How to learn Grade 8: Science

Arkansas academic standards: Science, Grade 8

0 of 14 concepts ready to learn · Markdown, for your AI

1. Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science

1. Simple Design Problems: Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost
2. Comparing Possible Solutions: Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints

2. Natural Selection and Adaptations

1. How Natural Selection Works: Explain natural selection as the mechanism of evolution: heritable variation + competition for resources + differential survival and reproduction = change in allele frequency over generations
2. Fossils as Evidence: Analyse and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of organisms and environments that existed long ago

3. Forces and Interactions

1. Universal Gravitation: Describe gravity as a universal attractive force between all masses, explain that orbital motion arises because gravity provides the centripetal force keeping objects in orbit, and compare gravitational field strengths on different planets
2. Electromagnets: Describe the magnetic effect of an electric current (a current-carrying wire produces a magnetic field), and investigate how the strength of an electromagnet depends on current, number of coil turns, and core material
3. Investigating Forces: Plan and carry out investigations into forces, including measuring force with a newton meter, investigating Hooke's Law, and collecting and interpreting motion data to test Newton's laws
4. Newton's Third Law: State and apply Newton's Third Law: every force has an equal and opposite reaction force acting on a different object, distinguishing action-reaction pairs from balanced forces

4. Waves and Electromagnetic Radiation

1. Waves & Different Materials: Explain how waves can be absorbed, transmitted, or reflected by different materials, and apply these interactions to explain colour perception, sight, communication technologies, and the effects of different surfaces on wave behaviour

5. Growth, Development, and Reproduction of Organisms

1. Genetic Mutation: Explain genetic mutation as a random change in DNA sequence, describe causes of mutation (e.g. radiation, chemicals, copying errors), and explain that most mutations are neutral, some harmful, and a few beneficial

6. Energy

1. Energy stores and transfers: Identify the main energy stores (kinetic, gravitational potential, elastic potential, thermal, chemical, nuclear, electromagnetic) and the pathways by which energy is transferred between stores (mechanically, electrically, by heating, by radiation)
2. Calculating Dietary Energy: Calculate and evaluate energy intake and requirements in a healthy daily diet, interpreting food labels and nutritional data

7. Space Systems

1. Scale of the Solar System: Use scale models, diagrams, or calculations to represent the relative sizes and distances of objects in the solar system, understanding that the distances between planets are enormously larger than the planets themselves
2. Phases of the Moon: Explain the phases of the Moon as the changing angle of sunlight on the lunar surface as seen from Earth, and describe how solar and lunar eclipses occur