Science 30

Unit 1: Living Systems Respond to Change

How the human body moves matter and defends itself, and how the genetic instructions inside every cell are stored, copied, read and changed — the biology that lets living systems respond to a changing environment.

• Structures of the heart
• The heartbeat and circulation
• Blood vessels and blood flow
• Components of blood

• How pathogens enter and harm
• The body’s barriers
• The immune response

• Autoimmune disease
• How vaccines work

• Chromosomes in mitosis, meiosis and fertilization
• Punnett squares and single-trait inheritance
• Autosomal vs sex-linked inheritance

• The structure of DNA
• DNA replication
• From DNA triplets to protein

• The roles of proteins
• Mutations and human disease
• Genetic engineering
• Resistance in bacteria and viruses

Unit 2: Chemistry & the Environment

The chemistry of acids and bases and the pH balance that living systems depend on, the organic compounds that power and pollute our world, and the green-chemistry choices that reduce the harm — chemistry read through an environmental lens.

• Proton donors and acceptors
• Identifying acids, bases and salts
• pH and hydronium ion concentration
• How buffers resist pH change

• Why living systems need constant pH
• The history of acid-base indicators
• Buffering capacity

• The chemistry of acid deposition
• Impacts of acid deposition

• Naming carbon compounds (IUPAC)
• Common uses of hydrocarbons
• Organic pollutants

• Hazards of halogenated hydrocarbons and benzene
• Smog and ozone depletion
• Biomagnification

• Risks and benefits of chemical processes
• Technologies that reduce emissions
• Alternatives to chemical technologies

Unit 3: Electromagnetic Energy

The physics of fields, electric circuits and the electromagnetic spectrum — from the force that acts across empty space, to the electricity that powers our homes, to the light that carries information across the universe.

• What a field is
• Comparing field interactions
• Properties of vector fields
• Gravitational and electric field strength

• Inducing a current
• Series and parallel circuits
• Electrical energy and cost
• AC vs DC

• How transformers work
• Why AC for transmission
• Motors and generators
• Electrical safety technologies

• The range of the EM spectrum
• Comparing the parts of the spectrum
• The atmosphere absorbs EMR

• Reflection, refraction, diffraction, polarization
• Comparing radiation to visible light
• The universal wave equation

• Telescopes
• Fusion in the Sun
• Spectroscopes and spectra
• Technologies for studying stars
• The evolution of stars

Unit 4: Energy & the Environment

How society consumes energy, how solar energy is transformed into the renewable and nonrenewable sources we use, and how nuclear, chemical, tidal and geothermal energy compare — energy science weighed against its environmental cost.

• The growth of energy consumption
• Per-capita energy consumption
• Sustainable development and efficiency

• Developing energy technologies
• Environmental impact of energy sources
• An interconnected environment

• Hess’s Law and heats of combustion
• Where solar energy goes
• Solar energy converted and reconverted
• Renewable energy technologies

• Fission vs fusion
• Radioactive decay and ionizing radiation
• Mass-energy in nuclear reactions
• Fission reactors and fusion research

• Nuclear and geothermal energy
• Comparing power stations
• Orders of magnitude of energy
• The source of tides
• Tidal energy