Courses for Grades 7-9
Don't learn for the tests, run tests to learn!
The Five Short Courses
The Chemistry of Fire and Gas
The Chemistry of Atoms
Elements and Reactivity
The Chemistry of Air
The Formula of Chemistry
The Story of Chemistry
Available Now!
Course Description
In 1869, Siberian scientist, Demitri Mendeleev, assembled and organized all detectable matter in the universe into the Periodic Table of the Elements. How did he do this? What did he know?
These are the questions that drive the laboratory explorations in this series. Students follow the 200 hundred year journey of discovery, beginning in the 1600's when scientists launched a systemic, methodical investigation into the age-old question ‘what is fire?’.
From here students steer directly into the chemical and physical properties of atoms and begin to chart a course mapping out the patterns under which atoms combine.
Surprising groupings of elements emerge, leading to a suspicion that there is a grand organization scheme underpinning all of the matter in the universe. The search is on for this arrangement!
The Story of Physics
Available Now!
Course Description
Physicists, in their quest to understand the universe, try to find the simplest of explanations to explain the things we observe.
The problem is that what we observe, oftentimes, does not square with intuition! This places the physicists in a weird spot, where they must abandon intuition for the sake of truth! The only recourse is to run labs, collect data, and build a picture of that data that makes sense. The successful physicist does not mold reality to their intuition but allows their intuition to follow reality!
So let’s run some labs! Students in The Story of Physics follow the evolution of physics from Galileo to Einstein. Every step along the way stretches intuition.
Starting with Galileo and Newton, who both simply took a fresh look at how things move about our universe, from falling apples to orbiting moons, students build up a solid foundation in the laws of motion. Students then encounter a series of experiments on heat, sound, electricity, and magnetism, which seem to contradict the brilliant ideas of Newton. Amidst these investigations, an entire new physics is required to explain light and the nature of every atom in the universe. Here again, the experiments will lead the way. The student just has to create meaning around their lab results and findings!
The Five Short Courses
The Acceleration of Gravity
The Moon is Falling
The Triumph of Classical Physics
The Color of Light
The Hydrogen Atom
The Five Short Courses
Buoyant Continents
Plate Tectonics
Darwin
Genetics and Evolution
The Origin of Life
The Story of Earth
Available 2025-26 School year
Course Description
There was revolution in science in the 1950’s and 1960’s, which does not seem to have the notoriety like the other major periods of rapid advancements in science — the rise of chemistry and algebra during the Golden Age of Islam, the rise of experiment/emperical based science during the European Englightenment, the mapping of the cosmos in the late 1600’s led by Galileo and Newton, and the quantum revolution of the early 20th century.
But it was every bit as magnificent, if not more, given the broad, sweeping array of phenomena explained under one simple idea - plate tectonic theory.
Why did the big ideas in geology take so much longer than those in chemistry, physica, and even biology to coalesce? What were the data and the experiments, which ultimately revealed the workings of our dynamic earth and a beautiful explanation for the look and feature of the entire surface of the earth.
After walking this path, we go back and walk the parallel path of explaining the striking similarity, yet paradoxically, the bewildering diversity of life on earth. There has to be one unifying theory here, too. Indeed, we follow in the footsteps of some of the most iconic scientists and philosophers in history to forge our own theory explaining life on earth.
COMING SOON
Grade 10-12 Courses
The Story of Chemistry
Unit 1/ Thermochemistry:
Following the historical development of thermodynamics in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, students uncover the one grand principle governing when all of chemistry happens.
Unit 2/ Physical Chemistry
Students probe the interesting and surprising properties of solutions and discover there are two distinct types of chemical bonds, bringing them to the turn of the 20th century.
Unit 3/ The Chemical Bond
Through experiment, students uncover details of the chemical bond, revealing wonderful explanations of a broad variety of chemical phenomena.
The Story of Physics
Unit 1/ Mechanics and Motion
Starting with Galileo’s experiments, students conclude with Newton's grand framework describing everything from a falling apple to the orbits of the planets.
Unit 2/ Optics and Waves
Through a series of experiments on light, students probe the nature of waves and eventually derive the wave equation.
Unit 3/ Electromagnetism
Following a 50-year explosion of scientific achievement in the mid 1800’s, students unite the theories of magnetism and electricity.
The Story of Biology
Unit 1/ Biochemistry
Students explore the properties and structures of carbon-based molecules such as carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids and learn the chemical mechanisms governing biology.
Unit 2/ Cell Biology
As the basic building block of life, students employ ingenious laboratory methods to make sense of cells and see how they work.
Unit 3/ Genetics
Following the footsteps of Gregor Mendel and Thomas Morgan in classic genetics, students foray into modern molecular genetics to explain both the unity and the diversity of life on earth.