Discovering Design with Earth Science
Home education resource materials
PEP policy guidance
A deterministic result from the reviewed 2026–27 rule pack. It is guidance, not a funding guarantee.
The reviewed source is review due. Recheck the current official guide before relying on this guidance.
- Program and school year
- FTC-PEP · 2026-27
- Rule pack
- step-up-ftc-pep-2026-27 · v1.0.1
- Evidence level
- Official general rule
- Source freshness
- Review due · Low
How this result was reached
The engine applies explicit rules in precedence order and records what is still unknown.
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Rules applied
- Official verification is required when evidence is insufficient
PEP-2026-27-GENERAL-OFFICIAL-VERIFICATION
Information still needed
- Current official category match
- Exact item match in the official portal
- Required supporting documents
- Available account balance
Product description
This laboratory-based earth science course can be used for either eighth or ninth grade. Most homeschooled students should be ready for it in eighth grade, but privately- and publicly-schooled students will be more comfortable with it in ninth grade. It covers the general properties of the earth's geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. Students learn about all the sections of the geosphere (such as core, mantle, crust, etc.) and then they study each in more detail. When studying the earth's crust, they learn about minerals, rocks, and the rock cycle. Plate tectonics is then covered, which leads to a discussion of seismic waves, earthquakes, and volcanoes. Students then learn about fossils and how both uniformitarians and catastrophists interpret those fossils as well as the sedimentary rocks in which they are found. A discussion that compares uniformitarianism and catastrophism follows, in which the strengths and weaknesses of each view are covered. After that, the hydrosphere is discussed. Students first learn the properties of water such as polarity, the ability to hydrogen bond, and heat capacity. That leads to a discussion of the hydrologic cycle and residence time. Students then learn about the waves, currents, and tides in the ocean. They then move on to the ice reservoirs on the earth and then the freshwater reservoirs. Water in the air is the last part of the hydrosphere that is covered. The atmosphere is then discussed, including the composition of air, the sections of the atmosphere, temperature gradients, and pollutants. This leads to a discussion of weather. The course ends with two chapters on space, one that covers the solar system and one that covers the universe as a whole. There are roughly 55 hours of laboratory instruction in the course. This product is a set consisting of both the textbook and the solutions and tests booklet containing everything the parent/teacher needs to know for the subject.
Source evidence
These fields describe where the listing came from. They do not establish funding eligibility.
- Catalog
- The Homeschool Hive
- Source type
- Search
- Link status
- Official verified
- Enrichment confidence
- 0.99
Official policy source
Policy guidance is tied to this reviewed source and version.
- Publisher
- Step Up For Students
- Applies to
- FTC-PEP · 2026-27
- Effective dates
- Jul 1, 2026 — Jun 30, 2027
- Source last modified
- Jul 14, 2026
- Reviewed by Navigator
- Jul 23, 2026
- Review due
- Aug 14, 2026
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