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8TH GRADE SCIENCE NGSS
Mr. Bentley's Class
The units Below are what is gong to be studied and the order of what is going to be studied in this class this year.
UNIT 1 - NATURE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
UNIT 2 - HEREDITY & CELLS
UNIT 3 - THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
UNIT 4 - ENERGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES
UNIT 5 - ECOSYSTEMS
UNIT 6 - ENVIRONMENTALISM
UNIT 7 - HISTORY OF EARTH
UNIT 8 - EVOLUTION
UNIT 9 - NATURAL HAZARDS
UNIT 1 - NATURE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Chapter 1 The Nature of Science
Students will explore the nature of scientific inquiry and engineering.
WEBSITES
Describe the processes used by scientists to conduct investigations.
Video: Does Bias Play a Role in Science
Check for Understanding:Describe the Processes Used By Scientists to Conduct Investigations
Explain the importance of following the steps of scientific inquiry.
How Do Scientists Obtain New Knowledge? Scientific Method
Video: The Scientific Method Song
What are Independent and Dependent Variables?
Scientific Method and Data Analysis
Video: Using Robots for Inquiry
Check for Understanding: Explain the Importance of Following the Steps of Scientific Inquiry
Engineering Introductory Material
Video: Scientists Profile - Solar Vehicle Engineer
Introduction Guiding Questions
Describe the engineering process.
Video: The Engineering Process
Video:Jesse Has a Problem: Think Like an Engineer Part 1
Video: Jesse & Squeaks Build a Better Back Scratcher Part 2
Video: NASA Now: Engineering Design Process: Hubble Space Telescope
Video: Crazy Engineering: The Camera That Fixed Hubble
Check For Understanding: Describe the Engineering Process
Explain how the engineering process is used to solve a problem.
Video: So You Want to Build a Satellite
Video: Crazy Engineering: Gecko Gripper
Check for Understanding Engineering 2
Describe the role of the engineering process in technology.
Video: Green Careers: Civil Engineer
Video: What Makes Bridges So Strong?
Video: Scientific Profile: Biomedical Engineer
Check for Uderstanding: Engineering 3
ACTIVITIES
INTRODUCTION TO THE MICROSCOPE ACTIVITY
Laying The Foundation Materials
"Exploring Experimental Design"
"Come Fly With Us"
Scientific Method Practice 1
"Penny Lab"
Scientific Method Practice 2
"Numbers in Science"
Dimensional Analysis
Significant Digits
Graphing Skills
LAB:
Virtual Triple Beam Balance Airliner | Measurement Airliner |
Graduated Cylinder Lesson Airliner |
UNIT 2 - CELLS & HEREDITY
Green Book B "From Bacteria to Plants" Chapter 4 Section 1 only "Introduction to Plant Reproduction" and Chapter 2 Traits and How They Change Chapter 3 Interactions of Human Systems
Students will 1) Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism.
2) Develop and use a model to describe why asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation.
3) Gather and synthesize information about the technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.
WEBSITES
Describe how mutations may result in changes to proteins. Identify why mutations can be beneficial, harmful, or neutral.
Video: What is DNA and How Does it Work?
Video: How Mutations Cause Changes in Traits
Check for Understanding: Causes of Mutations
Describe why offspring and parents often have different traits.
Genetics - Why do Offspring Resemble Their Parents?
What are Dominant and Recessive?
Video: How to Draw a Punnett Square
Video: Guinea Pigs, Punnet Squares, and Probability
Video: Mendel's Inheritance Experiments
Check for Understanding: Genetics
Check for Understanding: Genetics
Describe how artificial selection occurs.
Video: Natural vs Artificial Selection
Reading: Artificial Selection and Examples
PowerPoint with Videos: Natural vs Artificial Slection
Video: Dog Breeding and Artificial Selection
Check for Understanding: Artificial Selection
Check for Understanding: Artificial Selection
ACTIVITIES
LTF Lesson
"Punnett Square Exercises"
Bean Bunny Evolution
"Green Beans the Wonderful Fruit"
LAB & Web Links
UNIT 3 THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
Green Book "D" Chapter 5
The student will gather and synthesize information that sensory receptors respond to stimuli by sending messages to the brain for immediate behavior or storage as memories.
WEBSITES
Describe the organization of the nervous system.
Describe the function of sensory receptors.
The Nervous System and Action Potential
Nervous System: I'm Sensing Something
Describe the brain's role in processing information.
What Are the Parts of the Brain?
What Are the Regions of the Brain and What Do They Do?
Video: Sensation & Perception: Information Processing in the Brain
UNIT 4 - ENERGY & MINERAL RESOURCES
Blue Book "M" Chapter 5
Students will 1) Construct and interpret graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object.
2) Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth’s mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes.
WEBSITES
Describe how kinetic energy depends on the mass and speed of an object.
Video: Speed vs. Velocity: What is the Difference?
How to Calculate Kinetic Energy
Kinetic Energy, Mass, and Velocity
Describe why natural resources are distributed unevenly around the planet.
Why is Oil Usually Found in Deserts and Arctic Areas?
10 Countries With the Most Natural Resources
Distribution of Natural Resources
Video: How Fossil Fuels are Formed
ACTIVITIES
LTF Lessons
Calculator Lab
Excel Lab
"Pendulum Swing"
"Mechanical Advantage"
LAB:
NEED Energy Monster Lab | Newton's 2nd Law Virtual Lab |
UNIT 5 - ECOSYSTEMS
Chapter 4 Interactions of Life, Chapter 5 The Nonliving Environment
Students will 1) Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
2) Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
3) Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
4) Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
5) Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
6) Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.
WEBSITES
Describe how disruptions to physical or biological aspects of an ecosytem can leads to shifts in the populations in the ecosystem.
Interactive: Exploring Trophic Cascades
SlideShow: Interdependence in a Food Chain
Video: Keystone Species: Animals That Keep Their Whole Ecosystem Together
Video: The Threat of Invasive Species
Check for Understanding: Interdependence in an Ecosystem
Identify how biodiversity is valuable for human wellbeing.
Video: What is Biodiversity and Why is it Important?
Reading: Importance of Biodiversity
Describe how volcanic eruptions occur, and explain how humans can monitor and avoid their effects.
Reading: Volcanoes at Plate Boundaries
Reading: Volcanoes at Hotspots
Check for Understanding: Volcanoes
Describe how earthquakes occur, and explain how humans can prepare for these events.
Video: Seismographs and Seismograms
Reading: Predicting Earthquakes
Reading: Earthquake Safe Structures
Reading: Earthquakes at Transform Plate Boundaries
Reading: Earthquakes at Convergent Plate Boundaries
Check for Understanding: Earthquakes
ACTIVITIES
LTF Lessons
"Life on the James"
"Baby Dice Island"
"A Cool Chemical Reaction"
"What's That Liquid"
LAB:
Web Links
Earthquakes and Volcanoes Glencoe Virtual Lab
When is Water Safe to Drink? Virtual Lab | |
UNIT 6 - ENVIRONMENTALISM
Green Book E "Ecology", Chapter 4 Conserving Resources, Chapter 5 Conserving Life
Students will 1) Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
2) Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
3) Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
4) Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
5) Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.
Describe how human activities impact greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere.
Video: Explanation of Climate Change - Neil DeGrass Tyson
Video: Climate Change With Bill Nye
Main Sources of Methane Emissions
Main Sources of Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Video: New York City and Carbon Dioxide
Describe how human activities impact other living things on Earth.
Reading: Human Actions and the Sixth Mass Extinction
Reading: Human Causes of Extinction
Reading: Human Impacts on Animals
Video: The Threat of Invasive Species
Video: Why do Some Species Thrive in Cities?
Describe how human activities impact natural habitats.
Website: NASA Kids - Gallery of Air Pollution
Video: How Do Humans Change Their Environment?
Video: How To (Literally) Save Earth
Reading: Effects of Water Pollution
Video: Human Impacts on the Environment
Describe how increasing human population size and resource use impacts Earth's natural systems.
Video: The Science of Overpopulation
Video: 5 Human Impacts on the Environment
Video: Human Activities that Threaten Biodiversity
Video: 7 Billion: How Did We Get So Big So Fast?
Reading: Humans and Their Environment
Reading: Population and Environment: a Global Challenge
Reading: Sustainable Development
UNIT 7 - HISTORY OF EARTH
Chapter 9 Clues to Earth's Past, Chapter 10 Geologic Time
Students will 1) Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.
2) Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history.
WEBSITES
Describe how the formation and change of rocks records the story of Earth's history.
Video: Chronology of Rock Layers
Video: Reading Rock Strata - Layers in the Grand Canyon
Describe how fossils form and identify how fossils record the story of life's history on Earth.
Reading: What is a Fossil and How is it Formed
Reading: Different Kinds of Fossils
Check for Understanding: Fossils and How They Are Formed
Identify how the layers of rock and fossils can be used to determine relative dates of events in Earth's history.
Reading: How to Read Rock Layers
Video: Relative Dating of Rock Layers
Reading: What is the Difference Between Relative and Absolute Age?
Check for Understanding: Using Rocks to Learn the History of Earth
ACTIVITIES
LAB:
Geologic Time Virtual Lab (SAS)
Charles Darwin & Evolution by Natural Selection SAS Activity
Plant Evolution SAS Activity
UNIT 8 - EVOLUTION
Embryology - Green Book "A" Chapter 6 section 2 p 169
1) Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.
2) Analyze displays of pictorial data to compare patterns of similarities in the embryological development across multiple species to identify relationships not evident in the fully formed anatomy.
3) Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment
4) Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over time.
Describe how comparing the bodies of ancient and modern organisms shows how life has changed over time and how different species are related.
Video: What is Common Ancestry?
Video: What is the Evidence for Evolution
Reading: Evidence from Comparative Anatomy
Describe how comparing the embryos of different species shows how different species are related.
Reading: Embryological Evidence
Reading: Which Embryo is Human
Check for Understanding: Comparative Embryology
Describe how natural selection leads to changes in how common specific traits are in a population.
Interactive: Natural Selection with Birds
Video: Example of Natural Selection
Video: Myths and Misconceptions About Evolution
Check for Understanding: Natural Selection
UNIT 9 - NATURAL HAZARDS
Chapter 8 Earthquakes & Volcanoes
Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.