Tennessee Science Standards

Eighth Grade Science
Middle School Labs  | Essential Jefferson County Labs

Eighth Grade Scope and Sequence 2009-2010    

Grade 8 : Inquiry

Conceptual Strand Understandings about scientific inquiry and the ability to conduct inquiry are essential for living in the 21st century.

Guiding Question What tools, skills, knowledge, and dispositions are needed to conduct scientific inquiry?

Grade Level Expectations

GLE 0807.Inq.1 Design and conduct open-ended scientific investigations.

GLE 0807.Inq.2 Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, organize, analyze, and interpret data.

GLE 0807.Inq.3 Synthesize information to determine cause and effect relationships between evidence and explanations.

GLE 0807.Inq.4 Recognize possible sources of bias and error, alternative explanations, and questions for further exploration.

GLE 0808.Inq.5 Communicate scientific understanding using descriptions, explanations, and models

Checks for Understanding

0807.Inq.1 Design and conduct an open-ended scientific investigation to answer a question that includes a control and appropriate variables.

0807.Inq.2 Identify tools and techniques needed to gather, organize, analyze, and interpret data collected from a moderately complex scientific investigation.

0807.Inq.3 Use evidence from a dataset to determine cause and effect relationships that explain a phenomenon.                      Mystery Spot

0807.Inq.4 Review an experimental design to determine possible sources of bias or error, state alternative explanations, and identify questions for further investigation.

0807.Inq.5 Design a method to explain the results of an investigation using descriptions, explanations, or models.

State Performance Indicators

Grade 8 : Technology & Engineering

Conceptual Strand Society benefits when engineers apply scientific discoveries to design materials and processes that develop into enabling technologies.

                      Introduction to Types of Engineering

                      Deanne Bell believes engineering is for girls
 

Guiding Question How do science concepts, engineering skills, and applications of technology improve the quality of life?

                      Break It Down InteractiveGrade Level Expectations

GLE 0807.T/E.1 Explore how technology responds to social, political, and economic needs.

                                      Explore large structures and what it takes to build them with BUILDING BIG™, a five-                                      part PBS  television series and Web site from WGBH Boston.

                       Wheelchairs - Podcast

                       The Bridge Over the Hellespont

                       Jean Engineering Podcast

GLE 0807.T/E.2 Know that the engineering design process involves an ongoing series of events that incorporate design constraints, model building, testing, evaluating, modifying, and retesting.

                      Mousetrap vehicle

                      Designing Balloon cars

                      Invention Playhouse

GLE 0807.T/E.3 Compare the intended benefits with the unintended consequences of a new technology.

GLE 0807.T/E.4 Describe and explain adaptive and assistive bioengineered products.

                                       Checks for Understanding

0807.T/E.1 Use appropriate tools to test for strength, hardness, and flexibility of materials.

0807.T/E.2 Apply the engineering design process to construct a prototype that meets certain specifications.                      Designing a Space Station

0807.T/E.3 Explore how the unintended consequences of new technologies can impact society.

0807.T/E.4 Research bioengineering technologies that advance health and contribute to improvements in our daily lives.                         Prosthetic Arm Video

0807.T/E.5 Develop an adaptive design and test its effectiveness.

State Performance Indicators

Grade 8 : Standard 1 -Cells (Not Addressed at this level)

Conceptual Strand 1 All living things are made of cells that perform functions necessary for life.

Guiding Question 1 How are plant and animals cells organized to carry on the processes of life? 

Grade 8 : Standard 2 -Interdependence (Not Addressed at this level)

Conceptual Strand 2 All life is interdependent and interacts with the environment.

Guiding Question 2 How do living things interact with one another and with the non-living elements of their environment?

Grade 8 : Standard 3 -Flow of Matter and Energy (Not Addressed at this level)

Conceptual Strand 3 Matter and energy flow through the biosphere.

Guiding Question 3 What scientific information explains how matter and energy flow through the biosphere?

Grade 8 : Standard 4 - Heredity (Not Addressed at this level)

Conceptual Strand 4 Plants and animals reproduce and transmit hereditary information between generations.

Guiding Question 4 What are the principal mechanisms by which living things reproduce and transmit information between parents and offspring?

 Grade 8 : Standard 5 -Biodiversity and Change

Conceptual Strand 5 A rich variety of complex organisms have developed in response to a continually changing environment.

Guiding Question 5 How does natural selection explain how organisms have changed over time?

Grade Level Expectations

• GLE 0807.5.1 Identify various criteria used to classify organisms into groups.

• GLE 0807.5.2 Use a simple classification key to identify a specific organism.

• GLE 0807.5.3 Analyze how structural, behavioral, and physiological adaptations within a population enable it to survive in a given environment

• GLE 0807.5.4 Explain why variation within a population can enhance the chances for group survival.

• GLE 0807.5.5 Describe the importance of maintaining the earth’s biodiversity.

• GLE 0807.5.6 Investigate fossils in sedimentary rock layers to gather evidence of changing life forms

Checks for Understanding 

0807.5.1 Select characteristics of plants and animals that serve as the basis for developing a classification key.                      DICHOTOMOUS KEY

0807.5.2 Create and apply a simple classification key to identify an organism.                Form and Function                Survival of the Fittest                Build A Beast                Adaptation Project                      Fat as an Adaptation activity

0807.5.3 Compare and contrast the ability of an organism to survive under different environmental conditions.                  Build A Beast                Form and Function                Survival of the Fittest                Random Sampling

0807.5.4 Collect and analyze data relating to variation within a population of organisms.                Cheetah Genetic diversity Project                      Human and White Tail Deer Population genetics                      Food Chains and Food Webs

0807.5.5 Prepare a poster that illustrates the major factors responsible for reducing the amount of global biodiversity.                fossil chart and info                      M&M fossil age determination activity

0807.5.6 Prepare graphs that demonstrate how the amount of biodiversity has changed in a particular continent or biome.

0807.5.7 Create a timeline that illustrates the relative ages of fossils in sedimentary rock layers

State Performance Indicators

Grade 8 - Earth and Space Science

Grade 8 : Standard 6 -The Universe (Not Addressed at this level)

Conceptual Strand 7 The cosmos is vast and explored well enough to know its basic structure and operational principles. 

Guiding Question 7  What big ideas guide human understanding about the origin and structure of the universe, Earth’s place in the cosmos, and observable   motions and patterns in the sky?

Grade 8 : Standard 7 – The Earth (Not Addressed at this level)

Conceptual Strand 7   Major geologic events that occur over eons or brief moments in time continually shape and reshape the surface of the Earth, resulting in continuous global change.

Guiding Question 7 How is the earth affected by long-term and short term geological cycles and the influence of man?

Grade 8 : Standard 8 -The Atmosphere (Not Addressed at this level)

Conceptual Strand 8 The earth is surrounded by an active atmosphere and an energy system that controls the distribution life, local weather, climate, and global temperature.

Guiding Question 8 How do the physical characteristics and the chemical makeup of the atmosphere influence surface processes and life on Earth?

Grade 8 : Standard 9 -Matter

Conceptual Strand 9 The composition and structure of matter is known, and it behaves according to principles that are generally understood.

Guiding Question 9 How does the structure of matter influence its physical and chemical behavior?

Grade Level Expectations

• GLE 0807.9.1 Understand that all matter is made up of atoms.

• GLE 0807.9.2 Explain that matter has properties that are determined by the structure and arrangement of its atoms.

• GLE 0807.9.3 Interpret data from an investigation to differentiate between physical and chemical changes.  

• GLE 0807.9.4 Distinguish among elements, compounds, and mixtures.

• GLE 0807.9.5 Apply the chemical properties of the atmosphere to illustrate a mixture of gases.

• GLE 0807.9.6 Use the periodic table to determine the characteristics of an element. 

                       Interactive Periodic Table

• GLE 0807.9.7 Explain the Law of Conservation of Mass.

• GLE 0807.9.8 Interpret the events represented by a chemical equation.

• GLE 0807.9.9 Explain the basic difference acids and bases.

Checks for Understanding 

0807.9.1 Identify atoms as the fundamental particles that make up matter.

0807.9.2 Illustrate the particle arrangement and type of motion associated with different states of matter.

0807.9.3 Measure or calculate the mass, volume, and temperature of a given substance.

0807.9.4 Calculate the density of various objects.

0807.9.5 Distinguish between elements and compounds by their symbols and formulas.

0807.9.6 Differentiate between physical and chemical changes.

0807.9.7 Describe how the characteristics of a compound are different than the characteristics of their component parts

0807.9.8 Determine the types of interactions between substances that result in a chemical change.                           Forming Substances & Types Of Chemical Reactions, The Happy Lesson & Game

0807.9.9 Explain how the chemical makeup of the atmosphere illustrates a mixture of gases.

0807.9.10 Identify the atomic number, atomic mass, number of protons, neutrons, and electrons in an atom of an element using the periodic table.                       Interactive Periodic Table

0807.9.11 Use investigations of chemical and physical changes to describe the Law of Conservation of Mass.

0807.9.12 Differentiate between the reactants and products of a chemical equation.

0807.9.13 Determine whether a substance is an acid or a base by its reaction to an indicator.

State Performance Indicators

Grade 8 : Standard 10 -Energy (Not Addressed at this level)

Conceptual Strand 10 Various forms of energy are constantly being transformed into other types without any net loss of energy from the system.

Guiding Question 10 What basic energy related ideas are essential for understanding the dependency of the natural and man-made worlds on energy?

Grade 8 : Standard 11 -Motion (Not Addressed at this level)

Conceptual Strand 11 Objects move in ways that can be observed, described, predicted, and measured. .

Guiding Question 11 What causes objects to move differently under different circumstances?

Grade 8: Standard 12 -Forces in Nature

Conceptual Strand 12 Everything in the universe exerts a gravitational force on everything else;  there is an interplay between magnetic fields and electrical currents.

Guiding Question 12 What are the scientific principles that explain gravity and electromagnetism?

Grade Level Expectations

GLE 0807.12.1 Investigate the relationship between magnetism and electricity.

GLE 0807.12.2 Design an investigation to change the strength of an electromagnet.

GLE 0807.12.3 Compare and contrast the earth’s magnetic field to that of a magnet and an electromagnet.

GLE 0807.12.4 Identify factors that influence the amount of gravitational force between objects.

                      Forces Lab

GLE 0807.12.5 Recognize that gravity is the force that controls the motion of objects in the solar system. 

Checks for Understanding

0807.12.1 Create a diagram to explain the relationship between electricity and magnetism.

0807.12.2 Produce an electromagnet using a bar magnet and a wire coil.

0807.12.3 Experiment with an electromagnet to determine how to vary its strength.

0807.12.4 Create a chart to distinguish among the earth’s magnetic field, and fields that surround a magnet and an electromagnet.

0807.12.5 Explain the difference between mass and weight.

0807.12.6 Identify factors that influence the amount of gravitational force between objects.

0807.12.7 Explain how the motion of objects in the solar system is affected by gravity.

State Performance Indicators

Jefferson County Schools

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