College tracks

Grade 9 — start one project

You are on one track. The project lasts four years. This year you start it and keep a log. The log is the start of the file you will send. Do not open a second project.

Every week, do four things inside that project:

1. Compute a quantity with units, state the uncertainty, and say what decision it supports.
2. Write one claim, two reasons, and one real objection. About one page.
3. Read one short original — a figure and its caption, a statute section, a schematic, or a specimen — and write what it says, separate from a summary.
4. Add to the log.

Finish these rungs on the First Principles ladder. Each one has a gate. The rung is done only when the gate is done.

1. Instructions a machine could follow
2. Loops and branches
3. Variables and state
4. Function as a black box
5. Balancing equations
6. The coordinate plane
7. Python: syntax and types
8. Python: files and automation

School courses beside the project: algebra and geometry, and a first lab science, usually biology.

Marine biology

Pick a site you can revisit. Write the method: where, when, and how many samples. Visit three times with that method. Any count or density keeps both sides of the equation balanced.

Done when a second person can repeat a fourth visit from the method alone.

This week. Pick one place you can walk to three times. Mark one square you can find again, about one step on a side. Count one kind of organism you can recognize, and write the feature you used to recognize it. Visit three times on three days. The method names the place, the square, the organism, and the count each day. Density is the count divided by the area of the square. Show that division as an equation with both sides named.

Log for this week. Place. How to find the square again. Organism and recognition feature. Day 1 date and count. Day 2 date and count. Day 3 date and count. Density equation with both sides named. Who could do visit 4 from this page alone.

Grade 10 — predict, then revise

Same project as grade 9. This year you write the prediction before the next result, and you revise after someone disagrees. The first prediction stays in the log after you revise.

Every week, inside that project:

1. Predict a number with units, measure it, and write the gap. The first prediction stays visible.
2. Revise one claim after someone disagrees. Keep the strongest objection.
3. Annotate one short original. Quote the sentence, line, or feature that does the work, separate from your summary.
4. Add both results to the log.

Finish these rungs:

9. Exponents and their inverse
10. Logarithmic scale
11. Polynomials and roots
12. Complex numbers
13. Deduction
14. Proof technique
15. Boolean algebra
16. Counting
17. Sets
18. Arrays, lists, dicts, and Big O

School courses beside the project: advanced algebra and trigonometry, into precalculus, and chemistry with a lab.

Marine biology

Before the next visit, write what you expect to count or measure, and why. Bring one chemistry measurement the site can support: temperature, pH, salinity, or a concentration. Identify one organism by the feature that distinguishes it, and write that feature.

Done when the prediction and the later observation are both dated, and you say whether the prediction survived.

This week. Before the next visit, write the count you expect and the reason, and date it. At the square, measure one chemistry quantity the site allows: temperature or pH. On the return, write the count beside the prediction and say whether the prediction survived. Name the feature that identifies the organism.

Log for this week. Date of prediction. Predicted count and reason. Temperature or pH. Actual count. Did the prediction survive. Recognition feature.

Grade 11 — let someone break it

Same project. Someone outside your household tries to break the result. Their paragraph stays in the log. That person is the one who can write the letter.

Before you register for grade 12, write three lines from the course list your desired college publishes: courses you will have finished, courses still missing, and the term you will take each missing one. Add a missing course around the project. Do not drop this track’s mathematics, lab line, or memo to make room for an elective.

Every week, inside that project:

1. Use a rate, an accumulation, or a comparison, with units and the uncertainty, on the project's claim.

2. Write a timed page a stranger could grade. Answer the other side in the text.

3. Cite one paper, case, dataset, or specification. A textbook restatement does not carry the claim.

4. Put the outside reader's paragraph in the log before you answer it.

5. Limits

6. The derivative

7. Rules of differentiation

8. The chain rule

9. Integration and the fundamental theorem

10. Series and convergence

School courses beside the project: precalculus finished and calculus started, and physics.

Marine biology

Compare two sites, two seasons, or two conditions with the same method. State the uncertainty on the difference. Say what sample size would make you trust it.

Done when an outside reader can attack the method — a biased site, a changed protocol, a sample too small — and your note answers that attack.

This week. Use the same square method at a second site, or in a second season. Write the difference in the count and the number of further visits you would need before you trusted it. Ask someone outside your household what could bias the site. Put their objection and your answer in the note.

Log for this week. Date. Second site or season. Count difference. Further visits needed. Outside objection. Your answer.