Grade 8 students use more robust abstract thinking skills to explain causes of complex phenomena and systems. Many causes are not immediately or physically visible to students. An understanding of cause and effect of key natural phenomena and designed processes allows students to explain patterns and make predictions about future events. In grade 8 these include, for example, causes of seasons and tides; causes of plate tectonics and weather or climate; the role of genetics in reproduction, heredity, and artificial selection; and how atoms and molecules interact to explain the substances that make up the world and how materials change. Being able to analyze phenomena for evidence of causes and processes that often cannot be seen, and being able to conceptualize and describe those, is a significant outcome for grade 8 students.
Introduction to Science & Scientific Inquiry
Middle School Science and Engineering Practice Skills
1. Define criteria and constraints of a design problem with precision.
2. Develop a model to describe cycling of matter in an ecosystem; develop a model that describes and predicts changes in particle motion and spatial arrangement during phase changes; develop and/or revise a model to show the relationships among variables, including those that are not observable but predict observable phenomena.
3. Conduct an investigation to show relationships among energy transfer, type of matter, and kinetic energy of particles; conduct an experiment to show that many materials are mixtures.
4. Examine and interpret data to describe the role human activities have played in the rise of global temperatures over time; construct, analyze, and/or interpret graphical displays of data and/or large data sets to identify linear and nonlinear relationships; distinguish between causal and correlational relationships in data; consider limitations of data analysis.
5. Describe, including through probability statements and proportional reasoning, the process of natural selection; use data and graphs to describe relationships among kinetic energy, mass, and speed of an object.
6. Construct an explanation using evidence for how Earth’s surface has changed over time; apply scientific reasoning to show why the data or evidence is adequate for the explanation.
7. Construct an argument based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence organism growth; respectfully provide and receive critiques about one’s arguments, procedures, and models by citing relevant evidence with pertinent detail.
8. Synthesize and communicate information about artificial selection; obtain and communicate information on how past geologic events are analyzed to make future predictions.
Unit 1. Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
8.MS-PS2-1. Develop a model that demonstrates Newton’s third law involving the motion of two colliding objects.
8.MS-PS2-2. Provide evidence that the change in an object’s speed depends on the sum of the forces on the object (the net force) and the mass of the object.
Practices
1.Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
2.Developing and using models
3.Planning and carrying out investigations
4.Analyzing and interpreting data
5.Using mathematics and computational thinking
6.Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)
8.Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Unit 2. Earth’s Place in the Universe
8.MS-ESS1-1b. Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun system to explain the cyclical pattern of seasons, which includes the Earth’s tilt and differential intensity of sunlight on different areas of Earth across the year.
8.MS-ESS1-2. Explain the role of gravity in ocean tides, the orbital motions of planets, their moons, and asteroids in the solar system.
W.8.1. Write informative/ explanatory texts (e.g., essays, oral reports, biographical feature articles) to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
Practices:
2.Developing and using models
4.Analyzing and interpreting data
5.Using mathematics and computational thinking solutions (for engineering)
8.Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Unit 3. Matter and Its Interactions
8.MS-PS1-1. Develop a model to describe that (a) atoms combine in a multitude of ways to produce pure substances which make up all of the living and nonliving things that we encounter, (b) atoms form molecules and compounds that range in size from two to thousands of atoms, and (c) mixtures are composed of different proportions of pure substances.
8.MS-PS1-2. Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.
8.MS-PS1-4.Develop a model that describes and predicts changes in particle motion, relative spatial arrangement, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed.
8.MS-PS1-5. Use a model to explain that atoms are rearranged during a chemical reaction to form new substances with new properties. Explain that the atoms present in the reactants are all present in the products and thus the total number of atoms is conserved.
Practices:
1.Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
2.Developing and using models
3.Planning and carrying out investigations
4.Analyzing and interpreting data
5.Using mathematics and computational thinking
6.Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)
7.Engaging in argument from evidence
8.Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Unit 4. Molecules to Organisms
8.MS-LS1-5. Construct an argument based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
8.MS-LS1-7. Use informational text to describe that food molecules, including carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, are broken down and rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support cell growth and/or release of energy.
W.8.1. Write arguments (e.g., essays, letters to the editor, advocacy speeches) to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
W.8.1. Write informative/ explanatory texts (e.g., essays, oral reports, biographical feature articles) to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
RI.8.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what a text states explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, quoting or paraphrasing as appropriate.
Practices:
2.Developing and using models
4.Analyzing and interpreting data
5.Using mathematics and computational thinking
7.Engaging in argument from evidence
8.Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Unit 5. Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
8.MS-LS3-1. Develop and use a model to describe that structural changes to genes (mutations) may or may not result in changes to proteins, and if there are changes to proteins there may be harmful, beneficial, or neutral changes to traits.
8.MS-LS3-2. Construct an argument based on evidence for how asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation. Compare and contrast advantages and disadvantages of asexual and sexual reproduction.
8.MS-LS3-3(MA). Communicate through writing and in diagrams that chromosomes contain many distinct genes and that each gene holds the instructions for the production of specific proteins, which in turn affects the traits of an individual.
8.MS-LS3-4(MA). Develop and use a model to show that sexually reproducing organisms have two of each chromosome in their nucleus, and hence two variants (alleles) of each gene that can be the same or different from each other, with one random assortment of each chromosome passed down to offspring from both parents.
W.8.1. Write arguments (e.g., essays, letters to the editor, advocacy speeches) to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
W.8.1. Write informative/ explanatory texts (e.g., essays, oral reports, biographical feature articles) to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
RI.8.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what a text states explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, quoting or paraphrasing as appropriate.
8.EE.B. Understand the connections between proportional relationships, lines, and linear equations.
8.F.B. Use functions to model relationships between quantities.
8.F.B.4. Construct a function to model a linear relationship between two quantities. Determine the rate of change and initial value of the function from a description of a relationship or from two (x, y) values, including reading these from a table or from a graph. Interpret the rate of change and initial value of a linear function in terms of the situation it models, and in terms of its graph or a table of values.
8.F.B.5 Describe qualitatively the functional relationship between two quantities by analyzing a graph (e.g., where the function is increasing or decreasing, linear or nonlinear). Sketch a graph that exhibits the qualitative features of a function that has been described verbally.
Practices
2.Developing and using models
4.Analyzing and interpreting data
5.Using mathematics and computational thinking
6.Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)
7.Engaging in argument from evidence
8.Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Unit 6. Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
8.MS-LS4-4. Use a model to describe the process of natural selection, in which genetic variations of some traits in a population increase some individuals’ likelihood of surviving and reproducing in a changing environment. Provide evidence that natural selection occurs over many generations.
8.MS-LS4-5. Synthesize and communicate information about artificial selection, or the ways in which traits in a population increase some individuals’ likelihood of surviving and reproducing in a changing environment. Provide evidence that natural selection occurs over many generations.
W.8.1. Write arguments (e.g., essays, letters to the editor, advocacy speeches) to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
W.8.1. Write informative/ explanatory texts (e.g., essays, oral reports, biographical feature articles) to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
RI.8.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what a text states explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, quoting or paraphrasing as appropriate.
Practices
2.Developing and using models
4.Analyzing and interpreting data
5.Using mathematics and computational thinking
7.Engaging in argument from evidence
8.Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Unit 7. Weather and Impact of Human Activity
8.MS-ESS2-5. Interpret basic weather data to identify patterns in air mass interactions and the relationship of those patterns to local weather.
8.MS-ESS2-6. Describe how interactions involving the ocean affect weather and climate on a regional scale, including the influence of the ocean temperature as mediated by energy input from the sun and energy loss due to evaporation or redistribution via ocean currents.
8.MS-ESS3-5. Examine and interpret data to describe the role that human activities have played in causing the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
W.8.1. Write arguments (e.g., essays, letters to the editor, advocacy speeches) to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
W.8.1. Write informative/ explanatory texts (e.g., essays, oral reports, biographical feature articles) to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
RI.8.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what a text states explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, quoting or paraphrasing as appropriate.
Practices
1.Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
2.Developing and using models
3.Planning and carrying out investigations
4.Analyzing and interpreting data
5.Using mathematics and computational thinking
6.Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)
Students will be using the Mc-Graw Hill series for Science this year. There is an online textbook which can be found at: http://www.connected.mcgraw-hill.com/
Students can access the textbook using the clever app through the Google Menu