Mission Library

Do No Harm (2026)
Life Sciences (5th-7th), CTE: Veterinary Science (8th-12th)
Grades 5-12

The Mission
28 min

Storyline

This Mission was created in collaboration with Colorado State University's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Students investigate a biological health emergency by analyzing body system data and deciding how to respond.

A research transport makes an emergency stop when a horse on board becomes suddenly ill and shows signs of severe gastrointestinal distress. With limited diagnostic equipment available, the crew must shrink down and investigate firsthand to understand what’s going wrong inside the animal. Student teams analyze real veterinary-style data, including vital signs, lab results, and internal imaging, to identify the most likely cause of the illness. Each team focuses on different possibilities and shares findings to narrow the diagnosis. Based on their analysis, the crew must decide on a treatment and see whether it stabilizes the horse. The mission’s outcome depends on how well teams interpret evidence, communicate their reasoning, and act under pressure.

3-Dimensional Science

Phenomenon

A horse is ill.

Science and Engineering Practices

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

  • Analyze and interpret data to make sense of phenomena, using logical reasoning, mathematics, and/or computation.

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

  • Construct an explanation of observed relationships (e.g., the distribution of plants in the back yard).

  • Use evidence (e.g., measurements, observations, patterns) to construct or support an explanation or design a solution to a problem.

  • Identify the evidence that supports particular points in an explanation.

Engaging in Argument from Evidence

  • Engage in argument from evidence by constructing explanations, critiquing the reasoning of others, and revising explanations based on new evidence.

Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

  • Read and comprehend grade appropriate complex texts and/or other reliable media to summarize and obtain scientific and technical ideas and describe how they are supported by evidence.

  • Compare and/or combine across complex texts and/or other reliable media to support the engagement in other scientific and/or engineering practices

Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

  • Plan and conduct investigations collaboratively to produce data that can serve as the basis for evidence, using appropriate tools and methods.

Crosscutting Concepts

Cause and Effect

  • Students routinely identify and test causal relationships and use these relationships to explain change. They understand events that occur together with regularity might or might not signify a cause and effect relationship.

Systems and System Models

  • Develop and use models to describe and predict how components of a system interact and affect the functioning of the system as a whole.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

LS1.A: Structure and Function

  • Complex and microscopic structures and systems can be visualized, modeled, and used to describe how their function depends on the relationships among their parts.

Timeline
Skills in Action