Grade 8 Science Tutor
Eighth grades students can look forward to learning about cells and systems in action. They will also delve into the worlds of fluids and water systems.
Overall Expectations
- Assess the impact of cell biology on individuals, society, and the environment
- Investigate functions and processes of plant and animal cells
- Demonstrate an understanding of the basic structure and function of plant and animal cells and cell processes
- Assess the personal, social, and environmental impacts of a system, and evaluate improvements to a system and alternative ways of meeting the same needs
- Investigate a working system and the ways in which components of the system contribute to its desired function
- Demonstrate an understanding of different types of systems and the factors that contribute to their safe and efficient operation
- Analyse how the properties of fluids are used in various technologies, and assess the impact of these technologies on society and the environment
- Demonstrate an understanding of the properties and uses of fluids
- Assess the impact of human activities and technologies on the sustainability of water resources
- Investigate factors that affect local water quality
- Demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics of the earth’s water systems and the influence of water systems on a specific region
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Grade 8 Science Sample Curriculum
Understanding life systems: Cells
- Assess the potential that our understanding of cells and cell processes has for both beneficial and harmful effects on human health and the
- Use a microscope correctly and safely to find and observe components of plant and animal cells and make accurate drawings of their observations
- Prepare dry- and wet-mount slides of a variety of objects for use with a microscope
- Investigate the processes of osmosis and diffusion
- Use appropriate science and technology vocabulary, including organelle, diffusion, osmosis, cell theory, selective permeability, membrane, stage, and eyepiece
- Demonstrate an understanding of the postulates of the cell theory
- Identify structures and organelles in cells, including the nucleus, cell membrane, cell wall, chloroplasts, vacuole, mitochondria, and cytoplasm, and explain the basic functions of each
- Compare the structure and function of plant and animal cells
- Explain the processes of diffusion and osmosis and their roles within a cell
- Identify unicellular organisms and multicellular organisms, and compare ways in which they meet their basic needs
- Describe the organization of cells into tissues, organs, and systems
Understanding structures and mechanisms: Systems in action
- Assess the social, economic, and environmental impacts of automating systems
- Assess the impact on individuals, society, and the environment of alternative ways of meeting needs that are currently met by existing systems, taking different points of view into consideration
- Investigate the work done in a variety of everyday activities and record the findings quantitatively
- Investigate mechanical advantage in a variety of mechanisms and simple machines
- Investigate a system that performs a function or meets a need
- Investigate the information and support provided to consumers/clients to ensure that a system functions safely and effectively
- Use appropriate science and technology vocabulary, including mechanical advantage, input, output, friction, gravity, forces, and efficiency
- Use a variety of forms to communicate with different audiences and for a variety of purposes
- Identify various types of systems
- Identify the purpose, inputs, and outputs of various systems
- Identify the various processes and components of a system that allow it to perform its function efficiently and safely
- Compare, using examples, the scientific definition with the everyday use of the terms work, force, energy, and efficiency
- Understand and use the formula work = force × distance (W = F × d) to establish the relationship between work, force, and distance moved parallel to the force in simple systems
- Calculate the mechanical advantage (MA = force needed without a simple machine divided by force needed with a simple machine) of various mechanical systems
- Explain ways in which mechanical systems produce heat, and describe ways to make these systems more efficient
- Describe systems that have improved the productivity of various industries
- Identify social factors that influence the evolution of a system
Understanding Matter and Energy: Fluids
- Assess the social, economic, and environmental impacts of selected technologies that are based on the properties of fluids
- Assess the impact of fluid spills on society and the environment, including the cost of the cleanup and the effort involved
- Determine the mass-to-volume ratio of different amounts of the same substance
- Investigate and compare the density of a variety of liquids
- Investigate applications of the principles of fluid mechanics
- Identify factors that affect the flow rates of various fluids
- Design, build, and test devices that use pneumatic or hydraulic systems
- Demonstrate an understanding of viscosity and compare the viscosity of various liquids
- Describe the relationship between mass, volume, and density as a property of matter
- Explain the difference between solids, liquids, and gases in terms of density, using the particle theory of matter
- Explain the difference between liquids and gases in terms of their compressibility and how their compressibility affects their usage
- Determine the buoyancy of an object, given its density, in a variety of fluids
- Explain in qualitative terms the relationship between pressure, volume, and temperature when a liquid or a gas is compressed or heated
- Explain how forces are transferred in all directions in fluids (Pascal’s law)
- Compare the ways in which fluids are used and controlled in living things to the ways in which they are used and controlled in manufactured devices
Understanding Earth and Space Systems: Water systems
- Evaluate personal water consumption, compare it with personal water consumption in other countries, and propose a plan of action to reduce personal water consumption
- Assess how various media sources address issues related to the impact of human activities on the long-term sustainability of local, national, or international water systems
- Assess the impact on local and global water systems of a scientific discovery or technological innovation
- Investigate how municipalities process water and manage water
- Test water samples for a variety of chemical characteristics
- Use scientific inquiry/research skills to investigate local water issues
- Use technological problem-solving skills to design, build, and test a water system device that performs a practical function or meets a need
- Use appropriate science and technology vocabulary, including water table, aquifer, polar ice-cap, and salinity
- Identify the various states of water on the earth’s surface, their distribution, relative amounts, and circulation, and the conditions under which they exist
- Demonstrate an understanding of the watershed as a fundamental geographic unit, and explain how it relates to water management and planning
- Explain how human and natural factors cause changes in the water table
- Identify factors that affect the size of glaciers and polar ice-caps, and describe the effects of these changes on local and global water systems
- Explain changes in atmospheric conditions caused by the presence of bodies of water
