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Grades 9–12 · Semester 1 · 48 readings

Start with familiar ideas

Begin with change and accumulation. Follow the connected explanations through meaning and visual context, keeping each small group together and taking time to understand its illustrations.

Start reading →

One possible pace is 3 explanations a week over 16 weeks. Keep each small unit together, revisit its pictures and allow more time whenever an idea needs it.

Unit 1Change and accumulation4 readings ⌄

Repeated growth, derivatives, integrals and population models describe different relationships between a quantity and its change.

  1. Why does repeated percentage change compound?Mathematics
  2. How does a derivative describe a rate at one moment?Mathematics
  3. How does an integral add up signed changes?Mathematics
  4. How do exponential and logistic growth models differ?Organisms
Unit 2Energy and materials4 readings ⌄

Conducting metals, transformers, motors and piezoelectric actuators connect material structure with electrical and mechanical behavior.

  1. Why can a metal carry electric current?Materials & Matter
  2. How does an ideal transformer change AC voltage?Machines
  3. How does an electric motor make a shaft turn?Machines
  4. How can an electric field move a piezoelectric actuator?Machines
Unit 3Selective separation and careful measurement3 readings ⌄

Trace conditions, timing and tiny deformations into useful outputs and numbers.

  1. How can a machine gather oxygen from ordinary air?Machines
  2. Why can a camera make a straight moving object look bent?Computing
  3. How can a scale weigh something by bending almost invisibly?Machines
Unit 4Motion and forces4 readings ⌄

Thrust, lift, articulated motion and a flywheel connect forces and energy with different kinds of movement.

  1. How does a jet engine produce thrust?Machines
  2. How does a wing create lift?Machines
  3. How do robot joints position a tool?Machines
  4. How does a flywheel store energy in rotation?Machines
Unit 5The physics of gliding and turning2 readings ⌄

Connect force, rotation, and balance in disc flight and bicycle turns.

  1. Why does a flying disc need both forward motion and spin?Everyday Life
  2. Why does a bicycle lean inward during a turn?Everyday Life
Unit 6The surprising flights of sports equipment2 readings ⌄

Explore familiar objects whose designs help people move, make and understand their surroundings.

  1. Why can a cricket ball swing sideways before it bounces?Everyday Life
  2. Why does a badminton shuttle slow so dramatically?Everyday Life
Unit 7Transfer and balance4 readings ⌄

Cellular respiration, kidney transport, heat engines and buffers use distinct processes that require carefully defined accounts.

  1. How do cells transfer energy from food?Organisms
  2. How do kidneys filter and reclaim useful substances?Organisms
  3. How does a heat engine turn heat into work?Machines
  4. How does a buffer resist a modest pH change?Materials & Matter
Unit 8Hidden transfers in working vehicles2 readings ⌄

Trace heat and pressure through systems that keep vehicles working.

  1. How does a radiator carry engine heat into the passing air?Machines
  2. Why can air both apply a truck’s brakes and hold its parking brakes off?Machines
Unit 9Probability and measurement4 readings ⌄

Bayesian updating, base rates, uncertainty intervals and classifier thresholds connect evidence with a conditional conclusion.

  1. How does evidence change Bayesian odds?Mathematics
  2. Why can a spam flag be misleading?Everyday Life
  3. What do uncertainty bars on a measurement mean?Everyday Life
  4. How does changing a classification threshold change its errors?Everyday Life
Unit 10Reliable information4 readings ⌄

Parity, repetition, signatures and encryption address different problems in storing, transmitting or interpreting a message.

  1. How can a check bit reveal a data error?Systems
  2. What can three-bit repetition correct—and what can it miss?Computing
  3. What does a digital signature check establish?Computing
  4. How does a toy RSA system use different keys to encrypt and decrypt?Computing
Unit 11Keeping a game world consistent2 readings ⌄

Explore how geometry and delayed messages become a shared playable world.

  1. How does a video game know when two things collide?Computing
  2. Why can an online game snap a player back?Computing
Unit 12When connected parts change the result3 readings ⌄

Explore how choices, restoring forces and nonlinear responses shape a whole system.

  1. How can adding a shortcut make everyone’s journey slower?Mathematics
  2. How can a floating wind turbine resist tipping in deep water?Systems
  3. How can two musical notes produce a third low tone?Arts & Music
Unit 13Signals and clocks4 readings ⌄

Spectral lines, radioactive clocks, Doppler shifts and radiocarbon records connect present observations with quantities that are not directly visible.

  1. How can light reveal what a distant gas contains?Earth & Space
  2. How can radioactive decay estimate a mineral's age?Earth & Space
  3. How can a spectral line reveal radial motion?Earth & Space
  4. How can radiocarbon help date material from living things?History & Evidence
Unit 14Measuring an unseen universe2 readings ⌄

Distinguish observations, calibration and inference in galaxy mass and distance measurements.

  1. How can moving stars reveal matter that telescopes cannot see?Earth & Space
  2. How can a pulsing star reveal the distance to a galaxy?Earth & Space
Unit 15Meaning and visual context4 readings ⌄

Quantifier scope, negation, visual emphasis and cropping show how the structure of a representation changes what it communicates.

  1. Does everyone reading a book mean the same book?Language
  2. How does the scope of not change a statement?Language
  3. How do design choices create visual emphasis?Arts & Music
  4. How does cropping change available context?Arts & Music