Grade 08 Science - EC: S8.A.1.3.3
Grade 08 Science - EC: S8.A.1.3.3
Continuum of Activities
The list below represents a continuum of activities: resources categorized by Standard/Eligible Content that teachers may use to move students toward proficiency. Using LEA curriculum and available materials and resources, teachers can customize the activity statements/questions for classroom use.
This continuum of activities offers:
- Instructional activities designed to be integrated into planned lessons
- Questions/activities that grow in complexity
- Opportunities for differentiation for each student’s level of performance
Grade Levels
8th Grade
Course, Subject
Science
Related Academic Standards / Eligible Content
Activities
- Define system.
- An example of a system is
- The circuit
- Amoeba
- Respiratory system
- All of the above
- Describe a river system’s components, boundaries, inputs and outputs. Explain what can cause a river to change over time.
- Explain how deforestation disrupts the carbon cycle.
- Beavers change their habitat by cutting down trees and building dams in streams. What could happen to the ecosystem if the beaver population grew too big?
Answer Key/Rubric
- A system is an organized group of related parts that form a whole, working together to perform one or more functions.
- D
- A river, which is bound by its banks, is made up of any number of streams and other rivers which are fed by melting snow, rain, springs, and other water sources. Its output is energy and water vapor. The amount of water in a river can cause it to change its course by eroding the river’s banks. Rocks, silt, and earth can be deposited on the bottom of the river if the water is not moving fast enough which can cause flooding during a heavy runoff.
- Answers may include, but are not limited to:
Deforestation has an effect on the carbon cycle because it decreases the amount of plants and trees that take in the earth’s carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. Trees and plants balance the amount of carbon in the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis in which plants make their own food with carbon dioxide. With fewer plants and trees available to recycle carbon dioxide, the Earth is experiencing global warming.
- Answers may include, but are not limited to:
Too many trees could be cut down by the beavers which could impact the sustainability of the forest and decrease the habitat needed by birds, squirrels, and other tree dwellers. They could also block a stream from flowing by using these trees to build dams. Organisms that rely on the water provided by the stream would either die or move away.
