Massachusetts Grade 8 science standards

8.MS-LS1-7 Use informational text to describe that food molecules, including carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, are broken down and rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support cell growth and/or release of energy.

Lessons: How Plants Make Food: Photosynthesis and Respiration (What happens to the food a plant makes?)

Practice: How Plants Make Food: Photosynthesis and Respiration workbook

8.MS-LS3-2 Construct an argument based on evidence for how asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation. Compare and contrast advantages and disadvantages of asexual and sexual reproduction.

Lessons: Genes and Traits: Heredity and Punnett Squares (Why do you look like your family, but not exactly?, How can two purple-flowered pea plants have a white-flowered one?, What did Mendel count?)

Practice: Genes and Traits: Heredity and Punnett Squares workbook

8.MS-LS4-5 Synthesize and communicate information about artificial selection, or the ways in which humans have changed the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.

Lessons: Natural Selection: How Living Things Change Over Time (How fast can people change a species?) (partly)

Practice: Natural Selection: How Living Things Change Over Time workbook

8.MS-PS1-2 Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.

Lessons: Kitchen Chemistry (Is it a new substance?, Can red cabbage tell acid from base?)

Practice: Kitchen Chemistry workbook

8.MS-PS1-4 Develop a model that describes and predicts changes in particle motion, relative spatial arrangement, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed.

Lessons: Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move (Why do bike tires go soft in winter?, Why does food colouring spread faster in hot water?, How does a thermometer know?) (partly)

Practice: Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move workbook

8.MS-PS2-1 Develop a model that demonstrates Newton’s third law involving the motion of two colliding objects.

Lessons: Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop (Why does a heavier cart hit harder?, Can you design a crumple zone?)

Practice: Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop workbook

8.MS-PS2-2 Provide evidence that the change in an object’s speed depends on the sum of the forces on the object (the net force) and the mass of the object.

Lessons: Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop (Why do you lurch forward when a bus stops?, Why does a heavier cart hit harder?)

Practice: Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop workbook