This teaching guide contains part one of the four parts of the first year of the Portland Project, a three-year secondary integrated science curriculum sequence. This part involves the student in a series of activities intended to increase his understanding of his perceptual abilities and their limitations. Organization and classification as parts of perception are emphasized, involving the introduction of the physical properties of matter as aids to organization. The first year program is not excessively formal or quantitative, based on the rationale that a new idea should proceed from an intuitive, non-quantitative experience to a more quantitative one. The Portland Project, intended to replace traditional courses in biology, chemistry, and physics, treats science as a structure that proceeds from observation to the development of general principles and then to the application of those principles to more involved problems. A review of the development of the three-year program, a discussion of its rationale, and a three-year course subject outline are included in this volume. Notes to the teacher, examples of data, materials and equipment needed, and problem calculations are included. (Author/SL)