High School - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for High School meet expectations that they provide opportunities for students to fully learn and develop nearly all claimed grade-band DCI elements.

Across the program, the materials claim all elements of the life science DCIs, either as a full claim or limited claim, and all claims are accurate and present in the materials, except for one. The one element claim outlier, LS4.D-H1, is partially present within the materials. Overall, students usually have more than one opportunity to engage with the life science elements and elements are mostly claimed across specific chapters, either within one unit or across different units, as appropriate. Additionally, one physical science and one earth and space science element are also claimed and are present, in one chapter each. Four of the five engineering elements are also claimed and present within Unit 3.

Examples of claimed grade-band DCI elements present in the materials:

• LS1.A-H1. In Unit 1, Chapter 2, Lesson 8: Why are all these changes happening in the body?, students identify, categorize, and compare immune response activities to construct a supported explanation about the cause and effect relationships that exist in systems of specialized cells in the immune system.

• LS1.A-H2. In Unit 2, Chapter 4, Lesson 4: What could cause differences in the amino acid sequences of proteins?, students complete a card sort and use analogies to learn about how DNA contains genetic information, much like a filing cabinet. They discuss how changes in the amino acid sequence result in changes to that information. Students use an infographic to gather evidence about how DNA sequences result in proteins and compare nucleotide sequences and amino acid sequences of different alleles of the LDLR gene. 

• LS1.A-H3. In Unit 1, Chapter 2, Lesson 9: How can the body control its response?, students organize and develop models of immune responses that occur at the site of infection, within the affected body part, and throughout the body system to build understanding of and predict the relationships between multicellular organisms’ systems and the components of a system. Students use a jigsaw technique to become experts on different bacterial infections and examine how human cells and bacteria interact within a hierarchical structure of organization and how the interactions impact other structures within the system. 

• LS1.A-H4. In Unit 1, Chapter 2, Lesson 10: How does the body respond to infections?, students work with their peers to build a class consensus model to explain how the body responds to bacterial infections and the positive and negative homeostatic feedback mechanisms that maintain a living system’s internal conditions. 

• LS1.B-H1. In Unit 2, Chapter 6, Lesson 11: How can people with similar genes have very different health outcomes?, students learn about mitosis as they read about identical and fraternal twins to understand the role of mitosis. In Lesson 12: If our cells have the same DNA, how can they do such different things?, students use what they learned about mitosis in the previous lesson to identify protein differences in differentiated cells. They use planaria as a model organism to gather evidence about how different genes and proteins result in different cell types and functions as they apply this information to humans.

• LS1.C-H1. In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 8: How do producers get all the matter and energy they need?, students use legos to model the process of photosynthesis, showing the rearrangement of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water. They observe the use of CO₂ in plants through investigation to confirm the model created with the legos. Students also confirm, through investigation, that light energy is needed for this process.

• LS1.C-H2. In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 8: How do producers get all the matter and energy they need?, students consider a food label to confirm that plants contain carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Through direct instruction and discussion, students learn that plants synthesize the fats and proteins that they need in the same way that animal cells do, by synthesizing them from the hydrocarbon backbone that results from the glucose made during photosynthesis. They begin the discussion about where plants obtain the nitrogen and phosphorus needed for some of these molecules as they are not present in the photosynthesis reaction.

• LS1.C-H3. In Unit 3, Chapter 7, Lesson 5: How does variety of eating patterns provide all our bodies’ requirements for food?, students model how a variety of eating patterns provide all our bodies’ with carbohydrates, fats, and proteins that flow through different areas of the body were they are digested (organ-level) and then are rearranged in cellular respiration (cellular-level) or rearranged to build structures in the body (biosynthesis), while tracking the energy transfers that occur along the way.

• LS1.C-H4. In Unit 3, Chapter 7, Lesson 4: If food is so useful for building our bodies, why do some atoms from food leave our bodies?, students model the process of cellular respiration using legos to understand the inputs and outputs of the process. They read a text about how energy is released in this process and examine how energy is used by organisms.

• LS2.A-H1. This element is presented across multiple units. In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 2: What are bacteria and where are they?, students swab areas around the classroom and grow bacteria on petri dishes to discover that bacteria cannot grow endlessly. In Lesson 3: What do bacteria need to live and grow?, students use simulations and reading assignments to begin to learn how different factors affect the rate of growth and limits to the growth of bacteria. In Lesson 5: How can bacteria cause infections?, students create a model for Zach’s infection that should include information about what the body provides that the bacteria needs, the limits to that growth, and how changing environments can change the growth. In Unit 4, Chapter 10, Lesson 3: How might the removal of a top predator affect other populations?, students consider what affects the size of a population by evaluating several inputs such as predation, competition, habitat, and human impact. They consider what limits growth and use those ideas to update their models. In Lesson 5: Why are some species, like coyotes, expanding while most others are contracting?, students develop a model to reflect how the environment and resources impact population size. 

• LS2.B-H1. In Unit 2, Chapter 6, Lessons 11 and 12, The components of the DCI are met as students are introduced to the process of mitosis in Lesson 11 as they study twin development and read about how studying twins has helped science. They build timelines of the development and outcomes for identical twins compared to fraternal twins. In Lesson 12, they create an explanation of cellular differentiation through the study of planaria to build an understanding of how different cells with the same genetic information function differently in different systems to carry out the functions an entire organism needs.

• LS2.B-H2. In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 7: Why do plant-based foods tend to require less land to produce?, students examine a simple food chain using ratio conversions to determine the relationship between the mass of the food consumed compared to the mass of the organism, noticing the discrepancy between these amounts. They compare the number of organisms at each level of the food chain noting the greater amount of organisms at the lower levels. From this, students model the matter and energy transfers that occur in a food chain, with plants making up the lowest level, that account for a decrease in the amount of organisms at each trophic level and also account for the difference between the mass consumed and the mass present in the organism.

• LS2.B-H3. In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 9: What affects how we can use land to produce food?, students investigate the inputs and outputs of photosynthesis by examining the results of experiments using isotope labeling to track carbon atoms. Students examine the biomolecules, other than glucose, that plants are made of and connect this to what they already know about cellular respiration and biosynthesis concluding that plants must also do cellular respiration to get energy from the glucose molecules, which are an output of photosynthesis. Students discuss how the results support their working model of photosynthesis which includes the exchange of carbon dioxide from the air and within the biological process of photosynthesis.

• LS2.C-H1. In Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 12: How do we rely on and benefit from biodiversity?, students evaluate data from cases where ecosystems have been altered and caused a change. They evaluate how that change propagates through the system and whether it returns to its normal state or not. 

• LS2.C-H2. In Unit 4, this element is presented across two chapters. In Chapter 10, Lesson 3: How might the removal of a top predator affect other populations?, students learn about historical attempts to control wolf and coyote populations. In Lesson 4: Why might a species start to live in totally new areas?, students explore how humans affect native ecosystems (prairies and woodlands) while analyzing data about coyote range, demonstrating anthropogenic effects on species. In Lesson 5: Why are some species, like coyotes, expanding while most others are contracting?, students work on their class consensus models to explain the coyote and wolf dynamics while reflecting on stability and change. In Chapter 12, Lesson 15: How are changes to biodiversity affecting ecosystems (and us as part of ecosystems) and why does it matter?, students read and analyze two different conservation cases to consider trade-offs. In Lesson 16: How might we evaluate solutions to conserve biodiversity?, students construct an argument to justify why a local conservation project should or should not proceed, focusing on the direct and indirect impacts of humans on the environment, including habitat destruction and climate change, and how to mitigate it.

• LS2.D-H1. In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 9: How can adaptation lead to new species?, students learn about elephant social behavior and how it benefits individuals to be part of this structure, therefore increasing the probability of success of their offspring. 

• LS3.A-H1. In Unit 2, this element is presented across two chapters. In Chapter 4, Lesson 4: What could cause differences in the amino acid sequences of proteins?, students complete a card sort and use analogies to learn about how DNA contains genetic information with the instructions for forming species characteristics, in this case a tendency towards high cholesterol. Students use an infographic to gather evidence about how DNA sequences result in proteins and also learn that not all DNA codes for specific proteins. In Chapter 6, Lesson 12: If our cells have the same DNA, how can they do such different things?, students use planaria as a model organism to see how genes are expressed in different ways for different functions in multicellular organisms. 

• LS3.B-H1. In Unit 2, this element is presented across two chapters. In Chapter 4, Lesson 5: What is cholesterol and what can cause it to be high?, students examine the cases of the Miles family, many of whom have a mutated allele in the LDLR gene, leading to high cholesterol. In Chapter 5, Lesson 9: How well do our models predict genetic variation?, students continue to build understanding as they analyze inheritance patterns in the Robinson family and realize that a new mechanism, crossing over, explains a genotype from the Robinson family that can not be explained when genes are on the same chromosome. Students are supported in constructing new learning with a text about how the mechanism of crossing over increases genetic variation.

• LS3.B-H2. In Unit 2, Chapter 6, Lesson 15: What contributes to heart disease and other complex diseases and how much influence do we have over outcomes?, students create a model explaining the interactions of genetic and environmental factors in the risk and development of coronary artery disease. Students further consider the environmental factors as they consider the idea of prevention of heart disease.

• LS4.A-H1. In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 9: How can adaptation lead to new species?, students make a tree model to explain the relationship between wolves, coyotes, and dire wolves to see genetic similarities, differences, and relatedness. This helps them realize how genetics and evolutionary descent are related.

• LS4.B-H1. In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 8: What causes some populations to have an increase or decrease in their genetic variation?, students use simulations and case studies to develop models of how different conditions in an environment cause genetic variations in a population, which impact organisms’ chances for survival due to difference in performance among individuals. 

• LS4.B-H2. In Unit 1, Chapter 3, Lesson 11: Why aren’t antibiotics working as well as they used to?, students ask questions about data to build their understanding of how antibiotic resistance develops over time through the process of developing an understanding of how characteristics that positively affect survival are more likely to be reproduced. 

• LS4.C-H1. In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 7: When there is an environmental change, what conditions make adaptation or extinction more likely in a population?, students critically read and communicate information about scientific case studies regarding examples of populations, from previous lessons, that have experienced natural selection to build understanding of the evolutionary interactions that lead to adaptation or extinction of a population. Students review consensus models from previous units to identify ideas for key factors that, when present, result in natural selection, including genetic variation, competition, etc.  

• LS4.C-H2. This element is presented across multiple units. In Unit 1, Chapter 3, Lesson 15: What explains the increasing incidence of antibiotic-resistant infections?, students work as a class to develop a consensus model to explain that differences in heritable anatomical and physiological traits between individual bacteria within a population can provide an advantage when exposed to antibiotics, leading to an increase in the proportion of individuals in future generations that have the trait and to a decrease in the proportion of individuals that do not. In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 8: Where does genetic variation in populations come from and why is it important?, students utilize a simulation with beads to explore different factors that impact genetic variation, including non-random mating, bottleneck, and migration, and how this leads to adaptation.

• LS4.C-H3. In Unit 1, Chapter 3, Lesson 15: What explains the increasing incidence of antibiotic-resistant infections?, students create a class consensus model to explain how increased use in antibiotics can result in increased antibiotic-resistant bacteria, developing their understanding that the distribution of traits in a population can change when conditions change. 

• LS4.C-H4. In Unit 4, this element is presented across two chapters in four lessons. In Chapter 10, Lesson 5: Why are some species, like coyotes, expanding while most others are contracting?, students add to their synthesis models about how human intervention in coyote habitat has had a beneficial effect on some populations and a negative effect on others. In Chapter 11, Lesson 6: What explains why sometimes more species go extinct than are forming?, students are presented with evidence about naturally-caused mass extinctions and read arguments about what may have caused them. In Lesson 7: When there is an environmental change, what conditions make adaptation or extinction more likely in a population?, students consider how environmental changes contribute to natural selection and evolution and how the inability to adapt fast enough might lead to extinction. In Lesson 9: How can adaptation lead to new species?, students consider how environmental pressure (e.g. isolation) contributes to the evolution of new species. They consider the rate of change of the environment in their analysis.  

• LS4.C-H5. In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 7: When there is an environmental change, what conditions make adaptation or extinction more likely in a population?, students explore case studies with a variety of examples of species that have gone extinct and those that have come back from the brink of extinction. Students evaluate the difference between the cases to understand factors that influence extinction and evolution. 

• LS4.D-H2. In Unit 4, Chapter 12, this element is presented over several lessons. In Lesson 11: How might the loss of biodiversity affect our lives?, students read and jigsaw perspectives on environmental trade-offs (e.g. feeding humans hurts biodiversity, but is necessary, and fishing regulations might backfire) showing how biodiversity benefits humans, but human needs may hurt biodiversity. In Lesson 12: How do we rely on and benefit from biodiversity?, students read biome profiles, some of which include humans as part of the ecosystem, and evaluate the impact of humans on the ecosystem and the impact of the ecosystem on humans. Students summarize and share the profiles with each other. In Lesson 13: How can perspectives affect our interactions as part of ecosystems?, students generate arguments about what biodiversity means and how to protect it by considering different perspectives on the subject. 

• PS3.D-H2. In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 8: How do producers get all the matter and energy they need?, students design an experiment to investigate the role of light in photosynthesis using what they have already figured out using Bromothymol Blue Indicator (BTB), elodea, and the chemical reaction system of photosynthesis. After analyzing the results of their experiments, students revise their model to include the energy input of light.

• ESS3.C-H2. In Unit 3, Chapter 9, Lesson 13: What are some ways to design an improvement to a food system in different contexts?, students summarize key ideas from case studies in a case summary graphic organizer including the part of the food system being improved, the possible solution, and the potential impact. Students specifically consider how technology designed by engineers can be used as part of design solutions to reduce waste and produce less pollution, like the system used to trap the methane gas produced by cows at a creamery that then powers the electric cars used when the cows are fed.  

• ETS1.A-H1. In Unit 3, Chapter 9, Lesson 16: How can we develop and evaluate our design to improve one aspect of our local food system?, students use a design solution graphic organizer to brainstorm solutions. In analyzing their potential solutions, they use the criteria and constraints related to the problem that they developed in Lesson 10 to ensure that the solution they choose meets them. They create a cascading consequences flow chart to identify potential risks and consider how to mitigate them.

• ETS1.A-H2. In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 10: Why do some eating patterns require more land than others?, students evaluate several community-level food system solutions to reduce food waste. They use an argument tool to choose the best solution, arguing from evidence about why the solution best reduces the local need for a specific food, but also minimizes waste and pollution. In a class discussion, students compare arguments made in the last lesson’s argument tool to their arguments made here specifically noting how the evidence needed for arguments related to design solutions include references to the criteria being used, such as societal impact. They used this information in addition to scientific evidence to decide which solution best minimizes the global problem of food waste and pollution while also providing enough food at the global scale for all people.

• ETS1.B-H1. In Unit 3, Chapter 9, Lesson 16: How can we develop and evaluate our design to improve one aspect of our local food system?, students use a design solution graphic organizer to brainstorm solutions and choose the best idea to fully design a solution to the local food system problem they identified in earlier lessons that takes into account nutrition, natural resource use, and social needs of their community. In analyzing their potential solutions, they use the criteria and constraints related to this problem developed in Lesson 10 to ensure that the solution they choose meets them. They create a cascading consequences flow chart to consider social, cultural, and environmental impacts

• ETS1.C-H1. In Unit 3, Chapter 9, Lesson 14: How should we evaluate trade-offs when considering different solutions?, students compare food pyramids designed to educate people about food choices and consider how they can impact food systems by influencing what food choices people in a community make. They use a Venn Diagram to compare the pyramids to the criteria they developed in Lesson 12 for improving a food system. Students notice differences in which criteria the pyramids address and reason that this might be due to differences in the criteria that’s prioritized. They discuss what was given up (trade-offs) in order to prioritize different criteria and determine that these choices must be made anytime one is designing a solution to a problem. 

Examples of claimed grade-band DCI elements partially present in the materials:

• LS4.D-H1. In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 6: What explains why sometimes more species go extinct than are forming?, students begin to develop a definition of biodiversity. Students explore how biodiversity is decreased by the loss of species (extinction) as they read about historic mass extinctions. There is a missed opportunity for students to consider how these extinctions affect biodiversity.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School meet expectations that they provide opportunities for students to fully learn and develop nearly all claimed grade-band SEP elements.

In nearly all cases, elements of the SEPs, whether a full or limited claim, are fully present within the materials; either at one location within the materials or through a combination of multiple locations across the program. The practice, Developing and Using Models, is employed at multiple points within and across all learning sequences and is the practice with which students most frequently engage. Students also routinely engage with the practices; Asking Questions and Defining Problems, Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions, Engaging in Argument from Evidence, and Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information, which are present within most learning sequences. Of all the elements claimed, students most frequently encounter and repeatedly engage with; AQDP-H1, MOD-H3, ARG-H1, and INFO-H1 across most learning sequences. SEP elements from Planning and Carrying out Investigations are claimed in only two learning opportunities and elements from Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking are claimed in only three opportunities across the entire program. 

Additionally, connections to elements of the Nature of Science (NOS) associated with the SEPs are noted throughout the Teacher Edition. Individual elements of the NOS are identified in callout boxes with a brief statement linking the student learning opportunity to the NOS element.

Examples of claimed grade-band SEP elements present in the materials:

• AQDP-H1. In Unit 2, Chapter 5, Lesson 6: What explains why some people have a family history of high cholesterol, but no LDLR mutation?, students generate questions to explain new patient data when they realize that a previously created argument doesn’t fit this new data.

• AQDP-H2. In Unit 1, Chapter 2, Lesson 6: What is the body doing when we get an infection?, students return to the driving question board and ask questions about how bacteria can make us sick and what our body is doing when there is an infection. In order to clarify and/or seek out further information and connections, students ask questions that come from the examination of models developed during the lesson. 

• AQDP-H4. In Unit 3, Chapter 9, Lesson 11: How have human decisions and perspectives led to our current food system?, students revisit the driving question board (DQB) to identify any questions they have related to decision-making and our current food system. Students are asked to consider what additional questions may need to be answered in order to look at food systems using an engineering approach including questions about how different perspectives may influence food choice and therefore the food systems and add these questions to the DQB. 

• AQDP-H6. In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 2: What are bacteria and where are they?, students reflect on the learning experience by discussing how asking questions helps in figuring out science ideas. The purpose of this conversation is to provide information about the connection between the act of questioning and the process of planning and carrying out investigations. 

• AQDP-H8. In Unit 3, Chapter 7, Lesson 1: How can we use scientific and social understandings of nutrition and natural resources to improve a food system?, students compare their designed meals with the results of a pre-event survey that captures the criteria and constraints of event attendees regarding food. Students notice that none of their plates would meet the needs of all the attendees, thereby identifying a problem whose constraints include social and technical considerations. Students also discuss what happens if the food provided goes unwanted because it does not meet the needs or wants of the people attending, adding environmental constraints as something to consider. 

• AQDP-H9. In Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 14: How can human activity promote ecosystem health and resilience?, students evaluate criteria and constraints when considering ecosystem health while reading case studies.

• MOD-H1. In Unit 2, Chapter 5, Lesson 9: How well do our models predict genetic variation?, students evaluate which model, of several used in the previous lesson, would best help them organize their thinking and explain the genetic inheritance of the Robinson family.

• MOD-H3. In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 8: How do producers get all the matter and energy they need?, students use legos as physical models of carbon dioxide, water, and oxygen to figure out how plants make glucose. Students assemble the starting molecules and are challenged to try to rearrange them to make glucose molecules, predicting the outputs of the overall chemical reaction of photosynthesis. They use this to create an initial class model of photosynthesis. Students conduct several experiments using elodea and revise their models based on the new evidence generated by the experiments. 

• MOD-H4. In Unit 2, Chapter 4, this element is presented across three lessons. In Lesson 1: Why do some people get heart disease and not others, and what can we do to prevent it?, students develop a model (both individually and whole-class) to show their initial understanding about the mechanisms of why some people get heart disease and others don’t. In Lesson 3: What might cause someone’s cholesterol to be high?, students use multiple models and evaluate their strengths and limitations as they make sense of protein structure and function. In Lesson 4: What could cause differences in the amino acid sequences of proteins?,  students use models of DNA to develop a cause and effect model to answer the question about what causes differences in amino acid sequences. 

• MOD-H5. In Unit 2, Chapter 5, Lesson 8: How can two siblings have very different genotypes and outcomes?, students investigate the factors that lead to variations in possible gametes by building physical models of chromosomes 1 or 19 from the parents of either the Miles or the Robinson families. These models serve as a representation of the meiotic process. Students must construct and apply a model of a complicated system by manipulating physical representations of chromosomes in this assignment. Students utilize the models to demonstrate a system they had previously only seen in detailed text and diagrams. 

• MOD-H6. In Unit 2, Chapter 5, Lesson 8: How can two siblings have very different genotypes and outcomes?, students model meiosis using three pairs of chromosomes as the input, allowing them to predict the output of gametes.

• MOD-H7. In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 8: What causes some populations to have an increase or decrease in their genetic variation?, students utilize a simulation to generate data and use the models created from the simulation to evaluate case studies.

• INV-H3. In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 2: What are bacteria and where are they?, students plan and carry out an investigation to gather evidence about bacteria. The students discuss and develop safety procedures for collecting bacteria in their school environment. In partner groups, students brainstorm ways they can test the investigation question. Students develop an investigation plan for their peers to review in a gallery walk. Once approved by the teacher, students assign roles, carry out the investigation, and make predictions based on their evidence.

• DATA-H1. In Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 12: How do we rely on and benefit from biodiversity?, students use the I2 strategy to compare three pairs of before-and-after illustrations that summarize data from scientific research regarding amphibians and consider how changes to the ecosystem impact the amphibians.

• DATA-H2. In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 8: What causes some populations to have an increase or decrease in their genetic variation?, students conduct a simulation using beads to represent simple dominance in a hypothetical population of sexually reproducing flowers. They make predictions and then gather data from their simulations and compare their predictions to actual results, along with the results of their classmates, to learn what affects the extinction of a species. 

• DATA-H3. In Unit 1, Chapter 3, Lesson 12: How do antibiotics work?, students discuss the limitations of data by considering the inaccuracies that might be present in the cerebrospinal fluid data collected from the patient to measure the bacterial cells in the patient’s body. The teacher points out that the measurement of bacterial cells were less on day three than on day four of the patient’s infection. The students brainstorm a list of reasons for possible inaccuracies. Students then work in pairs to identify possible sources of inaccuracies on the data sheet. 

• DATA-H5. In Unit 2, Chapter 6, lesson 12: If our cells have the same DNA, how can they do such different things?, students develop an initial model about cell differentiation and revise their models throughout the lesson as they learn about how protein differences, embryological development, and differential expression produce cells with specialized functions. 

• DATA-H6. In Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 14: How can human activity promote ecosystem health and resilience?, students evaluate data from the case studies that they’re assigned to evaluate and consider both solutions when preparing their own arguments and proposed solutions.

• MATH-H2. In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 3: Why do bacteria need to live and grow?, students plot quantitative data on a graph to create a visual representation of the phenomena of bacterial population expansion over a range of temperatures. 

• MATH-H4. In Unit 4, Chapter 10, Lesson 3: How might the removal of a top predator affect other populations?, students compare mathematical expressions from a previous lesson to graphs from the current lesson to describe carrying capacities and the effect of different variables on it.

• MATH-H5. In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 7: Why do plant-based foods tend to require less land to produce?, students examine a simple food chain: corn - chicken - human, and determine the differences in mass consumed by an organism at different levels of a food chain and the organism's actual mass. They apply ratios and convert units to discover the difference in the overall number of organisms at each level.

• CEDS-H2. In Unit 3, Chapter 7, Lesson 3: How does some matter from our food become part of our bodies?, students read an article on how babies survive on milk alone. They wonder how one food can sustain a human. To answer their questions, they gather evidence for how food becomes part of the body from two textual sources. In partners, students create an explanation on chart paper that shows how the components of milk provide the baby with the matter they need to grow and develop.

• CEDS-H3. In Unit 1, Chapter 3, Lesson 13: Why do antibiotics sometimes not work?, students use evidence from their investigations of variation within a bacterial population to explain why antibiotics sometimes don’t work.

• CEDS-H5. In Unit 3, Chapter 9, Lesson 16: How can we develop and evaluate our design to improve one aspect of our local food system?, students brainstorm possible solutions and evaluate how well each solution to improving their local food system addresses the criteria and constraints established previously as evidence. From this they create a cascading consequences chart to evaluate the trade offs and possible unintended consequences that could occur downstream as a result of the solution being enacted. Students use the class consensus model they previously created as additional evidence to support their evaluation of possible ideas and the final design solutions they select.

• ARG-H1. In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 10: What explains why scientists are concerned we are experiencing a 6th mass extinction?, students evaluate competing arguments regarding the gray wolf and whether it should be delisted from the endangered species list. They are presented with information about the range, population size, and genetic data, and evaluate the balance between protecting a secure population and increasing the variation among individuals. 

• ARG-H2. In Unit 2, Chapter 5, Lesson 6: What explains why some people have a family history of high cholesterol, but no LDLR mutation?, students evaluate the claims made in the previous lesson (that a mutation in the LDLR gene explains high cholesterol) as they encounter new evidence that there were cases in which patients had high cholesterol, but no LDLR mutation. This data does not completely fit their previous explanation. 

• ARG-H3. In Unit 2, Chapter 5, Lesson 6: What explains why some people have a family history of high cholesterol, but no LDLR mutation? students continue to ponder evidence that does not fit their previous claim about the LDLR mutation being the cause of high cholesterol. They use the Argument Tool to lead them through the process of critiquing their previous claim. 

• ARG-H4. In Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 13: How can perspectives affect our interactions as part of ecosystems?, using the narratives from Lesson 11 to take on a specific perspective, students generate arguments with their peers about how humans should mitigate their disturbances to the environment and find a balance between using nature as a resource and protecting biodiversity.

• ARG-H5. IN Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 14: How can human activity promote ecosystem health and resilience?, students investigate and evaluate two distinct design solutions to the problem of reducing the negative impacts of human activity on an ecosystem while simultaneously enhancing its overall health and resiliency. Students also support a claim supporting the need for a design solution rather than a purely scientific explanation as they assess design solutions based on factors such as societal concerns, varied viewpoints, economics, and more. This helps them support the claim that a design solution is the best explanation. 

• INFO-H1. In Unit 2, Chapter 4, Lesson 2: Why is high cholesterol an indicator of heart disease?, students compile evidence demonstrating the correlation between high cholesterol levels and coronary artery disease by drawing from a wide variety of sources of text and data. 

• INFO-H2. In Unit 2, Chapter 5, Lesson 7: Are there other genes that could affect cholesterol?, students integrate data and text-based resources to develop claims about monogenic and polygenic mutations. 

• INFO-H3. In Unit 4, this element is presented across two chapters. In Chapter 10, Lesson 5: Why are some species, like coyotes, expanding while most others are contracting?, students read about different pertinent legislation and consider how that affects human behavior and indirectly the populations of organisms. In Chapter 12, Lesson 11: How might the loss of biodiversity affect our lives?, students read a written perspective and share their summaries with others while evaluating their classmates' summaries as well.  

• INFO-H5. In Unit 3, Chapter 9, Lesson 13: What are some ways to design an improvement to a food system in different contexts?, students individually read an assigned case study and then are grouped with other students assigned different case studies. Each student communicates the summary of the design solution, criteria considered in the design solution, and the science ideas that relate to the justification of how the solution improves a food system. Other students use the information communicated to complete a graphic organizer that allows them to compare all case studies.

Examples of claimed grade-band SEP elements partially present in the materials:

• INV-H1. In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 8: How do producers get all the matter and energy they need?, students collaboratively plan an investigation to figure out the role of energy from light in photosynthesis. In their plan, students consider how to control for variables related to matter and energy and evaluate the design to ensure that confounding variables are accounted for. There is a missed opportunity for students to plan any part of the investigation individually.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School meet expectations that they provide opportunities for students to fully learn and develop nearly all claimed grade-band CCC elements. 

In nearly all cases, claimed elements of the CCCs, whether a full or limited claim, are fully present in the materials; either at one location in the materials or through a combination of multiple locations across the program. The crosscutting concept, Systems and System Models, is employed at multiple points in and across all learning sequences and is the practice with which students most frequently engage. Of all the elements claimed, students most frequently encounter and repeatedly engage with SYS-H2 across most learning sequences. Students also routinely engage with the crosscutting concept of Stability and Change, mainly in Units 1 and 4, and Cause and Effect in Units 1 and 2. With the exception of Energy and Matter, which claims one of five grade-band elements in Unit 3, the remaining CCC claims are made for at least half of the respective grade-band elements. Student engagement with the claimed elements of the remaining CCCs are generally addressed through one or two learning opportunities. However, students are presented with multiple opportunities to engage with at least one claimed element of most CCCs, with the exception of SC-H2, which was partially met. 

Additionally, connections to elements of the Nature of Science (NOS) associated with the CCCs are noted throughout the Teacher Edition. Individual elements of the NOS are identified in callout boxes with a brief statement linking the student learning opportunity to the NOS element. There are no connections present to Engineering (Science, Technology, Society, and the Environment) elements associated with the CCCs.

Examples of claimed grade-band CCC elements present in the materials:

• PAT-H1. In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 9: How can adaptation lead to new species?, students read and discuss different selection stories to identify a pattern between the stories that leads to a larger explanation of the factors that influence distribution of traits and explain the causality of speciation. 

• PAT-H3. In Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 14: How can human activity promote ecosystem health and resilience?, students evaluate other people’s solutions for ecosystem health via case studies. They evaluate data from these case studies to determine success rates, make a claim related to the data, and share their argument with peers. Students will use this information and arguments in future lessons to reengineer solutions. 

• PAT-H5. In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 7: When there is an environmental change, what conditions make adaptation or extinction more likely in a population?, students are tasked with finding patterns in case studies by reading, summarizing, and sharing their findings with peers, focusing on patterns that determine whether a species flourishes or goes extinct.   

• CE-H1. In Unit 2, Chapter 5, Lesson 7: Are there other genes that could affect cholesterol?, students distinguish between causation and correlation as they determine whether genes cause heart disease. As students evaluate their claims that certain alleles cause heart disease, they move from examining the cases of a few families to examining the same associations in thousands of people, thereby moving from a correlation to building a case for causation.

• CE-H2. In Unit 2, Chapter 4, Lesson 1: Why do some people get heart disease and not others, and what can we do to prevent it?, students suggest possible cause and effect relationships that can be investigated by examining the human body. They use the relationships to help explain why some people get heart disease and others do not.

• SPQ-H1. In Unit 3, Chapter 9, Lesson 14: How should we evaluate trade-offs when considering different solutions?, students use a graphic organizer chart and a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the criteria, trade-offs, and sources of bias in the solutions designed for the food system problems presented in five case studies. Students discuss the differences in design solutions based on the level the solution targeted (e.g. population, community, individual) and consider the impact and the trade-offs the stakeholders considered at each scale.

• SPQ-H2. In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 8: Where does genetic variation in populations come from and why is it important?, students use a model to simulate changes in genetics over long periods of time, create models for how this might affect ecosystems, and then apply their models to case studies from the previous lesson to make predictions about a process that is too slow to see happening in person with anything other than bacteria. 

• SPQ-H4. In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 7: Why do plant-based foods tend to require less land to produce?, students create a model tracker entry that shows why plant-based foods tend to require less land to produce using the amount of corn and chickens needed for an average human in the United States. Students use the model to consider what producing corn and chickens would look like for the entire population of the United States. They wonder if we have enough land to actually sustain this type of consumption (diet) at a larger scale.

• SYS-H1. In Unit 3, Chapter 9, Lesson 16: How do we develop and evaluate our design to improve one aspect of our local food system?, students use an argument tool to create a claim for the solution they chose to solve a local food system problem. As students support their claim, they use evidence to explain how they can purposefully design a system to meet the needs or wants of humans, which in this case is to improve the local food system.

• SYS-H2. In Unit 2, Chapter 4, Lesson 1: Why do some people get heart disease and not others, and what can we do to prevent it?, students investigate data on coronary heart disease from the United States to come to the realization that the occurrences of heart disease are part of a bigger system that also includes the environments in which individuals live. Students develop initial models to explain what inputs and factors have resulted in people having different risks for health outcomes and determine that investigators will need to investigate every facet of the system in which people live, as well as the limits and starting circumstances of the investigation.

• SYS-H3. In Unit 4, Chapter 10, Lesson 2: What might have caused coyotes to be so successful?, students create a trophic model for a single focal organism showing the interactions between their organism and other organisms. Students are placed into ecosystem groups where they work together to create a model of the most important interactions in the ecosystem by seeing where their individual models overlap. Each of the focal organisms represents a subsystem and the group model shows how the subsystems interact with the whole ecosystem.

• SYS-H4. In Unit 2, Chapter 5, Lesson 9: How well do our models predict genetic variation?, students evaluate characteristics of three models they use to explain the Robinson family pedigree and to reflect on criteria they would use to select a model to make sense of genetic information.

• EM-H2. In Unit 3, Chapter 7, Lesson 5: How does a variety of eating patterns provide all our bodies’ requirements for food?, students develop a class consensus model that explains how a variety of eating patterns provide all our bodies’ requirements for food. As students decide on which components to represent and how they are connected, students show how matter from outside the body enters (from food), what happens to that matter once inside the body, and the energy transfers that occur along the way.

• SF-H1. In Unit 2, Chapter 4, Lesson 4: What could cause differences in the amino acid sequences of proteins?, students investigate the interactions between the structure of genes and chromosomes and the function of the mechanism that uses the information encoded in DNA to produce proteins.

• SF-H2. In Unit 2, Chapter 4, Lesson 2: Why is high cholesterol an indicator of heart disease?, students begin to consider how a modification of the artery structure might result in a disruption to the function that the artery structure was originally designed to perform. Students make these connections while updating the Cholesterol Connection Chart as they consider how high levels of cholesterol in LDL particles allowed for plaque buildup, which caused the structure of arteries to change, leading to coronary artery disease. These alterations on the molecular level can lead to symptoms at a larger level. 

• SC-H1. In Unit 1, Chapter 2, Lesson 6: What is the body doing when we get an infection, students develop initial ideas and explanations that relate to changes that are occurring with the bacterial population inside the body and how the body makes a change to respond and bring some stability to the overall body so that it can return back to being healthy.

• SC-H3. In Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 15: How are changes to biodiversity affecting ecosystems (and us as part of the ecosystems) and why does it matter?, students analyze and model how an increase in the number of human activities that are disruptive may cause negative feedback on biodiversity and lead an ecosystem to become unstable. Students explore how various human activities might cause biodiversity to flourish and assist an ecosystem to become more stable over time if human values and views shift in such a way that people want to protect ecosystems.

• SC-H4. In Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 12: How do we rely on and benefit from biodiversity?, students use information about kelp ecosystems to consider how changes in an ecosystem can lead to stability. Students examine the collapse of kelp forest ecosystems happening in different places globally. They assess whether or not having a greater number of connections that are weaker is better or worse for the system's stability than having fewer connections that are "stronger" by considering how disturbances take away some of the connections and leave the ecosystem vulnerable to larger disturbances, or sudden changes that destabilize the ecosystem. 

Examples of claimed grade-band CCC elements partially present in the materials:

• SC-H2. In Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 11: How might the loss of biodiversity affect our lives?, students consider perspectives of stakeholders highlighting a change in extinction rates in recent history compared to the background extinction rates. There is a missed opportunity for students to interact with quantifying these changes or considering their irreversibility.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School meet expectations that they present disciplinary core ideas (DCIs), science and engineering practices (SEPs), and crosscutting concepts (CCCs) in a way that is scientifically accurate. Across the course, the teacher materials, student materials, and assessments accurately represent the three dimensions and are free from scientific inaccuracies.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School meet expectations that they do not inappropriately include scientific content and ideas outside of the grade-band disciplinary core ideas (DCIs). Across the course, the materials consistently incorporate student learning opportunities to learn and use the DCIs appropriate to the HS grade-band.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School meet expectations that materials support understanding of how the three dimensions connect within and across units.

The materials are designed to follow an AIL (Anchored Inquiry Learning) model of instruction. Each of the program’s four units are anchored by a novel problem or phenomenon that drives student learning within a unit through the development and repeated revision of an explanatory model. As students progress through unit materials, their models grow in breadth and sophistication as students’ explanations and solutions connect, through use of the three dimensions, to broader scientific ideas and societal issues. Students are supported in this process through multiple learning routines and tools, such as the Model Tracker, that generates critical feedback from their instructor and peers. Embedded within many of the Investigate, Synthesize, and Culminating Task lessons are the Connect Ideas to Make Sense and the Reflect and Connect instructional routines. Within these routines, the materials provide opportunities for students to examine the connections between multiple ideas and how their understanding of unit-level phenomena and/or problems has evolved, and to consider how they may apply what they learned to additional contexts. The materials support teachers in these routines through multiple suggested discussion prompts, “look-fors” in student contributions, and contextual guidance for supporting students’ reflections on their learning.

Across the program, connections between units are explicit. At the start of each successive unit, instructional guidance is provided to support small group and whole class discussion to reflect on an aspect of a prior unit or units that, through instructional prompting, generates ideas and questions relevant to the prior unit’s learning and the current unit’s problem or phenomenon. Discussions often center on what learning students can carry forward to support sensemaking in the current unit. In other instances, connections between units are formed to support student sensemaking of complex ideas. In these instances, students are directed to consider their explanations of prior problems or phenomena and identify big ideas and CCCs that are applicable to the current problem or phenomenon. 

Examples of student learning experiences that demonstrate within unit connections:

• In Unit 2: Why do some people get heart disease and not others, and what can we do to prevent it?, the phenomenon is a 45-year old woman who dies suddenly from a heart attack and other cases of patients with different levels of risk for heart disease. In Chapter 4, Lessons 1-5, students investigate cholesterol and identify the role that LDL receptor proteins play in increasing the risk of developing heart disease (DCI-LS1.A-H1). They ask questions and create models (SEP-AQDP-H2, SEP-MOD-H3) to illustrate the causal relationship (CCC-CE-H2) between DNA and protein structure (CCC-SF-H2) and construct an argument about the role of gene mutations to the LDL receptor as a heritable cause of high cholesterol (SEP-ARG-H1). In Chapter 5, Lessons 6-10, students continue to examine causal factors associated with developing heart disease as they generate additional questions (SEP-AQDP-H1) to investigate patterns of inheritance. Through their investigations, students learn how the processes of meiosis, recombination, and fertilization lead to genotypic variation (DCI-LS3.B-H1) and incorporate this new information into a revision of their previous models. Students provide feedback and critique the arguments constructed by their classmates in Chapter 4. In Chapter 6, Lessons 11-15, students examine the role of environmental factors in increasing the risk for developing heart disease (DCI-LS3.B-H2). At the unit’s close, students work together to create a final consensus model to explain the phenomenon and complete a final revision of their arguments from the previous chapters as they consider how to create systems (CCC-SYS-H2) to reduce the risk of developing heart disease. Throughout the unit, each lesson builds to the next with the teacher and the materials playing a role in supporting students in making connections between the lessons through specific prompting and task direction related to the unit-level phenomenon.

• In Unit 3: How can we use scientific and social understandings of nutrition and natural resources to improve a food system?, the problem is to design a plan to meet the nutritional requirements of a population while reducing the impact on natural resources. In Chapter 7, Lessons 1-5, students make sense of how food is used by the body (DCI-LS1.C-H3), model how the molecules in food are recombined to make what the body needs (SEP-MOD-H3, CCC-SYS-H3), investigate how organisms obtain food (DCI-LS2.B-H2, SEP-MOD-H3), and explain how our bodies use matter and energy (DCI-LS2.B-H2, CCC-EM-H2). In Chapter 8, Lessons 6-10, students investigate how the eating patterns of humans are varied due in part to the energy required by the trophic level of the organisms they consume (DCI-LS2.B-H2, CCC-EM-H2) and the land use practices of humans. Students connect the matter and energy needs of organisms to the matter and energy requirements of food production. In Chapter 9, Lessons 11-15, students use and improve upon their models as they investigate how land use can impact the ecosystems and water quality (DCI-ESS3.C-H2, CCC-SPQ-H1), ask questions about the impact of individual and societal behavior on food systems, and analyze the constraints of proposed solutions and resulting trade-offs made when solving problems that affect food systems at different scales (DCI-ETS1.B-H1, CCC-SPQ-H1). At the unit’s close, students construct evidence-based arguments to evaluate how well their chosen plan meets the nutritional needs of the community and minimizes impacts on natural resources (DCI-ETS1.A-H2, CCC-SYS-H1). Throughout the unit, each lesson builds to the next with the teacher and the materials playing a role in supporting students in making connections between the lessons through specific prompting and task direction related to the unit-level phenomenon.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School meet expectations that they have an intentional sequence where student tasks increase in sophistication. 

In the materials, content progression follows a logical sequence within and across all units. The Teacher Handbook provides information about the intentional sequence of the program, noting that it be taught in order to align with the Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model. Each of the four program units follows a similar pattern of instruction, where students engage with a problem or phenomenon, ask and organize questions, generate initial explanations, gather evidence from multiple sources, develop and revise models, and seek consensus with their peers. In every fifth lesson, the last lesson of each chapter, students synthesize their learning and complete an assessment. Lesson activities frequently present new learning through the lens of elements addressed in prior lessons, and students are often prompted to reflect on their explanation of a prior phenomenon for foundational context and content with which to support new learning. 

In general, student tasks increase in sophistication across the program for most SEPs. Students repeatedly engage in several learning routines that provide, reduce, and then remove student supports in successive units. Blue call out boxes in the Teacher Edition generally specify how students are engaging with the indicated practice and in some cases identify the level of sophistication regarding what students should know or be able to do with respect to the indicated practice. Across the materials, student engagement with elements of the practices of Planning and Carrying Out Investigations and Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking is limited. However, the complexity of student engagement with these elements is consistent with their location in the program.

Examples of intentional progression for student learning with increasing sophistication:

• Across the program, the materials engage students in argumentation supported through the use of the Argument Tool. The Argument Tool is a scaffolded learning routine for constructing written arguments. Initial use of the Argument Tool is limited to an abbreviated version in which students are tasked to support an explanation. In Unit 1: How can bacterial infections make us so sick?, students use the Argument Tool to construct and support an argument to explain how symptoms and test results can show that a body is attempting to fight off an infection (SEP-ARG-H5). An expanded version of the tool is partially used in Unit 3: How can we use scientific and social understanding of nutrition and natural resources to improve a food system?, as students use the Argument Tool to analyze competing arguments for how best to produce nutritious food with the least impact to the environment (SEP-ARG-H1). As students progress through the materials, they use the tool to include clarifying questions, make and support claims, evaluate the strength of an argument, respond to feedback, and seek consensus. This is present in Unit 4: Why are so many species declining now while a few seem to be expanding, and why does it matter?, as students use the Argument Tool to compare two design solutions for improving an ecosystem and construct a claim in support of one solution that is scientifically valid, written in consideration of societal issues, is economically viable, and is inclusive of diverse perspectives (SEP-ARG-H5). Student use of the SEP Engaging in Argument from Evidence demonstrates an increase in sophistication across the materials. 

• Across the program, the materials engage students in modeling supported by the Model Tracker Self-Assessment and Feedback Tool (Model Tracker). The Model Tracker is a document that outlines what the materials identify as necessary components of a model. Initial student use of the SEP Developing and Using Models is limited to middle school elements of the practice. In Unit 1: How can bacteria make us so sick?, students work together to develop an initial model to describe the underlying and unobservable causes of Zach’s illness (SEP-MOD-M6). As the unit progresses, students are introduced and engage with high school elements of the practice. Later in Unit 1, students revise their models based on evidence to illustrate how the human body attempts to restore itself to a stable state when fighting off an infection (SEP-MOD-H3). At the end of Unit 1, students respond to teacher feedback as they reflect on the limitations of their models to explain how bacteria become increasingly resistant to antibiotics (SEP-MOD-H5). As students progress through the materials, their use of the practice expands as they develop complex models to illustrate mechanistic accounts of phenomena (SEP-MOD-H4, SEP-MOD-H6). This is present in Unit 2: Why do some people get heart disease, and not others and, what can we do to prevent it?, as students revise their models to explain the relationships between nucleotide sequences, amino acid sequences, protein structure, and cholesterol levels and how other genetic factors could contribute to our risk of heart disease (SEP-MOD-H5, SEP-MOD-H6). Student use of the SEP Developing and Using Models demonstrates an increase in sophistication across the materials.

• Across the program, the materials engage students in asking questions supported through the use of the Driving Question Board (DQB). The DQB is a tool for tracking  students’ progress figuring out phenomena or solving problems. Initial use of the SEP Asking Questions and Defining Problems is significantly supported through instruction guidance for students as they work in groups to write individual questions, share their questions publicly in Scientist Circles, and sort questions into categories. Throughout Unit 1: How can bacteria make us so sick?, students collaboratively generate questions that, once answered, will explain Zach’s illness. As students progress through the program, instructional supports diminish and students increasingly develop questions/define problems independently. In Unit 3: How can we use scientific and social understandings of nutrition and natural resources to improve a food system?, students define a problem related to their own local food system and specify their own criteria and constraints, based upon prior experience in earlier units (SEP-AQDP-H8), and brainstorm solutions based upon those criteria and constraints (SEP-AQDP-H9). Later, in Unit 4: Why are so many species declining now while a few seem to be expanding, and why does it matter?, students evaluate solutions for conserving biodiversity and argue from evidence for which solution best meets student identified criteria and constraints when considering different conservation strategies (SEP-AQDP-H9). Student use of the SEP Asking Questions and Defining Problems demonstrates an increase in sophistication across the materials.

• Across the program, the materials engage students in processing information supported by a variety of sources and types of media including simulations, videos, and adapted and unadapted texts. Initial use of the SEP Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information is limited to comparing information from a variety of sources. In Unit 1: How can bacteria make us so sick?, students use multiple sources of information to compare and contrast types of cells and examine texts with pictures and diagrams to describe the interaction between humans and bacteria (SEP-INFO-H2). As students progress through the materials, they use information obtained from multiple sources to construct explanations. In Unit 2: Why do some people get heart disease, and not others and, what can we do to prevent it?, students use data and text-based evidence to build an explanation for monogenic and polygenic mutations (SEP-INFO-H2). Later, in Unit 3: How can we use scientific and social understandings of nutrition and natural resources to improve a food system?, students read and annotate multiple case studies to identify the environmental benefits of particular organisms and to identify societal connections, challenges, and conflicts to environmental preservation efforts (SEP-INFO-H1, SEP-INFO-H2). Student use of the SEP Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information demonstrates an increase in sophistication across the materials.