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SCIENCE – GRADE 8
Course Overview:
Focus Areas: Energy, Machines and Motion, Ecology, Evolution, Planetary Science
The content of the science curriculum is based upon the Montana Standards for
science. Students will continue to learn and apply science process skills as they gain new
knowledge in the areas of ecology, evolution, energy, machines, motion and planetary
science. Varied assessments will be used that are specifically designed to complement the
inquiry approach to learning science.
Science Content Standards and Benchmarks
Standard 1 focuses on the inquiry process of science. Standard 2 focuses on the
interrelationships among science, technology and society. Standard 3 focuses on the history
and nature of science and technology. The intent is that the first three standards not
necessarily be taught in isolation, but that they be woven into the last three content standards
which focus on developing specific understandings of the physical, life, Earth, and space
sciences. Only those benchmarks with essential learnings listed below them apply to
Grade 8.
Science Process Skills
Standard 1: Students will design, conduct, evaluate and communicate scientific
investigations.
Benchmarks
1.1
Students will identify a question, formulate a hypothesis, control and manipulate
variables, devise and safely conduct experiments, predict outcomes and compare and
analyze results.
Students will:
Essential Learnings
Assessment
design ways to gather information about what is known
and unknown about the question or problem.
1.1.2 write a hypothesis that reflects and builds upon existing
knowledge.
1.1.3 test for whether a particular variable does have an effect on
the experimental factor (dependent variable).
1.1.4 judge whether or not measurements are reasonable
compared to typical values (class).
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1.1.1
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• Sources of systematic error associated with a
measurement tool (e.g. scale reads positive with nothing
on it) and the ways measurement instruments are used
(e.g. always rounding measurements up to the next
whole number) can contribute to measurement
differences.
1.1.5 analyze data using appropriate measurement and math
concepts (e.g. accuracy, precision, percentage, mean,
median, mode, range, sum, and count).
1.1.6 redesign an experiment where the results are ambiguous.
1.2
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Students will select and accurately use appropriate equipment and technology to
measure (in SI units); gather, process and analyze data from a scientific investigation.
Students will:
Essential Learnings
1.2.1
1.2.2
1.2.3
1.2.4
1.2.5
1.3
select appropriate equipment, including electronic, to
measure distance, mass, weight, force, volume, time,
temperature, pH and choose appropriate SI units for
reporting magnitudes.
choose an appropriate sampling strategy to gather data.
use the concepts of accuracy and precision to evaluate the
quality of data.
demonstrate the appropriate use and care of equipment that
extends the sense of sight (e.g. dissecting microscope,
telescope).
use computers to store and retrieve information in topical,
alphabetical, numerical, and key-word files, and create
simple files of their own devising.
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Students will communicate and defend results of investigations; question results of
investigations if different from predicted.
Students will:
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if they are consistent with the evidence.
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1.3.2 make continued attempts to derive a scientific explanation are options.
and consider other possible explanations that could account
for the same data.
1.3.3 notice and criticize the reasoning in arguments in which:
• Fact and opinion are intermingled or conclusions do not
follow logically from the evidence;
• An analogy is not appropriate;
• No mention is made of whether control groups are very
much like the experimental group;
1.3.1
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• All members of a group are implied to have nearly
identical characteristics that differ from those of other
groups (e.g. teenagers, chemists).
1.4
Students will analyze the processes, parts, and subsystems of familiar systems (e.g.,
electrical circuits, bacteria) and infer cause and effect relationships among
components of the system.
Students will:
Essential Learnings
1.4.1
describe cause and effect relationships between systems
and their subsystems.
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1.5
Students will create models to illustrate scientific concepts and use the model to
predict change (e.g. computer simulation, a stream table, graphic representations).
Students will:
Essential Learnings
1.5.1
predict how the real thing might work if something were
done to it by making modifications to a model of it and
observing resultant changes.
1.5.2 describe what is similar and what is dissimilar between
models and the real things they represent.
1.6
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Students will distinguish between controlled and uncontrolled experiments
consistency of results.
Students will:
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in an experiment, the outcome of the experiment may not
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be clearly attributable to any one of the variables.
• It may not always be possible to prevent outside
variables form influencing the outcome of an
investigation (or even to identify all of the variables),
but collaboration among investigators can often lead to
research designs that are able to deal with such
situations.
1.6.2 know what people expect to observe often affects what
they actually do observe.
• Strong beliefs about what should happen in particular
circumstances can prevent them from detecting other
results.
• Scientists know about this danger to objectivity and
take steps to try and avoid it when designing
investigations and examining data;
• One safeguard is to have different investigators conduct
independent studies of the same questions.
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Science, Technology, and Society
Standard 2: Students will understand how scientific knowledge and technological
developments impact society.
Benchmarks
2.1
Students will identify the specific fields of scientific endeavor and related
occupations within those fields.
Students will:
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pursue career investigations in scientific and technological
fields of study on a yearly basis. (e.g. sci. zoology/wildlife
biologist, tech. Engineering, civil engineering; descriptions
could include: education needed, helpful classes, salary,
job description, job outlook).
2.2
Students will model collaborative problem solving and give examples of how
scientific knowledge is shared, critiqued, and scrutinized by other scientists and the
public.
Students will:
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2.2.1
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know that high quality scientific explanations emphasize
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evidence, employ logically consistent arguments, and use
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sound scientific principles, models, and theories.
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• The scientific community assumes scientific
explanations true when they withstand such rigorous
review.
2.2.2 know that openness, intellectual honesty, and skepticism
are valued in the field of science (e.g. Students should feel
encouraged to share their ideas. Other students are guided
to be respectful people sharing ideas while being skeptical
of the ideas themselves).
2.2.3 notice and criticize the reasoning in arguments in which:
• Fact and opinion are intermingled or the conclusions do
not follow logically from the evidence given;
• An analogy is not apt;
• No mention is made of whether the control groups are
very much like the experimental group;
• All members of a group are implied to have nearly
identical characteristics that differ from those of other
groups.
2.2.4 be skeptical of arguments based on very small samples of
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data, biased samples, or samples for which there was no
control group.
2.2.5 appropriately reference and credit sources, authors, etc. of
science information used in oral or written presentations
and reports.
2.2.6 select and use appropriate and effective strategies to clearly
present scientific information to an audience (e.g.
presentation should be planned so that it is logically
presented – question, experimental design, procedures,
results, and conclusion-using appropriate visual aides).
2.2.7 use available computer technology and software to gather
and analyze experimental data, access and process
information and report on science activities and
investigations.
2.3
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Students will investigate local problems and/or issues and propose solutions or
products that address a need, which considers variables (e.g., environmental risks).
Students will:
Essential Learnings
2.3.1
identify appropriate problems for technological design.
• Identify a specific need, consider its various aspects,
and talk to different potential users of beneficiaries;
• Appreciate that for some needs, the cultural
backgrounds and beliefs or different groups can affect
the criteria for a suitable product.
2.3.2 design a solution or project.
• Make and compare different proposals in the light of
the criteria that they have selected;
• Consider constraints – such as cost, time, trade-offs,
and materials needed – and communicate ideas with
drawings and simple models.
2.3.3 implement a proposed design.
• Organize materials and other resources;
• Plan their work, make good use of group collaboration
where appropriate;
• Choose suitable tools and techniques, and work with
appropriate measurement methods to ensure adequate
accuracy.
2.3.4 evaluate completed technological designs or products.
• Use criteria relevant to the original purpose or need;
• Consider a variety of factors that might affect
acceptability and suitability for the intended users or
beneficiaries;
• Develop measures of quality with respect to such
criteria and factors;
• Suggest improvements and, for their own products, try
proposed modifications.
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2.3.5
communicate the process of technological design.
• Review and describe any completed piece of work, and
identify the stages of problem identification, solution
design, implementation, and evaluation.
2.3.6 students should know that scientific inquiry and
technological design have similarities and differences.
• Scientists propose explanations for questions about the
natural world;
• Engineers propose solutions relating to human
problems, needs, and aspirations;
• Technological solutions are temporary;
• Technologies exist within nature and so they cannot
contravene physical or biological principles.
• Technological solutions have side effects; and
technologies cost, carry risks, and provide benefits.
2.4
Students will apply scientific knowledge and process skills to understand issues and
everyday events.
Students will:
Essential Learnings
2.4.1
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explain how human societies’ use of natural resources
affects the quality of life and health of ecosystems.
Introducing new species into ecosystems can be
damaging;
Land use decisions, urban growth, and waste disposal
may accelerate changes in resource availability,
ecosystem viability, and an environment’s carrying
capacity.
History of Science and Technology
Standard 3: Students will understand historical developments in science and technology.
Benchmarks
3.1
Students will trace developments that demonstrate scientific knowledge is subject to
change as new evidence becomes available.
Students will:
Essential Learnings
3.1.1
know that ideas in science change as new scientific
thinking, theories, and evidence arise.
• The historical perspective of scientific explanations
demonstrates how scientific knowledge changes by
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3.2
evolving over time, almost always building on earlier
knowledge.
Tracing the history of science can show how difficult it
was for scientific innovators to break through the
accepted ideas of their time to reach the conclusions
that we currently take for granted.
Students will identify major milestones in science that have impacted science,
technology and society.
Students will:
Essential Learnings
3.2.1
know that ideas in science change as new scientific
thinking, theories, and evidence arise.
• Studying some of these individuals provides further
understanding of scientific inquiry, science as a human
endeavor, the nature of science, and the relations
between science and society.
• The following is a list of suggested historic figures and
milestones that complement the 8th grade curriculum.
Galileo – mechanics
Isaac Newton – Newtonian mechanics
Nicholas Copernicus – astronomy
Johannes Kepler – astronomy
Tycho Brahe – astronomy
Charles Darwin – evolution
James Watt – steam engine
Archimedes – science & engineering
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Physical Science
Standard 4: Students demonstrate knowledge of properties, forms, changes, and
interactions of physical and chemical system.
Benchmarks
4.1
Students will examine, describe, compare, and classify objects and substances based
on common physical properties and simple chemical properties.
4.2
Students will classify, describe, and model matter in terms of elements, compounds,
mixtures, atoms, and molecules.
4.3
Students will model and explain that states of matter (solids, liquids, and gases) are
dependent upon the quantity of energy present in the system.
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4.4
Students will identify and predict what will change and what will remain unchanged
when matter experiences an external force or energy change.
Students will:
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understand the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces
on the motion of objects along a straight line.
• If an object is not moving, the forces acting on it are
balanced;
• An object moving in a straight line will change speed,
if an unbalanced force acts on it;
• A change in an object’s speed is proportional to the
balanced force acting on it and the time interval during
which the unbalanced force is applied.
4.4.2 describe the positions, relative speeds, and changes in the
speed of objects resulting from changes in energy.
• Words, graphs, tables, and pictures are used to
represent the position or speed of an object;
• From representations of position vs. time, the average
speed is determined by measuring or calculating how
far the object travels in each one unit of time, and the
speed is expressed in units of distance and time;
• An object might move through a time interval at a
constant speed or the speed might vary, but in either
case if the object had traveled the same distance, its
average speed would have been the same.
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4.4.1
4.5
Students will identify, build, describe, measure, and analyze mechanical systems (e.g.
simple and complex machines).
Students will:
Essential Learnings
4.5.1
describe how parts of a system interact and influence each
other.
• A system involves processes as well as things;
• The output from one part of a system can become the
input to other parts;
• A system may be thought of as containing subsystems
and being a subsystem of a larger system.
4.5.2 investigate the advantages of machines.
• Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can be
changed from one form to another;
• Machines only transfer and transform energy. They
cannot create or destroy it;
• Work is done when something is moved;
• The amount of work done on an object is determined
by how much force was used to move the object and
the distance the object was moved;
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The amount of energy or work put into a machine will
come out of the machine in some form.
4.5.3 design and build a complex machine (2 or more simple
machines) to perform a specific task.
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Students will define energy and compare and contrast the characteristics of light, heat,
motions, magnetism, electricity, sound, and mechanical waves.
Students will:
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understand that energy is contained in objects, substances, All elem.
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and systems.
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• Energy comes in many forms including thermal, light,
electrical, chemical and mechanical;
• Moving things have energy of motion or kinetic
motion;
• Energy can be stored as potential energy.
4.6.2 associate a decrease in one form of energy with an increase
in another.
• Energy is transformed when, during a transfer of
energy, it changes from one form to another.
• When energy is transferred between systems, typically
some energy gets converted to thermal energy;
• Whenever the amount of energy associated with one
object or in one form diminishes, the amount associated
with other objects or forms increases.
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Life Science
Standard 5: Students will demonstrate knowledge of characteristics, structures and
functions of living things, the process and diversity of life, and how living
organisms interact with each other and their environment.
Benchmarks
5.1
Students will compare the structure and function of prokaryotic cells (bacteria) and
eukaryotic cells (plant and animal etc.).
5.2
Students will explain how organisms and systems of organisms obtain energy
resources to maintain stable conditions and how they respond to stimuli (e.g.
photosynthesis, respiration, etc.)
Students will:
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5.2.1
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for life processes.
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In ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight;
Producers convert energy entering the ecosystem as
sunlight into chemical energy through photosynthesis;
The chemical energy passes from organism to organism
in food webs;
Over a long time, matter is transferred from one
organism to another repeatedly, and between organisms
and their physical environment;
How a species moves, obtains its food, reproduces and
responds to danger are based in the species
evolutionary history.
5.3
Students will communicate the differences in the reproductive processes of a variety
of plants and animals using the principles of genetic modeling (e.g. Punnett square).
5.4
Students will investigate and explain the interdependent nature of biological systems
in the environment and how they are affected by human interaction.
Students will:
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describe how parts of a system interact and influence each All elem.
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• A system involves processes as well as things;
• The output from one part of a system can become the
input to other parts;
• A system may be thought of as containing subsystems
and being a subsystem of a larger system.
5.4.2 explain how organisms interact with their environment and
with other organisms to acquire energy, cycle matter,
influence behavior, and establish competitive or mutually
beneficial relationships.
• A population consists of all individuals of a species that
occur together at a given place and time;
• An ecosystem encompasses all populations living
together and their physical surroundings;
• Populations of organisms can be categorized by the
function they serve in an ecosystem;
• Food webs identify the relationships among producers,
consumers, and decomposers;
• The number of organisms an ecosystem can support
depends on the resources available and abiotic factors
such as quantity of light and water, range of
temperatures, and soil composition.
5.4.3 describe how biological evolution accounts for species
diversity, adaptation, natural selections, extinction, and
change in organisms over time.
5.4.1
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Millions of species of animals, plants, and
microorganisms are alive today;
• Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of
species developed through gradual processes over
many generations;
• Species acquire many of their unique characteristics
through biological adaptation, which involves the
selection of naturally occurring variations in
populations;
• Biological adaptations include changes in structures,
behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and
reproductive success in a particular environment;
• Extinction of a species occurs when the environment
changes and the adaptive characteristics of a species are
insufficient to allow its survival;
• Fossils indicate that many organisms that lived long
ago are extinct;
• Extinction of species is common; most of the species
that have lived on the earth no longer exist;
• Fossils demonstrate the long history of changing life
forms.
5.4.4 explain how human society’s use of natural resources
affects the quality of life and health of ecosystems.
• Introducing new species into ecosystems can be
damaging;
• Land use decisions, urban growth, and waste disposal
may accelerate changes in resource availability,
ecosystem viability, and an environment’s carry
capacity.
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Students will use a basic classification scheme to identify local plants and animals.
Earth and Space Science
Standard 6:
Students will demonstrate knowledge of the composition, structures,
processes and interactions of Earth’s systems and other objects in space.
Benchmarks
6.1
Students will model and explain the internal structure of Earth and describe the
formation and composition of Earth’s external features in terms of the rock cycle and
plate tectonics.
6.2
Students will differentiate between rocks and classify rocks by how they are formed.
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6.3
Students will explain the scientific theories about the origin and evolution of Earth
and Solar System by describing how fossils are used as evidence of climatic change
over time.
Students will:
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know the importance of fossils in documenting life and
environmental changes over time.
• Fossils taken from various layers of sedimentary rock
can provide a physical timeline of environmental
changes, species extinction or evolution, and climatic
variances;
• Fossils provide physical evidence for life as it existed
before recorded history, for example, the diversification
of environments or the diversity of species.
6.4
Students will describe the water cycle, the composition and structure of the
atmosphere, and the impact of oceans on large-scale weather patterns.
6.5
Students will describe and model the motion and tilt of Earth in relation to the sun,
and explain the concept of day, night, seasons, years.
Students will:
Essential Learnings
6.5.1
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observe and describe the patterns of movement of the sun
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Earth, and relate them to the Earth’s rotation.
• The motion of Earth in relationship to the sun can be
used to explain day, night, and year;
• The Earth rotates on its axis once in approximately 24
hours;
• The Earth revolves around the sun in approximately 365
days;
• The moon revolves around the Earth in approximately
28 days;
• The angle formed between sighting to the sun and
sighting to the moon is related to the phase of the moon
that we see from Earth;
• Eclipses occur when the Earth or the moon gets in the
way of the sun’s light.
• Seasons result from variations in the amount of the sun’s
energy hitting the surface due to the tilt of the Earth’s
rotation on its axis and length of the day;
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6.6
Students will describe the Earth, Moon, planets and other objects in space in terms of
size, structure, and movement in relation to the Sun.
Students will:
Essential Learnings
Assessment
know that our solar system is composed of the sun, planets,
moons, and smaller objects such as asteroids, and comets.
• The sun, an average star, is the central and largest body
in the solar system;
• The sun is many thousands of times closer to the Earth
than any other star;
• The Earth is a small planet, third from the sun;
• In addition to the Earth, there are eight other planets
differing in size, composition, and surface features;
• Some planets have a great variety of moons and flat
rings of rock and ice particles orbiting around them.
4.6.1 know that gravity is the force that keeps planets in orbit
around the sun and governs the rest of the motion in the
solar system.
• Most objects in the solar system are in regular and
predictable motion;
• The planets move around the sun in nearly circular
(elliptical) orbits.
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