This site is the companion to Everybody’s Science, Mr. Schwebach’s book about how scientific thinking actually works and who it belongs to. Read about the book →
The book makes its case with a handful of named ideas — the Welcome Test, the Reaching Standard, hypothesis space, the difference between an instrument and a reasoner. This site is where those ideas get used on material the book never covers, and where the classroom work behind it lives. Most pages are short, self-contained readings written for advanced high school students working at an introductory-college level, with key vocabulary and questions to check understanding. New topics are added over the course of the year.
The Book
Everything on this site comes out of one argument. This is where that argument lives.
- Everybody’s Science — what the book argues, and the named ideas it runs on About the book · Start here
- The Full Bibliography: Every Source Behind Everybody’s Science, by Chapter Reference · Whole book
- Look Around You: Reflection Questions and Companion Reading for Every Chapter Reference · Whole book · For students
Evidence
How evidence actually gets made, judged, funded, and argued over — the ideas the book is built on, worked out on new material.
- Evidence #1 What Makes Science Good? Reaching for a Standard Nobody Ever Finishes Philosophy of Science
- Evidence #2 Finding Your Big Idea: A Real Method for Navigating the Hypothesis Space Research Mindset · Idea Generation
- Evidence #3 How Science Actually Gets Funded: Peer Review, NSF Criteria, and What “Consensus” Really Means Peer Review & Research Funding
- Evidence #4 Why Science Funding Should Work Like Military Readiness Federal R&D Policy
- Evidence #5 Using AI Without Losing Your Own Insight: Vision, Hypothesis Space, and the Limits of the Machine Working With AI
Biology
Short readings in biology, each one a real case of evidence being gathered and weighed.
- Biology #1 Cyclospora and Unwashed Produce: How a Parasite Hitchhikes on Raspberries Microbiology · Public Health
- Biology #2 Warming Seas, Dying Reefs: Coral Bleaching and Disease Along Florida's Atlantic Coast Ecology · Evolution · Marine Science
- Biology #3 Racing a Pandemic: Alexis Kalergis, Chile's Homegrown COVID-19 Vaccine, and How It Compares to the mRNA Sprint Immunology · Vaccine Science · Public Health
- Biology #4 Virus or Bacteria? How Doctors Tell the Difference, and Why the Treatment Depends on It Microbiology & Immunology · Diagnosis and Treatment
- Biology #5 Six Kingdoms Along a Virginia Streambank: A Field Guide to Life in a Riparian Zone Taxonomy & Ecology · Virginia Field Biology
- Biology #6 Teaching the Immune System to See Tuberculosis: My PhD Research on the M. tuberculosis Surface Immunology & Microbiology · My PhD Research
- Biology #7 Life's First Foothold: Pioneer Species and Primary Succession from Glacier National Park to the Brooks Range Ecology & Succession · Climate-Exposed Landscapes
- Biology #8 AlphaFold and the Fifty-Year Protein Problem Molecular Biology & Biotechnology · Artificial Intelligence in Science
- Biology #9 Sixty Years of Failure: How the mRNA Vaccine Really Happened Molecular Biology & Immunology · Vaccine Innovation
- Biology #10 The Biology of Sex, Gender, and Parenthood Genetics & Evolution · Reproductive Strategies
Chemistry
Short readings in chemistry, from a pool deck at 6 a.m. to the chemistry of water on Mars.
- Chemistry #1 Written in Carbonic Acid: The Chemistry of Virginia's Natural Bridge Aqueous Equilibrium · Geochemistry
- Chemistry #2 Testing the Water: The Acid-Base Chemistry an 18-Year-Old Pool Manager Runs Every Morning Solutions & Acid-Base Equilibrium · Chemistry and Society
- Chemistry #3 What If the Genetic Code Ran Backwards? Chirality, Racemic Chemistry, and Mirror Life Stereochemistry & Molecular Geometry · Origins of Life
- Chemistry #4 The Chemistry of Lightning: Plasma, Excited Electrons, and the Miller-Urey Connection Atomic Structure & States of Matter · Atmospheric Chemistry
- Chemistry #5 Chemistry Without Gravity: What Changes on the International Space Station, and How Student Experiments Get There States of Matter & Reaction Mechanisms · Scientific Review
- Chemistry #6 The Fifth State of Matter: Bose-Einstein Condensates and the Search for a Unified Physics States of Matter & Quantum Behavior · Fundamental Physics
- Chemistry #7 Reading Tissue With Radio Waves: The Chemistry Behind MRI Research on Placenta Accreta Subatomic Particles & Magnetic Resonance · Medical Physics
- Chemistry #8 Carbon-14: The Isotope That Proves We Did It Atomic Structure & Nuclear Chemistry · Climate Attribution Science
- Chemistry #9 Electrolysis and Rust: The Everyday Chemistry of a Trolling Motor in Saltwater Electrochemistry & Redox Reactions · Materials Science
- Chemistry #10 Did Mars Have Oceans? The Chemistry of Water Across the Solar System Planetary Science & Astrobiology · The Search for Life
Careers
What a science education is actually for, and the paths it opens.
- Careers #1 Beyond Pre-Med: Real Careers Built on a Biology Foundation Health & Life Sciences · Labor Market Evidence
- Careers #2 Beyond the Lab Bench: Real Careers Built on a Chemistry Foundation Chemical & Materials Sciences · Labor Market Evidence
- Careers #3 Building Your Science Sequence: A Course-Selection Guide for Advanced Science Students Academic Planning · Dual Enrollment & AP
- Careers #4 The Real Runway: A STEM Timeline from Senior Spring to Sophomore Year Time, Money, and Momentum · Planning for STEM Students
- Careers #5 Why Teaching Science Might Be the Best Decision You Ever Make A Case for the Classroom · Mentorship & Science Policy
Teaching
Classroom-facing guides, protocols, and reference material for teachers — companion pieces to Everybody’s Science and to the readings above.
- Teaching #1 A Modular Index: Finding the Right Piece for Whatever You're Already Teaching Whole Book · Reference & Lookup Tool
- Teaching #2 Can We Go Outside? Timing Field-Based Lessons for Biology and Chemistry Classrooms Field-Based Learning · Ch. 1–3 (Wonder)
- Teaching #3 Numbers Every Science Teacher Should Have on Tap: Deep Time, Molecules, and the Air in Your Lungs Quick Reference · Ch. 3 (Wonder)
- Teaching #4 Teaching Biotechnology: CRISPR, PCR, Gel Electrophoresis, and mRNA in the Biology Classroom Biology Educators · Ch. 6 (How Breakthroughs Happen)
- Teaching #5 Using CER Pragmatically in Advanced Science Courses: An AI Template for Building In-Class Activities and Assessments Classroom Protocol · Ch. 15 (The Path Forward)
- Teaching #6 Talking About Misinformation Without Talking Politics: A Classroom Guide to Chapters 11–12 Sensitive Material · Ch. 11–12 (When Trust Breaks Down)
- Teaching #7 Peer Review in the Classroom: Helping Students Evaluate Each Other's Science Classroom Protocol · Ch. 7 (How Breakthroughs Happen)
- Teaching #8 One-Pager, Public Good: Building Scientific Reasoning and Engineering Skills That Serve the Community Student Activity · Ch. 14 (The Path Forward)
- Teaching #9 The Instrument vs. the Reasoner: A Classroom AI-Literacy Protocol AI-Literacy Protocol · Ch. 15–16 (The Path Forward)
- Teaching #10 Battlefield Science as a Model: How to Start a Student Research Publication How-We-Did-It Guide · Ch. 15 & Epilogue (The Path Forward)
- Teaching #11 The Four Conditions for Changing a Mind Cognitive Science · Ch. 12 (When Trust Breaks Down)
- Teaching #12 The Welcome Test: Two Questions, Four Things to Do Evidence & Reasoning · Ch. 11 (When Trust Breaks Down)