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Grades 9–12 · Semester 5 · 49 readings

Connect people, places and ideas

Begin with making and controlling tiny switches. Follow the connected explanations through reconstructing cosmic processes, keeping each small group together and taking time to understand its illustrations.

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One possible pace is 3–4 explanations a week over 16 weeks. Keep each small unit together, revisit its pictures and allow more time whenever an idea needs it.

Unit 1Making and controlling tiny switches2 readings ⌄

An insulated gate controls a semiconductor channel, while repeated patterned layers build complex chips.

  1. How can a transistor switch without moving parts?Computing
  2. How do engineers make the tiny patterns on a computer chip?Computing
Unit 2From analog signals to reliable information5 readings ⌄

Follow signals through amplification, conversion, timing and shared communication channels.

  1. Where does an amplifier get the energy to make a signal larger?Machines
  2. How does a converter choose a binary number for a voltage?Computing
  3. How can a circuit make a repeating signal without a repeating input?Machines
  4. How can many messages share one communication link?Systems
  5. Why can't a noisy channel carry unlimited data?Systems
Unit 3Engineered protection2 readings ⌄

A breathable waterproof membrane and an ablative heat shield manage very different transfers across a protective boundary.

  1. How can a membrane resist rain but let water vapor move?Materials & Matter
  2. How does a heat shield protect a returning spacecraft?Materials & Matter
Unit 4Body performance and experience3 readings ⌄

Muscle fatigue, memory formation and anesthesia explain different aspects of performance and conscious experience, with explicit scientific limits.

  1. Why can a working muscle produce less force over time?Organisms
  2. How does an experience become a memory?Organisms
  3. How can anesthesia change sensation and awareness?Organisms
Unit 5Blood and fluid support2 readings ⌄

Dialysis transfers selected substances across a membrane; blood-group compatibility concerns interactions between cells and antibodies.

  1. How does a dialysis machine exchange wastes across a membrane?Machines
  2. Why can ABO antibodies react with some red blood cells?Organisms
Unit 6Energy and industrial materials3 readings ⌄

A fission power plant, steelmaking and aluminum production use distinct physical and chemical transformations.

  1. How does a nuclear fission plant make electricity?Systems
  2. How does iron ore become steel?Materials & Matter
  3. How is aluminum made from its ore?Materials & Matter
Unit 7Counting a chemical transformation2 readings ⌄

Connect particle numbers, measured masses and the limits of reaction production.

  1. Why can a reaction stop while one ingredient remains?Materials & Matter
  2. How can a balance help count particles too small to see?Materials & Matter
Unit 8Making material performance dependable2 readings ⌄

Connect controlled processing with measurements that can be compared and trusted.

  1. How can heating and cooling change steel's hardness?Materials & Matter
  2. How can two factories agree on the same millimeter?Mathematics
Unit 9Inside complex technologies4 readings ⌄

An automatic transmission, language model, laser printer and space-station life-support system coordinate different parts and processes.

  1. How does an automatic transmission change gears?Machines
  2. How does an AI language model generate text?Computing
  3. How does a laser printer put a lasting image on paper?Machines
  4. How can a space station keep reusing air and water?Systems
Unit 10Engineering precisely directed transfers4 readings ⌄

Fuel cells, adaptive optics, ammonia synthesis and proton beams control routes, reactions or energy deposition.

  1. How does a hydrogen fuel cell make electricity without burning fuel?Systems
  2. How can a telescope correct the atmosphere’s blur?Machines
  3. How does a factory turn nitrogen from air into ammonia?Materials & Matter
  4. How can a proton beam concentrate radiation at a chosen depth?Machines
Unit 11Measurements, feedback and connected outcomes4 readings ⌄

Cryo-EM reconstructs shape, maglev regulates a gap, vaccination changes transmission paths and check digits test consistency.

  1. How can frozen molecules reveal the shape of a protein?Machines
  2. How can an electromagnet hold a train above its guideway?Systems
  3. How can vaccination change the paths an infection can follow?Societies
  4. How can a check digit catch a mistyped product number?Mathematics
Unit 12Computing behind the screen3 readings ⌄

Virtual memory, HTTPS and GPU execution connect abstract interfaces with precise physical or protocol operations.

  1. How can two programs use the same memory address without sharing the same data?Computing
  2. How does HTTPS establish a protected connection to a website?Computing
  3. How can a GPU work on many calculations together?Computing
Unit 13Measurement and control in detail3 readings ⌄

Calibration, quadrature encoding and power inverters reveal how signals become measurements or controlled outputs.

  1. How does calibration turn a sensor response into a useful measurement?Systems
  2. How can two pulse signals reveal which way a shaft is turning?Machines
  3. How can electronic switches turn DC into an alternating output?Systems
Unit 14Intervention, feedback and incentives4 readings ⌄

Genome editing, porous materials, thawing ground and strategic choices show the power and limits of directed changes.

  1. How can CRISPR guide a DNA change without writing the final result itself?Organisms
  2. How can a crystal full of tiny pores capture selected gas molecules?Materials & Matter
  3. How can thawing frozen ground add to climate warming?Earth & Space
  4. Why can individually advantageous choices leave both people worse off?Societies
Unit 15Reconstructing cosmic and human change2 readings ⌄

Ancient radiation constrains a cosmic model; a spinning machine supplies one part of a historical explanation.

  1. How can ancient light reveal a hotter early universe?Earth & Space
  2. How can one spinning machine help explain a historical change?History & Evidence
Unit 16Studying minds, designing for people2 readings ⌄

Experimental limits make consciousness research rigorous; adjustable systems respond to diverse human needs.

  1. How can scientists study a conscious experience they cannot directly share?Organisms
  2. Why can an adjustable workstation fit more people than one fixed design?Arts & Music
Unit 17Reconstructing cosmic processes2 readings ⌄

Supernova observations constrain expansion history; radio arrays constrain images near black holes.

  1. How did distant supernovae reveal accelerating cosmic expansion?Earth & Space
  2. How can telescopes across Earth make an image near a black hole?Earth & Space