Eighth Grade Curriculum Guide
EIGHTH GRADE AT THE ORCHARD SCHOOL
Science
In eighth grade science at The Orchard School, we ask students to continue practicing the skills of scientific thinking and investigation. Students grow as scholars and prepare for high school by delving deeper into their developing abstract thinking skills. Students perform laboratory experiments and investigations, both guided and open-ended, as they practice gathering meaningful data and using that data as evidence to answer questions like, “How do we know?” and “Why does that happen?” Students also continue to learn new scientific concepts through experimentation, direct instruction, and research. Students broaden their understanding of how the world works and move forward on their journey to becoming well-informed, scientifically literate citizens who can apply information to novel situations and construct meaningful arguments. Science curriculum is based on Next Generation Science Standards.
Eighth-graders grow as scientists by:
• Developing good questions, fostered by curiosity. • Designing and conducting careful, safe, and methodical laboratory investigations. • Collecting, analyzing, and presenting data from laboratory investigations. • Collecting data from outside sources. • Using data to support an argument or conclusion. • Analyzing and interpreting the validity of outside data and arguments.
Topics of study
• Foundations of scientific inquiry: Laboratory safety, measurement, and investigation design • Why things float or sink: Investigating the science and math of density • Toxic water: The art and science of solving open-ended problems • Climate change: Earth’s atmosphere and human impacts • Chemical building blocks of life: DNA, genetics, and heritability • Life’s transformations: Evolution large and small
THE ORCHARD SCHOOL
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