Biology Pacing Guide (Living Earth)

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This is based on California’s Grades 9-12 The Living Earth Storyline . This pacing guide is still largely a work-in-progress, but feel free to use it to navigate some of my high school curriculum.

First Weeks

Week 1: Letter to Me , Mystery Bag Challenge

Week 2: Integrating Mindfulness Within the Classroom , The Science Behind a Growth Mindset

Week 3: Science Fact or Fiction? , Metric Conversions

Week 4: Interpreting Graphs

Week 5: Experimental Design & Lab Conclusions, Marshmallow Towers

Instructional Segment 1: Ecosystem Interactions & Energy

Week 1: Substituted Sammy, Intro to Ecology Notes

Week 2: Climographs, Food Webs, Types of Symbiosis WS

Week 3: Population Ecology, As World’s Population Booms Article , People Paradox

Week 4: Population Pyramids, Fishing Lab (Tragedy of the Commons)

Week 5: Wolves of Yellowstone | Videos & WS

Week 6: Energy Flow Through Ecosystems, Biome Project

Instructional Segment 2: History of Earth’s Atmosphere: Photosynthesis & Respiration

Week 1:

Week 2:

Week 3:

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Week 5:

Week 6: Understanding Scale: How to Visualize One Billion

Instructional Segment 3: Evidence of Evolution

Week 1: Geologic Time Period Travel Brochures , Index Fossils

Week 2: Relative and Absolute Dating, The Half-Life of Pennies Lab

Week 3: Relative and Absolute Dating Quiz, The Great Fossil Find

Week 4: How Fossils Form, Extinctions

Week 5: Adaptation Lab, Bird Beaks Lab

Week 6: Natural Selection Notes, Darwin Natural Selection Game

Week 7: Design Your Own Animal, Is It Natural Selection?

Week 8: Fish or Mammals (Evidence of Evolution), Types of Evolution Worksheet

Instructional Segment 4: Inheritance of Traits

Week 1: DNA Transcription and Translation Notes, Punnett Squares WS

Week 2: Genetic Traits in Harry Potter | Notes & WS

Week 3: Introduction to Pedigrees Packet , Crime Mystery Lab

Week 4: Pigeonetics , NOVA Evolution Lab

Week 5: “Making Babies” Activity, Genetic Disorders Project

Week 6: Socratic Seminars on Genetic Engineering, Gattaca (Movie)

Instructional Segment 5: Structure, Function and Growth (from cells to organisms)

Week 1:

Week 2:

Week 3:

Week 4:

Week 5:

Week 6:

Instructional Segment 6: Ecosystem Stability & the Response to Climate Change

Week 1: The Story of Stuff, Ecological Footprint Calculator

Week 2: Vanishing: The 6th Mass Extinction Video Notes , The Story of Cosmetics Video WS

Weeks 3-5: Mars Project, The Martian (Movie)