Grade 8 Science North Carolina standards Standards

Earth and Human Activity

Earth’s Systems

Earth’s Place in the Universe

Biological Evolution- Unity and Diversity

Ecosystems- Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

From Molecules to Organisms- Structures and Processes

Matter and its Interactions

Understand the history of Earth and its life forms based on evidence of change recorded in fossil records and landforms.

Understand the hydrosphere including freshwater, estuarine, ocean systems.

Use models to explain the structure of the hydrosphere including: water distribution on earth, local river basins, estuaries, and water availability.

Analyze and interpret data to conclude the relative age of Earth and relative age of rocks and fossils from index fossils and ordering of rock layers.

Use models to explain how temperature and salinity drive major ocean currents and how these currents impact climate, ecosystems, and the distribution of nutrients, minerals, dissolved gases, and life forms.

Engage in argument from evidence to explain the use of fossils, composition of sedimentary rocks, faults, and igneous rock formations found in rock layers as evidence of the history of the Earth and its life forms.

Understand the reciprocal relationship between the hydrosphere and humans.

Analyze and interpret data to predict the safety and potability of water supplies in North Carolina based on physical and biological factors, including: temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, nitrates and phosphates, turbidity, and bio-indicators.

Engage in argument from evidence to explain that the good health of humans and the environment requires: monitoring of the hydrosphere, water quality standards, methods of water treatment, maintaining safe water quality, and stewardship.

Understand the environmental implications associated with the various methods of obtaining, managing, and using energy resources.

Construct an explanation to classify the primary sources of energy as either renewable (Geothermal, Biomass, Solar, Wind, Hydroelectric) or nonrenewable (Coal, Petroleum, Natural Gas, Nuclear).

Engage in argument from evidence to explain the environmental consequences of the various methods of obtaining, transforming, and distributing energy.

Analyze and interpret data to illustrate the relationship between human activities and global temperatures since industrialization.

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to compare the long term implications of the use of renewable and nonrenewable energy resources and the importance of stewardship and conservation.

Understand the hazards caused by agents of diseases that affect living organisms.

Construct an explanation to compare the basic characteristics of viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites relating to the spread, treatment and prevention of disease.

Analyze and interpret data to explain the difference between epidemic and pandemic as it relates to the spread, treatment and prevention of disease.

Use models to explain the process of natural selection, in which genetic variations in a population affect individuals’ likelihood of surviving and reproducing in its environment.

Understand how organisms interact with and respond to the biotic and abiotic factors in their environment.

Carry out investigations to explain how changing biotic and abiotic factors such as food, water, shelter, and space affect populations in an ecosystem.

Construct an explanation to summarize the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers including the positive and negative consequences of such interactions including: coexistence and cooperation, competition (predator/prey), parasitism, and mutualism.

Construct an explanation to summarize how food provides the energy and the building materials required for the growth and survival of all organisms (to include plants).

Use models to explain how the flow of energy within food webs is interconnected with the cycling of matter (water and carbon).

Analyze and interpret data to infer evolutionary relationships by using evidence drawn from fossils and comparative anatomy.

Understand the evolution of organisms over time based on evidence and processes.

Understand the properties of matter and changes that occur when matter interacts in open and closed systems.

Construct an explanation to classify matter as elements, compounds, or mixtures based on how the atoms are arranged in various substances.

Use models to illustrate the structure of atoms in terms of the protons, electrons, and neutrons (using the location, charges and comparative size of these subatomic particles), without consideration of isotopes, ions, and energy levels.

Analyze and interpret data to explain how the physical properties of elements and their reactivity have been used to produce the current model of the Periodic Table of Elements.

Construct an explanation to classify changes in matter as physical changes (including changes in size, shape, and state) or chemical changes that are the result of a chemical reaction (including changes in energy, color, formation of a gas or precipitate).

Use models to illustrate how atoms are rearranged during a chemical reaction so that balanced chemical equations support the Law of Conservation of Mass (in both open and closed systems).

Safety, Law, & Ethics

Social Interactions

Culture

Impacts of Computing

Program Development

Modularity

Control

Variables

Algorithms

Algorithms & Programming

Inference & Models

Collection, Visualization, & Transformation

Storage

Data & Analysis

Cybersecurity

Network Communication & Organization

Networks & The Internet

Troubleshooting

Hardware & Software

Devices

Computing Systems

Implement flowcharts and/or pseudocode to address complex problems as algorithms.

Create clearly named variables that represent different data types.

Design and iteratively develop programs that combine control structures including nested loops and compound conditionals.

Construct programs that include events.

Organize problems and subproblems into parts.

Explain the design, implementation, and review of programs.

Create procedures with parameters to organize code and make it easier to reuse groups of instructions.

Assess feedback from team members and users to refine a solution that meets user needs.

Incorporate existing code and media into original programs and give attribution.

Systematically test and refine programs using a range of test cases.

Distribute tasks and maintain a project timeline when collaboratively developing computational artifacts.

Document programs in order to make them easier to follow, test, and debug.

Understand the design of computing devices based on an analysis of how users interact with the devices.

Design projects that combine hardware and software components to collect and exchange data.

Systematically identify and fix problems with computing devices and components.

Represent data using multiple encoding schemes.

Collect data using computational tools.

Transform the collected data to make it more useful and reliable.

Refine computational models based on the data they have generated and/or data collected.

Compare tradeoffs associated with computing technologies that affect everyday activities and career options.

Describe how equity, access, and influence impact the distribution of computing resources in a global society.

Discuss issues of bias and accessibility in the design of existing technologies

Collaborate, model, and promote effective research strategies for assessing and evaluating innovative resources.

Collaborate with many contributors to create a computational artifact.

Utilize tools and methods for collaboration on a project to increase connectivity of peers.

Examine the benefits and drawbacks of a digital footprint and online identity.

Understand how online interactions make an impact on the social, emotional, and physical aspect of others.

Compare tradeoffs between allowing information to be public and keeping information private and secure.

Explore how laws and regulations impact the development and use of software.

Analyze different ways that data is transferred across a network and the role of protocols in transmitting data.

Explain how physical and digital security measures protect electronic information.

Explain permission and authorizations to access resources to computer systems online.

Apply multiple methods of encryption to model the secure transmission of information.