within objects and energy changes in systems. Apply this understanding through engineering a device that converts energy b

  1. Energy stores and transfers: Identify the main energy stores (kinetic, gravitational potential, elastic potential, thermal, chemical, nuclear, electromagnetic) and the pathways by which energy is transferred between stores (mechanically, electrically, by heating, by radiation)
  2. Heating experiments and Q = mcΔT: Plan and carry out experiments to measure energy transferred during heating, including using the equation Q = mcΔT, recording temperature changes over time, and evaluating sources of error
  3. Net Zero & Energy Transition: Evaluate the energy transition required to reach net zero: renewable energy scaling, electrification of transport and heat, green hydrogen; describe carbon capture and storage (CCS) and direct air capture (DAC); introduce proposed solar radiation management techniques (stratospheric aerosol injection, marine cloud brightening) and their potential risks and governance challenges; critically evaluate the role of individual behaviour change versus systemic policy in reducing emissions

3. Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions · Plan an investigation, collect data, and use representations to create claims about relationships between net force, mass, and acceleration of a single

  1. Investigating Forces: Plan and carry out investigations into forces, including measuring force with a newton meter, investigating Hooke's Law, and collecting and interpreting motion data to test Newton's laws
  2. Electromagnets: Describe the magnetic effect of an electric current (a current-carrying wire produces a magnetic field), and investigate how the strength of an electromagnet depends on current, number of coil turns, and core material
  3. Newton's First & Second Laws: State and apply Newton's First Law (an object stays at rest or constant velocity unless acted on by a resultant force) and Second Law (force = mass × acceleration), including the relationship between mass, force, and acceleration

4. Matter and its Interactions · Develop and use models of atomic structures and patterns in data to understand the chemical properties of matter including outcomes of chemical reactions, nuclear reactio

  1. Atoms, Elements & Compounds: Explain the differences between atoms, elements, and compounds; describe the simple Bohr model of the atom (nucleus with protons and neutrons, electrons in shells); and write and interpret chemical symbols and simple formulae
  2. Physical vs Chemical Changes: Distinguish between physical changes (reversible, no new substances formed) and chemical changes (new substances formed, often irreversible), using conservation of mass to understand both types
  3. Reactions That Release or Absorb Heat: Distinguish between exothermic reactions (release energy, temperature rises) and endothermic reactions (absorb energy, temperature falls), with everyday and industrial examples
  4. Metals vs Non-Metals: Compare the physical and chemical properties of metals and non-metals, explaining metallic properties (malleability, lustre, conductivity) and how position in the periodic table predicts reactivity

5. Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity · Use data, evidence, and mathematical reasoning to explain the process of evolution via natural selection. Apply this understanding to a solution to mitigate

  1. How Natural Selection Works: Explain natural selection as the mechanism of evolution: heritable variation + competition for resources + differential survival and reproduction = change in allele frequency over generations
  2. Extinction & Rapid Change: Explain how environmental change can outpace a species' ability to adapt through natural selection, leading to extinction, using historical and contemporary examples

6. Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits · Ask questions and create claims to understand the relationship between traits in an organism and the role of DNA in inheriting expressed traits. Apply t

  1. Chromosomes, Genes & DNA: Describe the relationship between chromosomes, genes, and DNA in heredity, including the double helix structure of DNA and the historical roles of Watson, Crick, Franklin, and Wilkins
  2. Predicting Inherited Traits: Explain how alleles are inherited in sexual reproduction and use Punnett squares to predict the probability of offspring inheriting a characteristic, including dominant and recessive alleles
  3. Genetic Mutation: Explain genetic mutation as a random change in DNA sequence, describe causes of mutation (e.g. radiation, chemicals, copying errors), and explain that most mutations are neutral, some harmful, and a few beneficial

7. Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics · Use mathematical representations and models to understand stability and change within ecosystems, considering the cycling of energy and matter, biodive

  1. Biodiversity & Resilience: Explain what biodiversity means, why high biodiversity makes ecosystems more resilient, and describe the ways human activity threatens biodiversity (habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species, climate change)
  2. The Carbon Cycle: Describe the carbon cycle, tracing carbon through photosynthesis, respiration, feeding, decomposition, and combustion, and explain the role of each process

8. From Molecule to Organisms: Structures and Processes · Use evidence and develop models to explain the functioning of cells within organisms, including how cells use matter to create structures like pr

  1. Aerobic Respiration: Explain aerobic respiration as the process by which organisms release energy from glucose using oxygen, producing carbon dioxide and water; write and interpret the word equation: glucose + oxygen → carbon dioxide + water
  2. Cells Under the Microscope: Understand that all living organisms are made of cells and use a light microscope to observe, interpret, and record cell structure
  3. Cells to Organ Systems: Describe the hierarchical organisation of multicellular organisms: cells → tissues → organs → organ systems → organism
  4. Body Temperature Regulation: Explain how the human body detects and responds to environmental changes including temperature, including the role of the skin in temperature regulation (sweating, shivering, vasodilation, vasoconstriction)

9. Earth and Human Activity · Use computational representations based on evidence to explain how human activity modifies relationships between and among Earth’s systems and human activity and to predict

  1. Earth's Atmosphere & CO2: Describe the composition of Earth's atmosphere (mainly nitrogen and oxygen, with small amounts of CO₂ and other gases), explain how human activity increases CO₂, and describe the impact on global climate

10. Earth’s Place in the Universe · Use mathematical and computational thinking to qualitatively predict the motion of objects in the solar system, describe that the processes and elements produced within

  1. Galaxies and the universe: Describe the scale of the universe, including the structure of galaxies, the position of the Sun in the Milky Way, and the use of light years as a unit of distance, and appreciate why space exploration requires enormous timescales