Grade 8 Curriculum 

Energy, Forces, and Motion encompasses the mechanical branch of physics, studying the nature of forces and its impact on the motion of objects. Students will engage in hands-on activities to determine the relationship(s) between forces, motion, and speed on objects. Students will explore both contact and non-contact forces. Students will measure and calculate speed, velocity, and acceleration. Newton’s Laws of Motion and potential and kinetic energy are introduced and applied to the culminating water bottle rocket project.

Students build on the concept of non contact forces from the first unit with special focus on magnetism and electricity. Static electricity, electromagnetism, and energy transformations are explored through simulations and hands-on learning. Students will describe the cause and effect relationship for the factors that affect magnetic forces and will predict and analyze the strength of electric and magnetic forces. Students will explore how light and sound behave. Students will describe the relationship between various properties of waves such as frequency, wavelength, amplitude, and energy.

Students define and measure physical properties of matter before exploring how substances combine or react to make new substances through chemical changes. Students will predict and describe changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed. Students will analyze the structure of molecular models in order to determine the chemical formula, the elements they contain, and the correct number of atoms. Students will explore the conservation of mass by observing and formulating chemical reactions. Students will explore how scientists use natural resources to design and produce synthetic materials with different chemical properties from their source materials, and explore the impact of those materials on society.

Humans have always been driven by noticing, recording, and understanding patterns and by trying to figure out how we fit within much larger systems. In this unit, students begin observing the repeating biannual pattern of the Sun setting perfectly aligned between buildings in New York City along particular streets and then try to explain additional patterns in the sky that they and others have observed. Students draw on their own experiences and the stories of family or community members to brainstorm a list of patterns in the sky. And listen to a series of podcasts highlighting indigenous astronomies from around the world that emphasize how patterns in the sky set the rhythms for their lives, their communities, and all life on Earth, and these are added to their growing list of related phenomena (other patterns in the sky people have observed).