Phenomena, standards, and progressions

Grade 8

The Amplify Science units can be arranged at the discretion of the individual school, but suggested sequences are available. The grade 8 program in the suggested sequence below progressively builds students’ abilities to meet all the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) grade-level performance expectations through a three-dimensional instructional sequence. The following is an overview of the sample sequence of units, a description of the progression of student learning across the year, and a summary of how the sequence meets all NGSS performance expectations for grade 8.

Scroll down to see the phenomenon, student role, and performance expectations by unit, or click to jump to the Progression and Organization, Disciplinary Core Ideas, Crosscutting Concepts Core Ideas, or Science and Engineering Practices.

Sequence of units

  • Harnessing Human Energy
  • Force and Motion
  • Force and Motion Engineering Internship
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Light Waves
  • Earth, Moon, and Sun
  • Natural Selection
  • Natural Selection Engineering Internship
  • Evolutionary History

 

Harnessing Human Energy

Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
In their role as energy scientists, students learn about energy transfer and conversion as they design a system to power the electronic devices of rescue workers.
  • PS3-1: Kinetic Energy: Mass and Speed
  • PS3-2: Potential energy
  • PS3-5: Motion and Energy Transfer
  • ESS3-1: Distribution of Natural Resources
  • ETS1-1: Criteria and Constraints

Force and Motion

The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
As student physicists at the fictional Universal Space Agency, students must analyze what went wrong in a space station docking failure. To do so, they need to apply what they learn about forces, changes in motion, and collisions.
  • PS2-1: Newton's 3rd Law (Equal and Opposite Forces)
  • PS2-2: Sum of Forces
  • PS3-1: Kinetic Energy: Mass and Speed

Force and Motion Engineering Internship

Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
As mechanical engineering interns, students apply ideas about force and motion, as well as engineering and design concepts, to design supply pods to be dropped in disaster areas.
  • ETS1-1: Criteria and Constraints
  • ETS1-2: Evaluating Solutions
  • ETS1-3: Analyzing Results
  • ETS1-4: Modeling and Iterative Testing
  • PS2-1: Newton's 3rd Law (Equal and Opposite Forces)
  • PS2-2: Sum of Forces
  • ETS1-3: Analyzing Results
  • PS2-4: Gravity Depends on Mass

Magnetic Fields

During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
In their role as student physicists, students must analyze why the new magnet-driven space jet launcher is not working as expected. They apply ideas about non-touching forces and potential energy.
  • PS2-3: Strength of Magnetic and Electric Forces
  • PS2-4: Gravity Depends on Mass
  • PS2-5: Force Fields
  • PS3-2: Potential energy
  • PS3-1: Kinetic Energy: Mass and Speed
  • PS3-5: Motion and Energy Transfer

Light Waves

The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
In their role as spectroscopists, students learn about light waves and how they interact with matter, and apply this knowledge to investigate Australia’s elevated skin cancer rate.
  • PS4-1: Amplitude and Waves
  • PS4-2: Waves Interact with Materials
  • PS4-3: Digitized Signals and Waves
  • LS1-1: Living Things Made of Cells
  • LS1-2: Cell Parts
  • LS1-6: Photosynthesis
  • LS1-8: Sensory Receptors
  • ESS3-5: Factors for Global Temperature

Earth, Moon, and Sun

An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Students play the role of student astronomers who must learn about the Earth, Moon, Sun system, including phases and eclipses, in order to advise an astrophotographer who is photographing Moon features.
  • ESS1-1: Earth, Sun, Moon System
  • ESS1-2: Gravity
  • ESS1-3: Scale in the Solar System
  • PS2-4: Gravity Depends on Mass

Natural Selection

The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
In the role of biologists, students investigate how a population of rough-skinned newts in Oregon State Park become incredibly poisonous. They learn about variation, adaptation, and the mechanism of natural selection.
  • LS3-1: Gene, Protein, Trait, and Mutations
  • LS4-4: Genetic Variation in Populations
  • LS4-6: Natural Selection
  • LS2-4: Changes Affect Populations
  • LS4-5: Artificial Selection and Genetic Engineering

Natural Selection Engineering Internship

Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
As biomedical engineering interns, students apply what they have learned about natural selection as well as engineering and design concepts to develop, test, and refine treatments for drug-resistant malaria.
  • ETS1-1: Criteria and Constraints
  • ETS1-2: Evaluating Solutions
  • ETS1-3: Analyzing Results
  • ETS1-4: Modeling and Iterative Testing
  • LS3-1: Gene, Protein, Trait, and Mutations
  • LS4-4: Genetic Variation in Populations
  • LS4-6: Natural Selection

Evolutionary History

A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
In the role of paleontologists, students investigate a fossil recently excavated in Egypt that could be more closely related to whales or to wolves. They learn how the fossil record helps provide evidence for evolutionary relationships.
  • LS4-1: Fossils
  • LS4-2: Comparative Anatomy
  • LS4-3: Embryonic Development
  • LS4-6: Natural Selection

Progression and organization

The units in grade 8 are designed and sequenced to build students’ expertise with the grade- level disciplinary core ideas (DCIs), science and engineering practices (SEPs) and crosscutting concepts (CCCs). The year begins with a launch unit, Harnessing Human Energy, in which students are introduced to essential practices, routines, and approaches that will serve as touchstones for learning in all units that follow. An important example of this is Arguing from Evidence. Students are introduced to the practice of scientific argumentation in the launch unit, then build on this understanding throughout the year, with each unit focusing more in-depth on one aspect of the practice. The Harnessing Human Energy unit also has an emphasis on the CCC of Energy and Matter which students investigate in more depth throughout the Force and Motion, Magnetic Fields, and Light Waves units.

Concepts and practices are connected across grade 8. For example, in the Natural Selection unit, students discover the mechanisms of Natural Selection, drawing upon concepts about reproduction and ecosystems from earlier grades. Students then apply their understanding to make sense of drug resistance in the Natural Selection Engineering Internship unit, and to make sense of speciation and other long-term evolutionary changes in the Evolutionary History unit. Throughout the year, students use the CCC of Cause and Effect in a variety of contexts. The Force and Motion Engineering Internship unit follows the Force and Motion unit and requires students to apply what they learned in the Force and Motion unit to design a solution to an engineering problem.

Each unit has particular emphasis on certain DCIs, CCC’s, and SEP’s, with combinations that are appropriate for the anchor phenomena of each unit. For example, in the Magnetic Fields unit, investigating a surprising result from the testing of a magnetic spacecraft launcher leads students to discoveries about Types of Interactions (DCI PS2.B), including magnetic forces; Definitions of Energy (DCI PS3.A); and Relationship Between Energy and Forces (PS3.C). The unit has a particular emphasis on the CCC of Systems and System Models, helping students think about systems of objects in a field. It includes a focus on Planning and Carrying Out Investigations— some of the most appropriate concepts in middle school to figure out via experiments.

Unit abbreviations: Harnessing Human Energy (HHE), Force and Motion (FAM), Force and Motion Engineering Internship (FAM EI), Magnetic Fields (MF), Light Waves (LW), Earth, Moon, and Sun (EMS), Natural Selection (NS), Natural Selection Engineering Internship (NS EI), Evolutionary History (EH).

Disciplinary core ideas

Focal   Other Emphasized

HHE FAM FAM EI MF LW EMS NS NS EI EH
LS3.A: Inheritance of Traits (MS-LS3-1)
LS3.B: Variation of Traits (MS-LS3-1)
LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity (MS-LS4-1, MS-LS4-2, MS-LS4-3)
LS4.B: Natural Selection (MS-LS4-4, MS-LS4-5)
LS4.C: Adaptation (MS-LS4-6)
ESS1.A: The Universe and Its Stars (MS-ESS1-1, MS-ESS1-2)
ESS1.B: Earth and the Solar System (MS-ESS1-1, MS-ESS1-2, MS-ESS1-3)
ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth (MS-ESS1-4)
ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems (MS-ESS3-4)
PS2.A: Forces and Motion (MS-PS2-1, MS-PS2-2)
PS2.B: Types of Interactions (MS-PS2-3, MS-PS2-4, MS-PS2-5)
PS3.A: Definitions of Energy (MS-PS3-1, MS-PS3-2)
PS3.C: Relationship Between Energy and Forces (MS-PS3-2)
PS4.A: Wave Properties (MS-PS4-1, MS-PS4-2)
PS4.B: Electromagnetic Radiation (MS-PS4-2)
PS4.C: Information Technologies and Instrumentation (MS-PS4-3)
MS-ETS1-1 Define the criteria and constraints (ETS1.A)
MS-ETS1-2Evaluate competing design solutions (ETS1.B)
MS-ETS1-3Analyze data from tests (ETS1.B, ETS1.C
MS-ETS1-4Iterative testing (ETS1.B, ETS1.C)

Crosscutting concepts

Focal   Other Emphasized   Additional

HHE FAM FAM EI MF LW EMS NS NS EI EH
Patterns
Cause and Effect
Scale, Proportion, and Quantity
Systems and System Models
Energy and Matter
Stability and Change
Structure and Function

Science and engineering practices

Focal   Other Emphasized   Additional

  HHE FAM FAM EI MF LW EMS NS NS EI EH
Asking Questions and Defining Problems
Developing and Using Models    
Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
Analyzing and Interpreting Data  
Using and Mathematics and Computational Thinking
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Engaging in Argument from Evidence
Obtaining, Evaluating and Communicating Information