8th grade Science
8 units matched to the Oregon State Standards.
Focus areas
- Forces, motion and energy
- Heredity and natural selection
- Space systems and Earth's history
Units
Unit 1
Motion, Forces & Newton’s Laws
Practices speed, velocity, acceleration, forces, friction, gravity and Newton's three Laws of Motion, with stability. It follows the Grade 8 science skill descriptors on motion and stability and the Laws of Motion in the New Brunswick curriculum.
Learning standard: 8.PS2.1; 8.PS2.2 · Newton's laws, forces and changes in motion
Unit 2
Fields & Forces at a Distance
Practices forces that act without touching: what affects electric and magnetic force strength, why gravity is always attractive and depends on mass, and how fields store energy.
Learning standard: 8.PS2.3; 8.PS2.4; 8.PS2.5 · electric, magnetic and gravitational forces that act at a distance
Unit 3
Kinetic & Potential Energy
Practices how kinetic energy depends on mass and speed, how potential energy changes with position, and how energy transfers change an object's motion.
Learning standard: 8.PS3.1; 8.PS3.2 · kinetic energy, mass and speed, and potential energy and position
Unit 4
Light & Radiation
Wavelength and frequency, the electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves to gamma rays and what each is used for, reflection, refraction and color, and staying safe from UV radiation.
Learning standard: 8.PS4.1; 8.PS4.2 · wave properties and how light reflects, refracts and is absorbed
Unit 5
Genes & Heredity
Practices how genes on chromosomes code for proteins that shape traits, how mutations can be harmful, helpful or neutral, and how sexual and asexual reproduction differ in passing on genes.
Learning standard: 8.LS3.1; 8.LS4.5 · genes and mutations, and technologies that influence inheritance
Unit 6
Natural Selection
Practices how variation in traits leads some individuals to survive and reproduce more, how populations change over generations, and how artificial selection works.
Learning standard: 8.LS4.4; 8.LS4.6 · how trait variation affects survival and how populations change over time
Unit 7
Space Systems
Practices models of the Earth-sun-moon system (phases, eclipses, seasons), the role of gravity in the solar system and galaxies, and the scale of objects in the solar system.
Learning standard: 8.ESS1.1; 8.ESS1.2; 8.ESS1.3 · the Earth-sun-moon system, gravity in the solar system, and its scale
Unit 8
Earth's History & Fossils
Practices how rock layers are used to build Earth's 4.6-billion-year history, patterns in the fossil record, and anatomical and embryo evidence that living things share ancestors.
Learning standard: 8.ESS1.4; 8.LS4.1; 8.LS4.2 · rock strata and Earth's history, the fossil record, and anatomical evidence of common ancestry
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