In this course students will explore stories and texts as a way to understand ourselves, connect to others and the world. They will explore how language and text can be a source of joy and creativity. They will also explore how texts are socially, culturally and historically constructed, and how different world perspectives shape our understanding of text. Most importantly, students will develop skills to question what they hear, read and view so that they can become educated and engaged citizens.

Students will use the following skills: reasoning, analyzing, understanding, solving, communicating, representing, connecting and reflecting to understand the following big ideas:

• Number represents, describes, and compares the quantities  of ratios, rates, and percentages;

• Computational fluency and flexibility extend to operations with fractions;

• Discrete linear relationships can be represented in many connected ways and used to identify and make generalizations;

• The relationship between surface area and volume of 3D objects can be used to describe, measure, and compare spatial relationships; and 

• Analyzing data by determining averages is one way to make sense of large data sets and enables us to compare and interpret.

Science and scientific literacy play a key role in educating citizens of today for the world tomorrow. Critical to succeeding in this endeavour are the core competencies that provide students with the ability to think critically, solve problems, and make ethical decisions; to communicate their questions, express opinions, and challenge ideas in a scientifically literate way; and to exercise an awareness of their role as an ecologically literate citizens, engaged and competent in meeting the responsibilities of caring for living things and the planet.

The Big Ideas that will be covered in Science 8 are: 

• Life processes are performed at the cellular level;

• The behaviour of matter can be explained by the kinetic molecular theory and atomic theory;

• Energy can be transferred as both a particle and a wave; and

• The theory of plate tectonics is the unifying theory that explains Earth’s geological processes.

In Grade 8 PHE, students will be involved in team sports, individual sports and active health. Students are required to wear regulation gym strip that consists of running shoes, shorts and a t-shirt. For outdoor units, students are encouraged to wear warmer clothing during inclement weather. 

*Please be advised that there is an enhancement fee associated with this course. For further details, refer to the "Course Enhancement Fees" section in the index.

This course covers from the 7th Century to 1750 and covers the following big ideas:

• Contact and conflict between peoples stimulated significant cultural, social and political change;

• Human and environmental factors shape changes in population and living standards; and

• Exploration, expansion, and colonization had varying consequences for different groups.

Changing ideas about the world created tension between people wanting to adopt new ideas and those wanting to preserve established traditions.