10th Grade

Unit 1 - Introduction to Biology & Community Health

Introduction to Public Health: Students will be able to analyze how public health protects and promotes community well-being by explaining determinants of health, comparing different approaches to health issues, and evaluating how social and environmental factors influence health outcomes.

Experimental Design: Plan and evaluate scientific investigations by posing testable questions, developing hypotheses, and designing controlled experiments that identify variables, include appropriate controls, and address potential sources of bias.

Analyzing Data: Analyze and communicate data using appropriate statistical methods and graphical representations to identify patterns, evaluate variability and significance, and draw evidence-based conclusions.

Epidemiology & Epidemiological Studies: Understand and apply epidemiological principles to evaluate public health studies

Differentiate between individual health and public health.

Define “public health” and explain its purpose in improving population health.

Identify the three broad categories of the determinants of health and identify what factors belong to each category. 

Describe the different approaches of public health for understanding and addressing health issues, including behavioral, biomedical, & social approaches.

Describe the different determinants of health (environmental, social, & biological)

Describe how social determinants of health contribute to health disparities between communities (e.g., comparing outcomes in low-income vs. affluent areas).

Explain how non-biological factors (like income, neighborhood, and education) can influence biological health outcomes (e.g., asthma, obesity, life expectancy).

Identify public health careers and the scientific skills used in those roles (e.g., epidemiologist, health educator, environmental health scientist).

Identify or pose a scientific question based on an observation, data, or a model.

State a hypothesis, or predict the results of an experiment.

Identifying dependent and independent variables.

Identify & justify the use of positive and negative control groups in an experiment.

Identify variables that need to remain constant in an experiment

Design and evaluate experiments to test a hypothesis, including identifying variables, controls, and potential sources of bias.

Calculate and interpret mean, median, mode, and range

Explain what standard deviation shows about the spread or variability of data

Calculate standard error to estimate uncertainty in the mean, and use standard error bars to evaluate whether differences between two data sets are statistically significant.

Construct bar graphs, line graphs, and box plots to accurately represent and communicate data.

Interpret data from tables and graphs by identifying values, patterns, and relationships between variables.

Use patterns and statistical analysis from data to draw evidence-based conclusions.