Grade 08 Science - EC: S8.A.2.1.5
Grade 08 Science - EC: S8.A.2.1.5
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
- A conclusion is
- A prediction what is likely to happen in an experiment.
- An explanation of the processes and results of an experiment.
- An assumption based on research.
- A visual model used to explain data gathered in an experiment.
- Which are of the scientific method uses data to explain the results of the experiment?
- Hypothesis
- Question
- Procedure
- Conclusion
- Your teacher asks you to water the two classroom plants. The plants are identical in type and size. They are also being grown in matching pots in the same kind and amount of soil. You give each plant 2 cups of water. No water comes out of the bottom of plant number two’s pot, but a half of cup comes out of the bottom of plant number one’s pot. What do you conclude from watering the plants? Explain your answer.
- Errors and uncertainties in experiments should be accounted in a conclusion. Give two examples of possible errors or uncertainties that could occur in an experiment that involves training a rat to run a maze.
- Nick lived in town near several restaurants and stores. He started to notice a lot of litter in the park where he and his friends played football. He hypothesized that most of the litter would be from the local fast food restaurants like Wendy’s, McDonald’s and Burger King. On Saturday, Nick and his friends participated in a park clean-up day. With their help he recorded the different types of litter that was collected. Write a comprehensive conclusion using the data supplied in the chart below to either approve or disapprove Nick’s hypothesis. Include at least one possible error or uncertainty and one improvement that could be made to the experiment.
Answer Key/Rubric
- B
- D
- Acceptable responses might include, but not be limited to:
Plant number two absorbed more water than plant number one. Each plant was given two cups of water but only plant number two had any water drain into the bottom of its pot. Plant number one absorbed all two cups of water while plant number two only absorbed 75% or 1.5 cups of water. - Acceptable responses might include, but not be limited to:
- The rat falls asleep in the middle of the maze.
- The rat refuses to move beyond the entrance of the maze or refused to leave the maze.
- The rat climbs over the walls and out of the maze.
- The noise in the classroom distracted the rat.
- The rat appeared to not like the food offered as a reward at the end of maze.
- Acceptable responses might include, but not be limited to:
Based on the types of litter collected and reported during the park clean-up day, the largest percentage of litter found in the park came from the near-by fast food restaurants. The data supports the hypothesis with 30% of the collected litter being fast food waste. However aluminum can waste was 25% of the total litter collected which is a difference of only 5%. The other sources of litter were glass and plastic containers at 15% each, snack food packaging at 13%, and other at 2%. It should be noted some of the participants in the park clean-up reported that they occasionally got sidetracked and forgot to record some of the litter they picked up. Therefore it is possible that some of the percentages may be understated. Instead of attempting to record all of the pieces of litter found in the entire park the experiment could be changed to collecting and recording litter in certain sections. For example, collecting litter in equal sized areas in the different sections of the park like near the playfield, by the creek, next to the benches, etc. These smaller sample sized might provide a more accurate picture of the types and amounts of litter found in the park.
