Topic 1 — Alive, and built from cells — blueprint for James

What I need from you: 6 decisions

Merge the four organ and tissue facts into two lessons, one per level?

the register has four atoms — what an organ is (LIF-011), an organ is built from tissues (LIF-012), what a tissue is (LIF-013), a tissue is built from cells (LIF-014).

each pair is one lesson's shape: say what the thing is, then cut it open and say what it is built from. LIF-013 already says a tissue is a group of cells, so LIF-014 adds nothing a student could fail separately.

the merge is an atom change in the knowledge graph (your hand-authored band), logged there. This blueprint is written with the merge: L06 and L07.

My recommendation: yes, merge both pairs. Yes / no.

Fix the seven life processes as moving, sensing, feeding, respiration, growing, excretion and reproducing?

the register asks for seven life processes (LIF-001) but does not name them. The grade 3 atoms this lesson retrieves name four: grows, feeds, moves, makes more of its own kind.

every process gets its plain words first, then its label where a label is needed: "uses air to release energy from its food — respiration", "gets rid of waste — excretion", "makes more of its own kind — reproduction". The respiration word equation waits for Topic 4.

US tests say "characteristics of living things"; the lesson says "the seven life processes — the things every living thing does" once, so both names land.

My recommendation: fix the seven as written, with those three labels coined here. Fix / edit.

Add organ system to the ladder, so students order five levels, not four?

the register's ordering atom (LIF-017) runs organism → organ → tissue → cell. A separate atom (LIF-019) identifies an organ system. Every grade-8 test draws five rungs: cell, tissue, organ, organ system, organism.

this blueprint teaches the organ system (L10) before the ordering (L11), so the ladder is complete when the student first orders it. Every register edge still points backwards.

My recommendation: yes, five rungs. Yes / keep four.

Use licensed microscope photos wherever a real cell carries the point?

four lessons rest on what a microscope shows — a tissue is made of cells (L07), one cell alive on its own (L08), onion skin, cheek cells and pond water (L09), one cell or many (L13). A drawing cannot prove that onion skin is made of cells; a photo can.

drawings (monochrome SVG, one depiction per thing) still carry the ladder, every label and every comparison. Photos are only where the real thing is the evidence.

My recommendation: yes, photos in L07, L08, L09 and L13; drawings everywhere else. Agree / change.

Supply the seven-process checklist in every sorting item, or expect it from memory?

L01 tests recall of the seven. After that, L02, L03 and L04 sort cases against the list. A student who has to hold seven names in mind while judging a case is doing two jobs at once.

the same drawn checklist card (the seven processes as a tick table) appears in every L02–L04 item, in the practice set and in the PP100 items on those atoms; only L01's own quiz asks for the seven unaided.

My recommendation: supply the checklist from L02 on; recall lives in L01 and the practice set. Agree / change.

Which lessons could do without a video?

a video earns its place when something moves or is handled that a page cannot show. L01 (a still cat doing seven things), L03 (the robot dog beside a real dog), L06 (a heart cut open, layer by layer), L07 (zooming from the layer to its cells) and L10 (a bite of apple travelling through the digestive system) have something to watch.

L02, L04, L05, L08, L09, L11, L12 and L13 are sorts, definitions, a table and photos — a page carries each.

My recommendation: mark L02, L04, L05, L08, L09, L11, L12 and L13 "could do without a video"; all thirteen scripted. Agree / change.

Topic 1 at a glance — 13 lessons

	Lesson	Opens on	Format
L01	The seven things every living thing does	A cat sleeps on a warm windowsill.	video + article
L02	Which life process is this?	A sunflower turns its head to follow the Sun across the sky.	article only
L03	Living or non-living?	A robot dog walks across the floor.	video + article
L04	The hard cases: the icicle and the seed	An icicle hangs from a roof.	article only
L05	The whole living thing is an organism	A dog runs across a park.	article only
L06	An organ does one job, and is built from layers	A butcher lays out a heart, a stomach and a lung on a board.	video + article
L07	A tissue is a group of similar cells	Take one layer from the heart: the muscle layer.	video + article
L08	The cell is the smallest living unit	Take one muscle cell out of the heart tissue and keep it in warm liquid.	article only
L09	Every living thing is made of cells	Take a slice of onion skin, a scraping from inside a cheek, and a drop of pond water.	article only
L10	An organ system: organs working together on one job	You swallow a bite of apple.	video + article
L11	Order the five levels	Here are five words: cell, organism, organ, tissue, organ system.	article only
L12	Which level is it?	Look at four things: a heart, the lining of a stomach, one skin cell, a whole ant.	article only
L13	One cell or many	A drop of pond water goes under the microscope.	article only

What this topic is, in five lines

Thirteen lessons after the merges in question 1: LIF-001, 002, 003, 004, 010, 011+012, 013+014, 015, 016, 019, 017, 018, 020.

Terms coined here and nowhere else: life processes and the labels respiration, excretion, reproduction (L01); organism (L05); organ and tissue (L06, sharpened in L07); cell (L07, defined in L08); organ system (L10); single-celled and many-celled (L13).

Deliberately not taught: the parts of a cell (Topic 2), viruses, the history of cell theory, what any organ system does in detail, the microscope as a routine.

Every scene was chosen fresh for middle school; AP Biology is consulted after drafting, for anchors and traps only.

The seven things every living thing does L01

A cat sleeps on a warm windowsill.

The cat lies dead still.

Yet the cat is alive, and the windowsill is not.

What is the cat doing, right now, that the windowsill will never do?

The point, stated first

What does every living thing do?

Every living thing carries out the same seven life processes.

The seven are: moving, sensing its surroundings, feeding, using air to release energy from food, growing, getting rid of waste, and making more of its own kind.

The sleeping cat breathes, so it is releasing energy from its food.

The cat's stomach is breaking down its dinner.

The cat's ears still twitch at a sound.

The windowsill does none of the seven.

Video: the still cat with each process appearing on it in turn, breath, whiskers, stomach — video and article.

Part 1 — LIF-001 — Name the seven life processes every living thing carries out; coin life processes, respiration, excretion, reproduction

Check: fact, type (a): the seven by typed recall, one at a time from its plain description ("gets rid of waste" → excretion); then "which process is missing from this list" ×3; one misconception item: a student says a plant does not move, so plants do only six — the key corrects

Figure: SVG: the seven-process checklist card — seven rows, plain words and label, a tick column; the cat drawn beside it with each process labelled on the drawing

Leans on: LIF3-001, 007, 008, 009 (grows, feeds, moves, makes more of its own kind) — retrieved by the cat scene, one recall question

Part 1q — Fluency quiz: the seven names from their plain meanings, and the meanings from the names

Check: fluency

Figure: —

Leans on: —

Notes

Trap: "living things must be moving to be alive". The sleeping cat is the opener for exactly this reason.

Which life process is this? L02

A sunflower turns its head to follow the Sun across the sky.

A puppy doubles its mass in six weeks.

A fish opens and closes its gills all day.

Each one is carrying out one life process.

Which process is each one carrying out?

The point, stated first

How do you name the life process you are watching?

Ask what the action does for the living thing.

The sunflower turning is moving.

The puppy doubling its mass is growing.

The fish pushing water over its gills is taking in air to release energy from food: respiration.

Video: nothing a page cannot show — a sort of described cases is a table job — article only.

Part 1 — LIF-002 — Name which life process a described action shows

Check: type (a) fluency: example sequence of six cases (one per process, the last shown first in the quiz), then 10 fresh described actions → the process, typed from the supplied checklist; boundary pairs: a dog panting (respiration) against a dog running (moving); a tree dropping leaves (excretion) against a tree growing taller (growing)

Figure: SVG: the checklist card supplied in every item; licensed photo: the sunflower facing the Sun (the real plant carries the point)

Leans on: L01 (the seven) — one recall question

Notes

Scope: one action, one process. Actions that show two processes at once are kept out of the quiz.

Living or non-living? L03

A robot dog walks across the floor.

It barks when you clap.

It stops to charge its battery.

It looks alive.

Is the robot dog living?

The point, stated first

How do you decide whether something is living?

Check it against all seven life processes.

A living thing does all seven.

The robot dog moves, senses and takes in energy.

The robot dog never grows, never gets rid of waste, and never makes more robot dogs.

So the robot dog is non-living.

Video: the robot dog and a real dog side by side, the checklist filling in for each — video and article.

Part 1 — LIF-003 — Decide whether something is living or non-living by checking it against the life processes

Check: type (a) fluency: example sequence — a real dog (living) → the robot dog (non-living) → a mushroom (living, does not obviously move) → a car (non-living: takes in fuel, gives out exhaust, never grows) → a moss (living) → a river (non-living: moves, "grows" after rain) → rule; then 8 fresh cases yes / no with the checklist card; one misconception item: a student says a car is living because it uses fuel and gives out waste — the key corrects

Figure: SVG: the checklist card filled in for the real dog and for the robot dog, side by side (the comparison is drawn); licensed photo: a mushroom on a log

Leans on: L01 (the seven) — one recall question; LIF3-002 (sort living from non-living by what it does) — retrieved by the robot dog, one recall question

Part 1q — Fluency quiz: living / non-living, yes / no, 8 quick cases

Check: fluency

Figure: —

Leans on: —

Notes

Trap: "if it moves and uses energy it is alive". The car and the river are the near misses.

The hard cases: the icicle and the seed L04

An icicle hangs from a roof.

Each cold night the icicle grows longer.

A dry bean seed sits in a packet.

The seed has not changed in a year.

One of these two is living.

Which of the two is living?

The point, stated first

Why does a hard case count as living or not?

Name the life processes it carries out, and the ones it does not.

The icicle grows longer.

But the icicle never feeds, never senses, and never makes new icicles of its own kind.

So the icicle is non-living.

The seed looks still.

Plant the seed in wet soil and it grows, feeds, and later makes new seeds.

The seed can do all seven, so the seed is living.

Video: nothing a page cannot show — an explanation — article only.

Part 1 — LIF-004 — Explain why a hard-to-call case is living or non-living by naming the life processes it does or does not carry out

Check: type (c): what (the icicle: living / non-living) → why (free response: "The icicle is non-living because…") → misconception item: a student says the seed is non-living because it has not moved or grown for a year — the key corrects: it can, and will → transfer: a crystal that grows in a jar of salt water; a frog frozen through the winter

Figure: SVG: the checklist card filled in for the icicle and for the seed, side by side; licensed photo: a bean seedling breaking out of its seed

Leans on: L03 (the sort) — one recall question

Notes

Trap: "a thing that is not doing the processes right now is not alive". The seed and the frozen frog carry the boundary: living things can pause.

The whole living thing is an organism L05

A dog runs across a park.

Inside the dog, its heart beats.

On the dog's back, one hair grows.

Which of the three is a complete living thing?

The point, stated first

What do we call one whole living thing?

A complete living thing that carries out all seven life processes on its own is called an organism.

The dog is an organism.

The heart cannot live on its own, so the heart is not an organism.

The hair cannot live on its own, so the hair is not an organism.

Video: nothing a page cannot show — article only.

Part 1 — LIF-010 — State that an organism is a complete, independent living thing that carries out all the life processes; coin organism

Check: fact → term typed and term-meaning MCQ; then type (a) fluency: organism or part of one, 8 quick cases (an oak tree, a leaf, an ant, an ant's leg, a mushroom, a whale, a whale's eye, a daisy); one misconception item: a student says a leaf is an organism because it is alive — the key corrects: alive, but not complete on its own

Figure: SVG: the dog drawn once, with the heart and the hair labelled on the drawing; the organism boxed — the first rung of the ladder depiction

Leans on: L01 (the seven) — one recall question

Part 1q — Fluency quiz: organism — the term from its meaning and back

Check: fluency

Figure: —

Leans on: —

An organ does one job, and is built from layers L06

A butcher lays out a heart, a stomach and a lung on a board.

Each one looks different.

Inside the animal, each one did one job.

What is each part called, and what is it made of?

The point, stated first

What is an organ?

A part of an organism that does one particular job is called an organ.

The heart pumps blood.

The stomach breaks down food.

A leaf makes food for a plant.

Cut an organ open and you see layers of different material inside it.

Each layer is called a tissue.

Video: the heart cut open and its layers peeling apart one at a time — video and article.

Part 1 — LIF-011+012 (merged) — State that an organ is a part of an organism that does one particular job, and that an organ is built from tissues; coin organ, tissue (plain: a layer of one kind of material)

Check: fact → term typed; then type (a) fluency: match the organ to its one job, 6 quick three-option items (heart, stomach, lungs, brain, a leaf, a root); "an organ is built from…" recall; one misconception item: a student says the heart is made of one solid material all the way through — the key corrects: layers, each a tissue

Figure: SVG: the heart drawn in cross-section with its layers labelled tissue on the drawing — the second rung; table: six organs and their one job

Leans on: L05 (organism) — one recall question

Part 1q — Fluency quiz: organ — the term from its meaning; which of two named parts is the organ

Check: fluency

Figure: —

Leans on: —

Notes

Scope: organs are named with their one job only; how each organ works is not taught here.

A tissue is a group of similar cells L07

Take one layer from the heart: the muscle layer.

Slice it thin and put the slice under a microscope.

The slice is made of thousands of tiny units, all alike, all pulling together.

What is the muscle layer made of?

The point, stated first

What is a tissue made of?

Under a microscope, a tissue is a group of tiny units that look alike and do the same job.

Each tiny unit is called a cell.

Heart muscle tissue is thousands of muscle cells pulling together.

So a tissue is a group of similar cells doing the same job.

Video: the zoom from the layer down to the cells, each cell pulling in time — video and article.

Part 1 — LIF-013+014 (merged) — State that a tissue is a group of similar cells doing the same job, and that a tissue is built from cells; coin cell (plain: the tiny unit a microscope shows)

Check: fact → term typed ("a group of similar cells doing the same job" → tissue); type (a) fluency: tissue or organ, 6 quick cases (heart muscle, the heart, the stomach lining, the stomach, a leaf's skin, a leaf); "a tissue is built from…" recall; one misconception item: a student says a tissue is one big piece of material with no smaller parts — the key corrects

Figure: licensed photo: heart muscle tissue under a microscope, cells visible; SVG: the tissue drawn as a patch of identical cell outlines — the third rung; the cell outline is plain, no parts inside (Topic 2 adds them)

Leans on: L06 (organ, tissue as a layer) — one recall question

Part 1q — Fluency quiz: tissue and cell — the terms from their meanings and back

Check: fluency

Figure: —

Leans on: —

Notes

Register note: the cell is named here with a plain meaning and defined in L08; "cell" is coined at L07 for the forward-reference sweep.

The cell is the smallest living unit L08

Take one muscle cell out of the heart tissue and keep it in warm liquid.

The cell still takes in food and gives out waste.

Now cut that one cell in half.

Both halves die.

What does that tell you about the cell?

The point, stated first

What is the smallest piece of a living thing that is still alive?

One cell is alive on its own: it feeds, releases energy, and gets rid of waste.

Cut a cell in half and nothing alive is left.

So the cell is the smallest unit of a living thing that is itself alive.

Video: nothing a page cannot show — article only.

Part 1 — LIF-015 — State that a cell is the smallest unit of a living thing that is itself alive

Check: fact → the definition typed and as an MCQ; type (c)-lite: what (is one cell alive? yes) → misconception item: a student says a tissue is alive but the cells in it are not — the key corrects: each cell is alive → transfer: a single skin cell in a dish; a fragment of a cell

Figure: licensed photo: a single cell kept alive in a dish under a microscope; SVG: one cell outline, labelled "one cell — alive on its own", beside a half cell labelled "not alive"

Leans on: L07 (cell as the unit a tissue is built from) — one recall question

Notes

Scope: no cell parts, no cell division. "Cut in half" is a thought experiment stated as one; the lesson says once that scientists have done it.

Every living thing is made of cells L09

Take a slice of onion skin, a scraping from inside a cheek, and a drop of pond water.

Put each one under a microscope.

Onion, human, pond creature: three very different living things.

What do all three views have in common?

The point, stated first

What is every living thing made of?

Under the microscope, the onion skin is a sheet of cells.

The cheek scraping is a scatter of cells.

The pond water holds tiny living things that are each one cell.

Every living thing is made of one or more cells.

Video: nothing a page cannot show — three photos carry it — article only.

Part 1 — LIF-016 — State that every living thing is made of one or more cells

Check: fact → repeat back; type (a) fluency: is this made of cells? yes / no, 8 cases (a mushroom, a rock, a fern, a pebble, a bacterium, a plastic cup, a whale, a snowflake) — the non-living cases test that "made of cells" belongs to living things only; one misconception item: a student says only animals are made of cells, plants are made of wood and leaves — the key corrects

Figure: licensed photos: onion skin cells, cheek cells, pond water under the microscope, each captioned with what it is; SVG: none new

Leans on: L08 (the cell) — one recall question

Notes

Trap: "plants are not made of cells". The onion skin is the opener for this reason.

An organ system: organs working together on one job L10

You swallow a bite of apple.

Your mouth chews it.

Your stomach churns it.

Your intestines pass the food into your blood.

No single organ can do the whole job of feeding you.

What do we call the organs that work together on it?

The point, stated first

What is an organ system?

A group of organs that together carry out one whole-body job is called an organ system.

The mouth, stomach and intestines together make up the digestive system.

The heart and the blood vessels together make up the circulatory system.

Video: the bite of apple travelling mouth → stomach → intestine with each organ lighting up — video and article.

Part 1 — LIF-019 — Identify the group of organs that together carry out one whole-organism job; coin organ system

Check: fact → term typed; type (a) fluency: given a job or a group of organs → which system, 8 quick items from a supplied five-row table (digestive, circulatory, respiratory, nervous, skeletal); one misconception item: a student says the stomach alone is the digestive system — the key corrects: one organ of several

Figure: SVG: the body outline with the digestive system's organs labelled on the drawing — the fourth rung; table: five organ systems, their organs, their one job (supplied in every item)

Leans on: L06 (organ) — one recall question

Part 1q — Fluency quiz: organ system — the term from its meaning and back

Check: fluency

Figure: —

Leans on: —

Notes

Scope: five systems, named with their one job; nothing about how any system works (Florida's full list of eight is not taught here).

Order the five levels L11

Here are five words: cell, organism, organ, tissue, organ system.

Each level is built from the one below it.

Put the five in order, from the whole living thing down to the smallest living unit.

The point, stated first

How do the levels fit together?

An organism is made of organ systems.

An organ system is made of organs.

An organ is made of tissues.

A tissue is made of cells.

The order runs organism, organ system, organ, tissue, cell, from largest to smallest.

Video: nothing a page cannot show — the ladder is a table — article only.

Part 1 — LIF-017 — Put the levels of organisation in order from organism to cell (five levels with the organ system — question 3)

Check: type (b) scaffolded: worked ladder on the page → step items: which is larger, a tissue or a cell? ×4 pairs → fill the missing rung ×3 (the ladder drawn with one rung blank, typed) → bare: the full order typed as five words, twice, once from the top and once from the bottom

Figure: SVG: the ladder — five rungs, each rung carrying its depiction (dog, digestive system, heart, muscle tissue patch, one cell) and its name; the same ladder with one rung blank for the step items (blind comment names the blank)

Leans on: L05–L10 (the five terms) — one recall question

Notes

Which level is it? L12

Look at four things: a heart, the lining of a stomach, one skin cell, a whole ant.

Each one sits on one rung of the ladder.

Which rung does each one sit on?

The point, stated first

How do you place a body part on the ladder?

Ask what it is built from, and what it is part of.

The heart does one job and is built from tissues, so the heart is an organ.

The stomach lining is a group of similar cells doing one job, so the lining is a tissue.

One skin cell is the smallest living unit, so it is a cell.

The ant is a whole living thing, so the ant is an organism.

Video: nothing a page cannot show — article only.

Part 1 — LIF-018 — Say which level of organisation a named body part sits at

Check: type (a) fluency: 10 quick cases → one of five levels, the ladder supplied in every item (a leaf, a root hair cell, the nervous system, an oak tree, a muscle, a lung, bark, a bee, the skin, a nerve cell); boundary pairs in the same frame: heart muscle (tissue) against the heart (organ); the stomach (organ) against the digestive system (organ system)

Figure: SVG: the five-rung ladder supplied in every item; the cases drawn only where the drawing does not name the rung

Leans on: L11 (the ladder) — one recall question

Part 1q — Fluency quiz: which rung, 10 quick cases, five options

Check: fluency

Figure: —

Leans on: —

Notes

Scope: plant parts appear too (a leaf is an organ; bark is a tissue), because the register's standard names plants and animals.

One cell or many L13

A drop of pond water goes under the microscope.

A tiny creature glides past.

The creature is a single cell, and it is a whole living thing.

An ant is a whole living thing too, made of millions of cells.

How can you tell a one-celled living thing from a many-celled one?

The point, stated first

Is this living thing one cell or many?

A single-celled organism is one cell that carries out all seven life processes by itself.

A many-celled organism is built from many cells working together.

The pond creature is single-celled.

The ant, the oak tree and you are many-celled.

Nearly every living thing you can see without a microscope is many-celled.

Video: nothing a page cannot show — the photos carry it — article only.

Part 1 — LIF-020 — Decide whether a living thing is single-celled or many-celled from a description or image; coin single-celled, many-celled

Check: type (a) fluency: example sequence (an amoeba → an ant → a yeast cell → a moss → a bacterium → a mushroom → rule), then 8 fresh cases two-option from a description or a photo; one misconception item: a student says a single-celled organism cannot be a whole living thing because it is only one cell — the key corrects: it does all seven

Figure: licensed photos: an amoeba, a paramecium, yeast cells, each captioned; SVG: one cell drawn alone beside the many-celled patch, both labelled

Leans on: L09 (every living thing is made of cells) — one recall question

Part 1q — Fluency quiz: single-celled / many-celled, two options, 8 quick cases

Check: fluency

Figure: —

Leans on: —

Notes

Scope: no kingdom names (Topic 5). "Bacteria" is used as the name of a living thing, not as a kingdom.

Topic close

Mixed mastery practice: 12 items across all thirteen lessons in a fresh order; the coined terms by typed recall (organism, organ, tissue, cell, organ system, single-celled, and the three process labels); one ordering of the five levels; two short written answers (why a hard case is or is not living; why a leaf is an organ and not an organism).

Then the summary video (under 300 words, everything taught in order, the ladder as its persistent picture), then the PP100: a bank of at least 50 four-option MCQs on fresh instances, tagged easy / medium / hard by depth of reasoning, at least three per atom, the checklist card and the ladder supplied in every stem that needs them.

The course architecture (13 topics) — open only if you want the whole map

Skill: course-build → atomise (architecture, step 6b gate) → write-like-james @ 3352535

MS Life Science — course architecture v1 (for James's approval, 25 September 2026)

Read this in five minutes. It decides the topics, their order, where every PP100 and checkpoint sits, and which topic pilots first. Nothing below writes a lesson sentence. The atom register stays where it is: the Life Science strand of the Science Knowledge Graph (126 atoms, 22 sub-domains). This document arranges those 126 atoms into a course and stops.

The takeaways

Thirteen topics, one PP100 at the end of each, 124 lessons in all (126 if you decline the two merges in Card 7). One atom, one lesson. Topics run 6 to 15 atoms; the average is under 10.
The order follows the big ideas, not the TEKS list: what makes something alive and what it is built from → inside the cell → how living things make food and release energy from it → how life is sorted → how living things depend on each other → how features pass on → how populations change.
Topic 1 is the pilot: "Alive, and built from cells", 13 lessons. It stresses every treatment the course needs — a list fact by typed recall, three example-sequence sorts with hard boundary cases, a why-lesson, a chain of five coined terms, one ordering routine, and the first licensed microscope photos. Its blueprint is the second deliverable.
"What living things need" is taught where it is used, not as a list up front: food opens the photosynthesis topic; water, air and a suitable place open the ecosystem topic. Every prerequisite edge still points backwards.
Three checkpoint tests, at the three natural seams — the organism (after Topic 4), living things together (after Topic 8), inheritance and change (after Topic 13). The third doubles as the end-of-grade test, anchored to the released grade-8 STAAR, Florida SSA and AZSCI forms.
Forty-six prerequisites live outside this strand (45 grades 3–5 atoms and one Earth Science atom). Nothing is assumed: each lesson that leans on one retrieves it in a sentence and one recall item.
Eleven register observations for your atomisation pass, including four coverage gaps against the grade-8 tests (ribosomes; "cells come from cells"; parasitism and commensalism; the words prokaryote, eukaryote, autotroph, heterotroph). No atom was edited; the register is read-mostly.

The ask: approve or edit the topic table (Card 1), then read the Topic 1 blueprint (course_preview/review/BLUEPRINT_T01.html). Lesson writing starts on your word.

Card 1 — The topics

The call: thirteen topics in the order below, a mixed mastery practice set then a PP100 at the end of every one.

#	Topic (student-facing title)	Atoms	Lessons	Standards served	The big idea it serves
1	Alive, and built from cells	LIF-001–004, 010–020	15 → 13	TEKS 6.13A, 6.13B, 7.13B; NGSS MS-LS1-1, LS1-3; FL 6.L.14.1; AZ 7.L1U1.8, .10	Every living thing does the same seven things, and is built from cells in levels
2	Inside the cell	LIF-021–031	11	TEKS 8.13A; NGSS MS-LS1-2; FL 6.L.14.4; AZ 7.L1U1.9	Each cell part does one job; plant cells have two parts animal cells lack
3	How plants make food	LIF-005, 006, 070–075	8	TEKS 8.6E; NGSS MS-LS1-6; AZ 7.L2U1.12	A plant builds its food from air and water, storing light energy in it
4	Releasing energy from food	LIF-076–081	6	TEKS 6.8B, pre-8.6E; NGSS MS-LS1-7	Every living thing breaks food down with oxygen; photosynthesis and respiration are opposites
5	Sorting living things: the kingdoms	LIF-040–047	8	TEKS 7.14A, 7.14B; FL 6.L.15.1	Living things are grouped by shared features into kingdoms
6	From kingdom to species	LIF-048–057	10	TEKS 7.14A; FL 6.L.15.1	Groups nest inside groups down to the species; a key walks the nest
7	Ecosystems and food webs	LIF-007–009, 085–094	13	TEKS 6.12A, 7.12A; NGSS MS-LS2-1, LS2-3; FL 7.L.17.1, .2; AZ 6.L2U1.13, .14	Who eats whom, and what happens to the rest of the web when one population changes
8	Energy flows, matter cycles, and living things interact	LIF-095–104	10	TEKS 7.12A, 7.12B, 6.12B, 8.12A; NGSS MS-LS2-3, LS2-4	Energy is lost at each step; nutrients come round again; three ways two living things interact
9	Traits and how living things reproduce	LIF-110–121	12	TEKS 7.13C, pre-8.13B; NGSS MS-LS3-2; FL 7.L.16.1, .3	Some features are inherited, some acquired; one parent copies, two parents mix
10	Genes, DNA and chromosomes	LIF-122–130	9	TEKS 8.13B; NGSS MS-LS3-1; FL 7.L.16.2, .4; AZ 8.L3U1.9	Inherited features travel as genes; a gene can come in versions and can change
11	Dominant, recessive and the Punnett square	LIF-131–137	7	FL 7.L.16.2; AZ 8.L3U1.9 (TEKS: none)	Which version shows, and how likely each offspring is
12	Adaptation and natural selection	LIF-138–148	11	TEKS 8.13C, 6.13C, 7.13D; NGSS MS-LS4-4; FL 7.L.15.1, 7.L.16.3; AZ 8.L4U1.11	Variation plus survival makes a helpful version more common over generations
13	Evidence for change, and change when the environment changes	LIF-149–154	6	NGSS MS-LS4-1, LS4-2, LS4-6; FL 7.L.15.2, .3; TEKS pre-7.10A, 7.13D	Fossils and shared bones record change; a changed environment changes which version wins

Totals: 126 atoms, 124 lessons (two merges, Card 7), 13 practice sets, 13 PP100 banks of 50, 3 checkpoint tests. Two atoms may need a second lesson once blueprinted — LIF-057 (following a two-way key) and LIF-137 (the Punnett square) — so plan for 124 to 126.

Why this grouping

Every prerequisite edge in the register points backwards in this order. Checked atom by atom (all 126); no forward reference.
Sub-domain 1c (organism to cell, 11 atoms) joins 1a (the life processes) because the ladder answers the question 1a raises: what is a living thing built from? Sub-domain 1b (the needs) is split across Topics 3 and 7 — Card 3.
Sub-domain 2 (classification, 18 atoms) and sub-domain 5c (genes, 16 atoms) are each split in two: a 20-item PP100 over 16 atoms certifies nothing. The Linnaean chain of eight definitions plus two routines is one topic; the alleles-and-Punnett block is another.
Sub-domain 5d (evolution, 17 atoms) splits at its natural seam: the natural-selection story (138–148) then the evidence and the environment-change case (149–154).
Topics 3 and 4 follow the cell topic because chloroplasts and mitochondria (Topic 2) are the two cell parts whose jobs Topics 3 and 4 explain.
Classification (Topics 5, 6) comes after food because the kingdoms are defined by how they feed (plants make food; fungi break down material; animals take food in).

What changes: the course folder gets one topicNN_build/ folder per topic; Topic 1's blueprint is written; nothing else is authored until you approve it.

Card 2 — Topic 1 is the pilot, at 13 lessons

The call: pilot "Alive, and built from cells" end to end — 13 lessons, quiz after each, mixed practice, summary video, PP100 bank of 50 — before any other topic starts.

Why

The vertical-slice rule asks the pilot to stress the most machinery at once. Topic 1 has a list fact tested by typed recall (the seven life processes), three example-sequence sorts with hard boundary cases (which process; living or not; the icicle and the seed), one why-lesson, five coined terms in a chain (organism, organ, tissue, cell, organ system), one ordering routine, and two categoricals read off a supplied ladder.
It is the first topic that needs licensed microscope photos (onion skin, cheek cells, pond water), so the photo path is tested at the pilot, not at Topic 9.
It is the course's foundation: every later topic reuses "living thing", "organism" and "cell", and the zoom-in picture from organism to cell.
The only calculation-free gap: Life Science has no numeric routine until the Punnett square (Topic 11). The pilot cannot test numeric entry; Topic 11's blueprint will say how the worked-form rules apply there.

The alternative is a 9-lesson cut: stop Topic 1 at "every living thing is made of cells" (LIF-001–004, 010–016) and open Topic 2 with the ladder routine and the cell parts (017–031, 15 atoms). I kept the ladder in Topic 1 because ordering the levels is the payoff of coining them, and because a 15-atom Topic 2 would be the biggest in the course.

What changes: the Topic 1 blueprint is the next thing you read.

Card 3 — What living things need is taught where it is used

The call: the five "needs" atoms (sub-domain 1b) do not form a topic. Food (LIF-005, 006) opens Topic 3; water, air and a suitable place (LIF-007, 008, 009) open Topic 7.

Why

Four of the five are one-sentence facts a grade 3 course already states (LIF3-003–006). As a topic they would be a list with no headache.
"Animals take in food; plants make their own" (LIF-006) is the exact headache of photosynthesis: where does a plant's food come from? It is also the prerequisite of the plant kingdom atom (LIF-043, Topic 5), which stays downstream.
"Every living thing needs water, air and a suitable place" is what the ecosystem definition (LIF-085) calls the non-living surroundings, and what the environmental-change atom (LIF-104) varies. The register's own standards tag for these atoms is TEKS 6.12A, the ecosystem code.
Every edge still points backwards: LIF-005 → 006 → 070 inside Topic 3; LIF-007–009 have no dependants inside the strand.

What changes: Topic 3 has 8 lessons and Topic 7 has 13; sub-domain 1b keeps its tags in the register, untouched.

Card 4 — Checkpoints at three seams

The call: three static checkpoint tests, each with some free response, at the ends of Topics 4, 8 and 13; the third doubles as the end-of-course test and is anchored to released grade-8 STAAR, Florida SSA and AZSCI items.

Why

The seams are natural: Topics 1–4 are the single organism (alive, cells, food, energy); 5–8 are living things together (classification, ecosystems); 9–13 are inheritance and change over generations.
No state tests middle-school science before grade 8, so there is no per-grade instrument to anchor to (knowledge-graph HANDOFF, recommendation 1). Each atom's TEKS stamp (6.x / 7.x / 8.x) still allows a grade-level slice later without re-atomising.
Five interchangeable forms per test is the standing ruling for topic tests; whether checkpoints also get five forms is your call.

What changes: nothing yet. Checkpoints are built after the topics they cover.

Card 5 — Delivery: your 25 September rulings, applied

The call: every atom ships as BOTH a video script and an article, learner's choice; every video ends "Okay, now your turn." with one easy attached question; a quiz of about ten follows; each topic has an intro video (≤120 words, teaches nothing) and a summary video (≤300 words, everything taught, just before the PP100); the PP100 is 20 four-option MCQs drawn from a bank of at least 50, tagged easy / medium / hard by depth of reasoning.

Why

These are your standing rulings for the grade 3–8 courses (vault: PP100 mastery tests and lesson checks are different jobs; Videos: one summary per topic…, grade 3–8 variant). They are applied, not re-asked.
One addition from the same day's ruling: the strand itself opens with one short intro video (≤60 s, teaches nothing) — the ladder from a single cell to a whole ecosystem, and why anyone wants to know. It is written with Topic 1.
When video and article are alternatives, each must teach the whole part (vault rule), so the script and the article are written from the same blueprint row and reviewed against each other.

Figures: monochrome SVG on one depiction register (defined in Topic 1's figures.py docstring and reused by every topic) where the point is a label, a level or a comparison; a licensed photo — including microscope photos — where a real organism or scene carries the point. Every item drawing carries a plain-words  comment for the blind bundler, and its accessible label never names what the item asks for.

What changes: the blueprint carries a "video adds" line and an SVG-or-photo call on every figure.

Card 6 — Forty-six prerequisites are taught in other courses

The call: the 45 grades 3–5 atoms and one Earth Science atom below are not taught in MS Life Science. Each lesson that leans on one states the idea in one sentence and asks one recall question before using it.

External atoms	What they say	Leaned on by (topic)
LIF3-001, 002, 007, 008, 009	living things grow, feed, move, make more of their kind; sort living from non-living by what it does	LIF-001, 003 (Topic 1)
LIF3-003, 004, 005, 006	living things need food, water, air, a place that suits them	LIF-005, 007, 008, 009 (Topics 3, 7)
LIF3-010, 012, 014	group by shared features; place a vertebrate; sort plants by seeds or spores	LIF-040, 042, 043, 047, 048 (Topics 5, 6)
LIF3-030, 041	every life runs in a cycle; same kind, small differences	LIF-115 (Topic 9), LIF-141 (Topic 12)
LIF4-010, 011, 012	plants make their own food; animals cannot; trace the energy from the Sun	LIF-006, 070, 076 (Topics 3, 4)
LIF4-020–025	producer, consumer, decomposer; read a food web; decomposers feed the soil	LIF-087–093, 099 (Topics 7, 8)
LIF4-030, 031, 032, 034	inherited and acquired traits; when both play a part	LIF-111, 114, 130 (Topics 9, 10)
LIF4-041, 051	pollen lets the seed form; some kinds are extinct	LIF-117 (Topic 9), LIF-150 (Topic 13)
LIF5-001, 003, 004, 005	what an ecosystem is; living and non-living dependence; how two living things affect each other	LIF-085, 086, 100–102 (Topics 7, 8)
LIF5-010, 011	a plant's body comes from air and water; the pot test	LIF-071, 075 (Topic 3)
LIF5-016, 017, 022	predict the next link's change; the ripple; habitat change	LIF-094, 104 (Topics 7, 8)
LIF5-030, 031, 032	match offspring to parents; parents pass instructions; different instructions, different individuals	LIF-110, 120–122 (Topics 9, 10)
LIF5-040, 041, 042	survival structures; predict who pulls through and say why	LIF-138, 145, 146 (Topic 12)
EAR4-037	a fossil is as old as its layer	LIF-149 (Topic 13)

Why

Stand-alone entry rule: no student has taken the grades 3–5 courses or the sibling middle-school courses, so every lesson stands alone.
One consumer in the other direction: MS Chemistry's MAT-072 (photosynthesis as a conservation-of-mass example) leans on this course's LIF-073, the photosynthesis word equation. Both courses write it identically: carbon dioxide + water → glucose + oxygen.

What changes: the blueprint's "leans on" column names the external atom wherever it applies.

Card 7 — Register observations, no edits made

The call: eleven observations for your atomisation pass. I changed nothing in the register. The first two are asked as decisions in the Topic 1 blueprint.

LIF-013 and LIF-014 overlap. LIF-013 says a tissue is "a group of similar cells doing the same job"; LIF-014 says a tissue "is made up of cells". A student who has LIF-013 already has LIF-014 (the redundancy check). Candidate merge. Likewise LIF-011 (what an organ is) and LIF-012 (an organ is built from tissues) read as one lesson: what the thing is, then what it is built from. Topic 1's blueprint asks you to merge each pair into one lesson.
The ladder has four rungs in LIF-017 and a fifth in LIF-019. LIF-017 orders organism → organ → tissue → cell; LIF-019 identifies an organ system separately, and every grade-8 test draws five rungs. Topic 1 teaches the organ system before the ordering and orders five levels. Asked in the blueprint.
Grain is uneven between LIF-001 and the needs. LIF-001 names seven life processes in one atom; the needs are four atoms of one sentence each (LIF-005, 007, 008, 009). Either grain is defensible; flagged so the register is consistent on purpose.
LIF-031's behaviour contains "and" ("state whether the size difference comes from having more cells or bigger cells, and say which is correct"). It is one verdict written twice; candidate rewording.
Coverage gap — ribosomes. TEKS 8.13A names the ribosome among the cell parts; the register has no ribosome atom (LIF-021–027 cover seven parts). STAAR grade 8 can ask it. Candidate new Fact atom in SD-1d.
Coverage gap — "cells come from existing cells". TEKS 6.13A, Florida SC.6.L.14.2 and Arizona 7.L1U1.8 all state it; no atom does. Candidate new Fact atom beside LIF-016.
Coverage gap — parasitism and commensalism. TEKS 6.12B and Florida SC.7.L.17.2 name mutualism, parasitism and commensalism; the register has only "both-benefit relationship" (LIF-102). Candidate two new atoms in SD-4f, and a decision on whether the course coins the three Latin names.
Coverage gap — the words prokaryote / eukaryote and autotroph / heterotroph. TEKS 6.13B uses them; the register carries the ideas (LIF-046 bacteria have no nucleus; LIF-006 plants make their own food) without the words. A labelling decision for Topics 3 and 5, or two coining atoms.
TEKS 7.13D names artificial selection; Florida 7.L.16.4 names biotechnology. Neither has an atom. May be deliberate scope; flagged once.
Standards mapping — LIF-001–004 carry Florida SC.6.L.14.5, the human body systems benchmark. The content (life processes; living or not) does not match that benchmark's text; SC.6.L.14.5 fits LIF-019 (organ systems) better. Candidate retag.
Two atoms have no prerequisite at all: LIF-124 (what DNA is) and LIF-151 (a shared bone structure). Both are fine as mid-course entry points; their lessons open on a scene, not a recall.

What changes: nothing until you rule. Atom edits happen in the knowledge-graph repo with a log entry.

About this build (kickoff record)

Register: Science Knowledge Graph/data/atoms/06-08/life-science.json, pulled 25 September 2026 (repo at 667755d), 126 atoms in 22 sub-domains. Per-course choices are the register's: K–8 IDs with letter suffixes; Fact / Categorical / Transformation / Routine; bare behaviours; verdict/reason split by default.
Endpoint: grade-8 STAAR, Florida SSA and AZSCI life-science items; NGSS MS-LS1-1 to MS-LS4-6.
Sources read: knowledge-graph HANDOFF and CLAUDE; vault CLAUDE, 00 Protocol, the PP100 and video rulings, the blueprint rule, the course-build dispatcher; MS Chemistry's CLAUDE, architecture, Topic 1 and Topic 8 blueprints, Topic 4 authoring and adjudication records, and its preview pages; the biology misconception research (photosynthesis, ecology, cells); the standards texts for every code the register cites.
Coverage check (standards mapped onto this architecture, never the other way): every Life Science atom sits in exactly one topic; every TEKS 6.12 / 6.13 / 7.12 / 7.13 / 7.14 / 8.12 / 8.13 knowledge code in the register appears in at least one topic. Blank cells in the register (TEKS on dominant / recessive / Punnett; NGSS on classification) are register findings, not gaps in this course. The four content gaps inside cited codes are Card 7, items 5–8.

What happens next

You approve or edit the topic table. Then you read the Topic 1 blueprint. Only after that does write-lesson run on Topic 1, one lesson at a time, starting with the first of each lesson type as its exemplar.