Assessment Anchors
S8.B.1: Structure and Function of Organisms
S8.B.1.1: Describe and compare structural and functional similarities and differences that characterize diverse living things.
S8.B.1.1.1: Describe the structures of living things that help them function effectively in specific ways (e.g., adaptations, characteristics).
S8.B.1.1.2: Compare similarities and differences in internal structures of organisms (e.g., invertebrate/vertebrate, vascular/nonvascular, single-celled/multi-celled) and external structures (e.g., appendages, body segments, type of covering, size, shape).
Dichotomous Keys
Paramecium Homeostasis
Pollination: Flower to Fruit
S8.B.1.1.3: Apply knowledge of characteristic structures to identify or categorize organisms (i.e., plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and protista).
S8.B.2: Continuity of Life
S8.B.2.1: Explain the basic concepts of natural selection.
S8.B.2.1.1: Explain how inherited structures or behaviors help organisms survive and reproduce in different environments.
S8.B.2.1.2: Explain how different adaptations in individuals of the same species may affect survivability or reproduction success.
Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Rainfall and Bird Beaks
S8.B.2.1.3: Explain that mutations can alter a gene and are the original source of new variations.
Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection
S8.B.2.1.4: Describe how selective breeding or biotechnology can change the genetic makeup of organisms.
Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection
S8.B.2.1.5: Explain that adaptations are developed over long periods of time and are passed from one generation to another.
Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection
S8.B.2.2: Explain how a set of genetic instructions determines inherited traits of organisms.
S8.B.2.2.1: Identify and explain differences between inherited and acquired traits.
S8.B.2.2.2: Recognize that the gene is the basic unit of inheritance, that there are dominant and recessive genes, and that traits are inherited.
Mouse Genetics (One Trait)
Mouse Genetics (Two Traits)
S8.B.3: Ecological Behavior and Systems
S8.B.3.1: Explain the relationships among and between organisms in different ecosystems and their abiotic and biotic components.
S8.B.3.1.1: Explain the flow of energy through an ecosystem (e.g., food chains, food webs).
Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem
S8.B.3.1.2: Identify major biomes and describe abiotic and biotic components (e.g., abiotic: different soil types, air, water sunlight; biotic: soil microbes, decomposers).
Coral Reefs 1 - Abiotic Factors
Pond Ecosystem
S8.B.3.1.3: Explain relationships among organisms (e.g., producers/consumers, predator/prey) in an ecosystem.
Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem
S8.B.3.2: Identify evidence of change to infer and explain the ways different variables may affect change in natural or human-made systems.
S8.B.3.2.1: Use evidence to explain factors that affect changes in populations (e.g., deforestation, disease, land use, natural disaster, invasive species).
S8.B.3.2.3: Describe the response of organisms to environmental changes (e.g., changes in climate, hibernation, migration, coloration) and how those changes affect survival.
S8.B.3.3: Explain how renewable and non-renewable resources provide for human needs or how these needs impact the environment.
S8.B.3.3.1: Explain how human activities may affect local, regional, and global environments.
Coral Reefs 1 - Abiotic Factors
Coral Reefs 2 - Biotic Factors
Pond Ecosystem
S8.C.1: Structure, Properties, and Interaction of Matter and Energy
S8.C.1.1: Explain concepts about the structure and properties (physical and chemical) of matter.
S8.C.1.1.2: Use characteristic physical or chemical properties to distinguish one substance from another (e.g., density, thermal expansion/contraction, freezing/melting points, streak test).
S8.C.1.1.3: Identify and describe reactants and products of simple chemical reactions.
S8.C.2: Forms, Sources, Conversion, and Transfer of Energy
S8.C.2.1: Describe energy sources, transfer of energy, or conversion of energy.
S8.C.2.1.1: Distinguish among forms of energy (e.g., electrical, mechanical, chemical, light, sound, nuclear) and sources of energy (i.e., renewable and nonrenewable energy)
Energy Conversion in a System
Energy of a Pendulum
Inclined Plane - Sliding Objects
Roller Coaster Physics
S8.C.2.1.2: Explain how energy is transferred from one place to another through convection, conduction, or radiation.
Conduction and Convection
Heat Absorption
Heat Transfer by Conduction
Herschel Experiment
Radiation
S8.C.2.1.3: Describe how one form of energy (e.g., electrical, mechanical, chemical, light, sound, nuclear) can be converted into a different form of energy.
Energy Conversion in a System
Energy of a Pendulum
Inclined Plane - Sliding Objects
Roller Coaster Physics
S8.C.3: Principles of Motion and Force
S8.C.3.1: Describe the effect of multiple forces on the movement, speed, or direction of an object.
S8.C.3.1.1: Describe forces acting on objects (e.g., friction, gravity, balanced versus unbalanced).
Free Fall Tower
Free-Fall Laboratory
S8.C.3.1.2: Distinguish between kinetic and potential energy.
Energy of a Pendulum
Inclined Plane - Sliding Objects
Roller Coaster Physics
Sled Wars
S8.C.3.1.3: Explain that mechanical advantage helps to do work (physics) by either changing a force or changing the direction of the applied force (e.g., simple machines, hydraulic systems).
S8.D.1: Earth Features and Processes that Change Earth and Its Resources
S8.D.1.1: Describe constructive and destructive natural processes that form different geologic structures and resources.
S8.D.1.1.1: Explain the rock cycle as changes in the solid earth and rock types found in Pennsylvania (igneous - granite, basalt, obsidian, pumice; sedimentary - limestone, sandstone, shale, coal; and metamorphic - slate, quartzite, marble, gneiss).
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.
S8.D.1.2: Describe the potential impact of human- made processes on changes to Earth's resources and how they affect everyday life.
S8.D.1.2.2: Describe potential impacts of human-made 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).
S8.D.1.3: Describe characteristic features of Earth's water systems or their impact on resources.
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).
S8.D.2: Weather, Climate, and Atmospheric Processes
S8.D.2.1: Explain how pressure, temperature, moisture, and wind are used to describe atmospheric conditions that affect regional weather or climate.
S8.D.2.1.1: Explain the impact of water systems on the local weather or the climate of a region (e.g., lake effect snow, land/ocean breezes).
S8.D.2.1.3: Identify how cloud types, wind directions, and barometric pressure changes are associated with weather patterns in different regions of the country.
S8.D.3: Composition and Structure of the Universe
S8.D.3.1: Explain the relationships between and among the objects of our solar system.
S8.D.3.1.1: Describe patterns of earth's movements (i.e., rotation and revolution) in relation to the moon and sun (i.e., phases, eclipses, and tides)
2D Eclipse
3D Eclipse
Moonrise, Moonset, and Phases
Seasons: Earth, Moon, and Sun
Tides
S8.D.3.1.2: Describe the role of gravity as the force that governs the movement of the solar system and universe.
S8.D.3.1.3: Compare and contrast characteristics of celestial bodies found in the solar system (e.g., moons, asteroids, comets, meteors, inner and outer planets).
Correlation last revised: 5/23/2018