Science
The units for this year will include:
Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
Waves and their Applications in Technology for information transfer
Biological Change: Unity and Diversity
Earth's Place in the Universe
Earth's Systems
Earth and Human Activity
Engineering Design
The standards incorporated into this grade have been streamlined for the students’ K-12 coherent experience for a diversity of learners. The themes for science in eighth grade are how forces and motion drive objects in our solar systems (ESS1), move lithospheric plates (ESS2), and how nature’s driving forces of geology (ESS2) impact ecosystems via environmental selection for a species (LS4). This content utilizes core ideas from sixth and seventh grade; for example, using a hereditary approach in seventh grade to examine natural selection in eighth grade. Tennessee's state mathematics standards are integrated into the science standards, specifically forces and motion (8.PS2). Special attention is given to science literacy through the use of the science and engineering practices. Students are often required to gather information from reliable sources to construct evidenced-based arguments (e.g., 8.ESS2)