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Subject Area - 4:
Environment and Ecology
  • Standard Area - 4.5: Humans and the Environment
  • Grade Level - 4.5.8:

    GRADE 8

Standard - 4.5.8.C

Describe how humans can reduce pollution.

Eligible Content:
7 Total
Assessments
Materials & Resources
  • Assessment Anchor - BIO.B.4

    Ecology
    • Anchor Descriptor - BIO.B.4.1

      Describe ecological levels of organization in the biosphere.
      • Eligible Content - BIO.B.4.1.1 Describe the levels of ecological organization (i.e., organism, population, community, ecosystem, biome, biosphere).
      • Eligible Content - BIO.B.4.1.2 Describe characteristic biotic and abiotic components of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
    • Anchor Descriptor - BIO.B.4.2

      Describe interactions and relationships in an ecosystem.
      • Eligible Content - BIO.B.4.2.1 Describe how energy flows through an ecosystem (e.g., food chains, food webs, energy pyramids).
      • Eligible Content - BIO.B.4.2.2 Describe biotic interactions in an ecosystem (e.g., competition, predation, symbiosis).
      • Eligible Content - BIO.B.4.2.3 Describe how matter recycles through an ecosystem (i.e., water cycle, carbon cycle, oxygen cycle, nitrogen cycle).
      • Eligible Content - BIO.B.4.2.4 Describe how ecosystems change in response to natural and human disturbances (e.g., climate changes, introduction of nonnative species, pollution, fires).
      • Eligible Content - BIO.B.4.2.5 Describe the effects of limiting factors on population dynamics and potential species extinction.
  • Assessment Anchor - S8.A.1

    Reasoning and Analysis
    • Anchor Descriptor - S8.A.1.1 Explain, interpret, and apply scientific, environmental, or technological knowledge presented in a variety of formats (e.g., visuals, scenarios, graphs).
      • Eligible Content - S8.A.1.1.1 Distinguish between a scientific theory and an opinion, explaining how a theory is supported with evidence, or how new data/information may change existing theories and practices.
      • Eligible Content - S8.A.1.1.2 Explain how certain questions can be answered through scientific inquiry and/or technological design.
      • Eligible Content - S8.A.1.1.3 Use evidence, such as observations or experimental results, to support inferences about a relationship.
      • Eligible Content - S8.A.1.1.4 Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
    • Anchor Descriptor - S8.A.1.2 Identify and explain the impacts of applying scientific, environmental, or technological knowledge to address solutions to practical problems.
      • Eligible Content - S8.A.1.2.1 Describe the positive and negative, intended and unintended, effects of specific scientific results or technological developments (e.g., air/space travel, genetic engineering, nuclear fission/fusion, artificial intelligence, lasers, organ transplants).
      • Eligible Content - S8.A.1.2.2 Identify environmental issues and explain their potential long-term health effects (e.g., pollution, pest controls, vaccinations).
      • Eligible Content - S8.A.1.2.3 Describe fundamental scientific or technological concepts that could solve practical problems (e.g., Newton’s laws of motion, Mendelian genetics).
      • Eligible Content - S8.A.1.2.4 Explain society’s standard of living in terms of technological advancements and how these advancements impact on agriculture (e.g., transportation, processing, production, storage).
    • Anchor Descriptor - S8.A.1.3 Identify and analyze evidence that certain variables may have caused measurable changes in natural or human-made systems.
      • Eligible Content - S8.A.1.3.1 Use ratio to describe change (e.g., percents, parts per million, grams per cubic centimeter, mechanical advantage).
      • Eligible Content - S8.A.1.3.2 Use evidence, observations, or explanations to make inferences about change in systems over time (e.g., carrying capacity, succession, population dynamics, loss of mass in chemical reactions, indicator fossils in geologic time scale) and the variables affecting these changes.
        • Alternate Eligible Content - S8.A.1.3.2a Identify the results of a specific change to a stable system (e.g., food webs, biological systems, electrical systems).
          Alternate Eligible Content is designed for students assessed using the PA Alternate System of Assessment (PASA). Essentialized Example resources assist teachers in designing instruction that reduces content complexity while maintaining alignment to academic standards.
      • Eligible Content - S8.A.1.3.3 Examine systems changing over time, identifying the possible variables causing this change, and drawing inferences about how these variables affect this change.
      • Eligible Content - S8.A.1.3.4 Given a scenario, explain how a dynamically changing environment provides for the sustainability of living systems.
  • Assessment Anchor - S8.D.1

    Earth Features and Processes that Change Earth and Its Resources
    • Anchor Descriptor - S8.D.1.1 Describe constructive and destructive natural processes that form different geologic structures and resources.
      • Eligible Content - S8.D.1.1.1 Explain the rock cycle as changes in the solid earth and rock types (igneous – granite, basalt, obsidian, pumice; sedimentary – limestone, sandstone, shale, coal; and metamorphic – slate, quartzite, marble, gneiss).
        Assessments
        Continuum of Activities
      • Eligible Content - S8.D.1.1.2 Describe natural processes that change Earth’s surface (e.g., landslides, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, mountain building, new land being formed, weathering, erosion, sedimentation, soil formation).
        • Alternate Eligible Content - S8.D.1.1.2a Identify natural processes that changed the Earth's surgace (e.g., landslides, earthquakes, weathering.)
          Alternate Eligible Content is designed for students assessed using the PA Alternate System of Assessment (PASA). Essentialized Example resources assist teachers in designing instruction that reduces content complexity while maintaining alignment to academic standards.
      • Eligible Content - S8.D.1.1.3 Identify soil types (i.e., humus, topsoil, subsoil, loam, loess, and parent material) and their characteristics (i.e., particle size, porosity, and permeability) found in different biomes and in Pennsylvania, and explain how they formed.
        Assessments
        Continuum of Activities
      • Eligible Content - S8.D.1.1.4 Explain how fossils provide evidence about plants and animals that once lived throughout Pennsylvania’s history (e.g., fossils provide evidence of different environments).
        Assessments
        Continuum of Activities
    • Anchor Descriptor - S8.D.1.2 Describe the potential impact of humanmade processes on changes to Earth’s resources and how they affect everyday life.
      • Eligible Content - S8.D.1.2.1 Describe a product’s transformation process from production to consumption (e.g., prospecting, propagating, growing, maintaining, adapting, treating, converting, distributing, disposing) and explain the process’s potential impact on Earth’s resources.
        • Alternate Eligible Content - S8.D.1.2.1a Identify products that are made from different renewable or non-renewable sources (e.g., lumber from trees, cans from metal, gasoline from oil.)
          Alternate Eligible Content is designed for students assessed using the PA Alternate System of Assessment (PASA). Essentialized Example resources assist teachers in designing instruction that reduces content complexity while maintaining alignment to academic standards.
      • Eligible Content - S8.D.1.2.2 Describe potential impacts of humanmade processes (e.g., manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, mining) on Earth’s resources, both nonliving (i.e., air, water, or earth materials) and living (i.e., plants and animals).
    • Anchor Descriptor - S8.D.1.3 Describe characteristic features of Earth’s water systems or their impact on resources.
      • Eligible Content - S8.D.1.3.1 Describe the water cycle and the physical processes on which it depends (i.e., evaporation, condensation, precipitation, transpiration, runoff, infiltration, energy inputs, and phase changes).
        Assessments
        Continuum of Activities
        • Alternate Eligible Content - S8.D.1.3.1a Recognize processes in the water cycle (limited to evaporation, condensation, precipitation, transpiration, runoff, and infiltration.)
          Alternate Eligible Content is designed for students assessed using the PA Alternate System of Assessment (PASA). Essentialized Example resources assist teachers in designing instruction that reduces content complexity while maintaining alignment to academic standards.
      • Eligible Content - S8.D.1.3.2 Compare and contrast characteristics of freshwater and saltwater systems on the basis of their physical characteristics (i.e., composition, density, and electrical conductivity) and their use as natural resources.
      • Eligible Content - S8.D.1.3.3 Distinguish among different water systems (e.g., wetland systems, ocean systems, river systems, watersheds) and describe their relationships to each other as well as to landforms.
      • Eligible Content - S8.D.1.3.4 Identify the physical characteristics of a stream and how these characteristics determine the types of organisms found within the stream environment (e.g., biological diversity, water quality, flow rate, tributaries, surrounding watershed).
        Assessments
        Continuum of Activities
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