• Welcome to Mr. McClelland's 8th grade Science Class website, feel welcome to look around. If you are one of my current students and are looking for our class website Click Google site and check out our Calendar.
     

    Topics to be covered during the year that follow National, State and District standards:

    Physical Science

                 Variables

    1.       What are key elements that make a well designed experiment?

    2.       What are some key ways that a scientific graph can be analyzed?

    3.       What different tools and how does one use those tools to accurately collect measurements?

     

                  Energy

    1.        What are the major forms of energy?

    2.        What factors does the kinetic energy of an object depend on?

    3.        What is the difference between kinetic and potential energy?

    4.        Describe specific esxamples of energy being converted from one form to another?

    5.        What is the law of conservation of energy and how can it be applied to everyday life?

    6.        What are three modes of heat transfer?

     

                 Forces and Motion

    1.        How does acceleration differ from speed?

    2.       How can an object’s motion or change in motion be explained using Newton’s Laws of Motion?

    3.       How can the motion of an object be represented on a graph (speed/acceleration)?

    4.       Can the balanced and unbalanced forced of an object be diagramed?

    5.       What are common forces that can affect an object’s motion?

    6.       How are mass and weight different?

     

    Astronomy

    1.        What objects make up our solar system?

    2.        What force governs the movement of objects in our solar system?

    3.        What role does gravity play in the universe?

    4.        What are the characteristics of celestial bodies in our solar system?

    5.        What are solar and lunar eclipses?

    6.        Why does the moon have different phases?

     

    Geology

    1.        What is a mineral?

    2.        What properties are used to identify minerals?

    3.        What is a rock?

    4.        What are the types of rocks?

    5.        What is the rock cycle?

    6.        What are the main rock types found in Pennsylvania?

    7.        What causes the plates to move?

    8.        What are the layers of the earth and how do we know?

    9.        What happens when plates interact?

    10.     What are the various mechanisms of erosion?

    11.     How is soil identified? 

    12.     How are fossils and rock records used to support the theory of plate tectonics?

    13.     How does fossil evidence in the state of Pennsylvania help describe the geologic past of our state?

     

     

     

     Ecology

    1.        What is an organism?

    2.        How does the structure of organisms help them function?

    3.        How do organisms adapt over time?

    4.        How does energy flow through an ecosystem?

    5.        What are the biotic and abiotic factors that characterize a biome?

    6.        How do the organisms in an ecosystem interact?

    7.        What factors impact changes in populations?

    8.        How do organisms adapt to a changing environment?

    9.        How do organisms respond to environmental changes and how do those changes affect survival?