Curriculum Map

Accelerated Science — Year 2

Complete the two-year compacted science pathway. Covers remaining Life Science topics (body systems, evolution, biomes) plus the full Grade 8 curriculum — forces, energy, waves, atoms, chemical reactions, Earth systems, and genetics. Finishes ready for Biology. TEKS §112.19 + §112.20 aligned.

14 Units

Early Units (Foundation)

Building Skills

Advanced Concepts

Capstone/Synthesis

Human Body Systems

Explore how the skeletal, muscular, circulatory, and respiratory systems are structured, how each system functions, and how they work together to keep the body alive and moving.

3-4 days

Body Regulation and Defense

Investigate how the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems detect change, coordinate responses, and defend the body — and how these regulatory systems maintain homeostasis.

3-4 days

Evolution and Natural Selection

Investigate the fossil record and multiple lines of evidence for evolution, then understand the mechanism of natural selection that drives it — and why evolution is the central organizing principle of all biology.

3-4 days

Biomes and Organism Interactions

Explore Earth's major biomes and the abiotic factors that define them, then investigate the ecological relationships — symbiosis, predation, competition — that shape communities and drive population dynamics.

3-4 days

Human Impact and Life Science Synthesis

Examine how human activity affects ecosystems and biodiversity, explore conservation science as an applied discipline, and synthesize the major threads of life science from cells to ecosystems.

3-4 days

Force, Motion, and Newton's Laws

Explore how forces cause changes in motion, how Newton's three laws unify everything from a soccer kick to a rocket launch, and how acceleration, mass, and force are mathematically related.

3-4 days

Energy: Forms and Transformations

Investigate kinetic energy, potential energy, thermal energy, and the law of conservation of energy — and trace how energy transformations power everything from a roller coaster to a living cell.

3-4 days

Waves, Sound, and Light

Investigate how waves transfer energy through matter and space, explore the properties of sound as a mechanical wave, and examine the electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves to gamma rays.

3-4 days

Atoms, Elements, and the Periodic Table

Trace the history of atomic models from Dalton to Bohr, explore the structure of atoms in terms of protons, neutrons, and electrons, and discover how the periodic table organizes elements by recurring patterns of properties.

3-4 days

Chemical Reactions

Investigate how atoms rearrange during chemical reactions, how to write and balance chemical equations, and how conservation of mass governs every reaction from combustion to photosynthesis.

3-4 days

Earth and Space Systems

Investigate the forces that shape Earth's surface and climate — tectonic plates, the water cycle, weather systems, tides, and Earth's motion in space — and understand how these systems interact across time scales from seconds to billions of years.

3-4 days

Genetics and Heredity: Deeper Dive

Go deeper into genetics — from chromosomes and the structure of DNA to Punnett squares for dihybrid crosses, codominance, incomplete dominance, and the molecular basis of inheritance.

3-4 days

Natural Resources and Environmental Systems

Examine the natural resources that human civilization depends on, how they are used and depleted, and how environmental systems respond to pollution and climate change — with an emphasis on the science behind sustainability.

3-4 days

Biology Gateway: Readiness

Synthesize two years of accelerated science into a coherent foundation for high school Biology — reviewing cell theory, evolution, genetics, ecology, and experimental design while previewing the molecular depth and investigative rigor Biology will demand.

3-4 days

Learning Progression

This course is designed to be taken sequentially. Earlier units establish foundational concepts that later units build upon. While you can explore units in any order, following the numbered sequence provides the most coherent learning experience.