Eighth Grade Science Assignments - approximately 15% - 20% of your overall score.

I will try to grade the assignments on effort, quality and correctness. The more knowledge you display the more points you will earn. Use multiple examples and explain everything.  Use numbers/data to support what you are saying, when appropriate. 

Please ask me to look it over if you are unsure if you are doing something correctly.

Keep this in a separate notebook to be handed in periodically. 

Start a new assignment on a new page.  

Put your name on the cover in ink or permanent marker. 

Points are removed for not having margins, capital letters, correct punctuation, a last name, late and for being incomplete. Points are added if something is done better than expected. 

1.  

• Write a personal goal (Example = Shoot a deer with the bow, gain one friend this school year, make cheerleading, etc.). Be appropriate.  Approximant length = One sentence. 
• Write an educational goal (Example = To make High Honors on the Honor Roll, pass all of my classes with at least a “C,” etc.) Approximant length = One sentence. 

2.

• Draw the metric devises used for measuring length, liquid volume, mass and temperature. Label each metric device. (Example = This is a picture of a graduated cylinder.) Give the units of measure in a sentence. (Example = A graduated cylinder measures liquid volume in ml.) 

3. 

• Define density.
• Fully explain and illustrate how you could get a square chunk of aluminum to sink and then use the same chunk of aluminum to make a boat that floats. Aluminum has a density of 2.3 g/ml and water is 1.0 g/ml. Use numbers in your writing. Approximant writing length = One half page 

4.

• Draw how water boils at different elevations. 
• Use the towns of Boston, Eden and Denver in your drawing.  
• Include the different air density.

5.  

• Fully explain your drawing of how water boils at different elevations. 
• Use numbers/data in your writing. Approximant writing length = One half page.

6.

• Draw how water expands and contracts with temperature changes.
• Fully explain your drawings illustrating how water expands and contracts with temperature changes. 
• Fully explain the problems with water pipes in the wintertime, boat drains, heaving of roads, splitting of rocks, etc. Approximant writing length = one page 

7.

• Define heat and temperature. 
• Draw examples of heat and temperature. 
• Fully explain your drawing illustrating the difference between heat and temperature. Include Lake Michigan and icebergs in your example. 
• Use numbers in your writing. Approximant writing length = one page. 

8.

• Define expansion and contraction.
• Draw examples of expansion and contraction of metal.
• Fully explain your drawing illustrating expansion and contraction of metal. Examples that you could use are power lines and bridges. Include in your explanation how molecules expand and contract with heat changes. Approximant writing length = one half page. 

9.

• Define each of the three types of solution.
• Draw examples of them.
• Fully explain your drawings illustrating what a solution, saturated solution and a supersaturated solution are. Give examples of each solution. Approximant writing length = 3/4 of a page (three solid paragraphs.)

10.

• Define each state of matter, and then draw examples of them. 
• Fully explain each of your drawing illustrating what a solid, liquid and gas are like at the atomic level. Please include the following: speed of the atoms, spaces between the atoms and flow. Basically, you are explaining the thing I demonstrated on the overhead projector and the that were shaken. Approximant writing length = 3/4 of a page (three solid paragraphs.) Draw and label a model of the first twenty elements and then do the same for Radon. 
• Show electrons, neutrons and protons in their proper amount. 

12.

• Draw examples of saw dust, toothpicks and a 2x4 board being chemically reacted with a flame and oxygen.
• Fully explain how each particle size effects chemical reaction rates. (Small things have a faster reaction rate when compared to larger material made of the same substance because of a larger surface area.) 
• Use the words “surface area” in your explanation. Approximant writing length = 1/2 page 

13.

• Draw four clues that something is dissolving. 
• Fully explain your drawing illustrating four clues to a chemical reaction/dissolving.  
• Fully explain how this is different than melting, a physical process. Approximant writing length = 3/4 of a page.

14.

•  Define acid and base.
• Give an example of each of them. 
• Make a drawing illustrating how the pH scales strengths for acids and bases.
• Fully explain how the pH strengths. (Each number increases/decreases by a factor of ten.) Approximant writing length = one page 

15.

• Solve for the products. 
• Draw a model of the following compounds products (after the yields sign). Include a key for your models (ex. A square to represent hydrogen, a circle for oxygen, a triangle for Nitrogen, star for Carbon, and a heart for Beryllium). 
• Label the reactant(s), yields sign and the product(s).

H⁺¹        +    O^-2

                                                Be⁺²    +    N^-3 

                                                Be⁺²    +    C⁴  

                                                Be⁺²    +    O^-2  

16.

• Define series circuit. 

• Draw a series circuit with a 6-volt DC battery, a fuse and a switch that will turn off a motor and light bulb at the same time, and a fuse. 

• Fully explain the schematic from where an electron starts and keep on explaining until it finishes. Use the words, “The electrons leave the negative side of the battery.” Approximant writing length =  1/2 to 3/4 of a page. 

17.

• Define parallel circuit. 

• Draw a parallel circuit with a 6-volt DC battery, one motor, three light bulbs, a fuse and switches that will turn off the motor and light bulbs independently of each other. 

• Fully explain the schematic from where an electron starts and keep on explaining until it finishes. Use the words, “The electrons leave the negative side of the battery. Explain each branch. Approximant writing length = 1/2 to 3/4 of a page 

18.

• Draw a truck with a trailer."4" Draw a 12vdc battery, a switch for the light bulb, a light bulb on the back of the trailer, a switch for a horn and a horn under the hood of the truck. 

• Connect wires using a chassis ground for a return (+) wire. 

• Fully explain how this chassis ground works.

19.

• By yourself, draw your electric motor you made in class and label the following items on your drawing: Permanent Magnet, Electromagnet, DC Battery, Insulator on half of one wire lead, and a conductor on the other half of brush.
• By yourself, fully explain what is going on in the picture using the following vocabulary words: Attraction, Repulsion, Magnetic field, Dropping the magnetic field, and Electrical Contact Brushes/Leads. 
• Short example: "I turned on the switch to let electrons flow through the series circuit and gave the coil of wire a nudge. When both bare wire leads/brushes made electrical contact the coil of wire made a magnetic field. The magnetic fields from the permanent and electromagnet repelled each other with enough force to spin the coil of wire to the upright position. At that point it lost electrical contact, dropped the magnetic field that caused the wire coil to coast until it made contact again. This happened over and over again."

20.

•  Define the Law of Falling Objects. 

• Draw an example. Fully explain your drawing illustrating the Law of Falling Objects (All things fall to the earth at the same speed until they reach their terminal velocity). 

• Give examples and use the words “terminal velocity” in your explanation. Approximant writing length = 3/4 of a page 

21.

• Define potential and kinetic energy. 

• Draw an example of potential and kinetic energy. 

• Fully explain your drawing illustrating potential and kinetic energy. 

• List four unique sources of potential and kinetic energy. Approximant writing length = 1/2 page 

22.

• Define centripetal force.

• Draw an example of centripetal force. 

• Fully explain your drawing illustrating centripetal force. Use the washer lab in your explanation. Include how speed changed in relation to the added washer weight. 

23.

• Define Newton’s First Law of Motion. 

• Draw an example. 

• Fully explain your drawing illustrating Newton’s First Law of Motion (Things are lazy). Use the table setting demonstration in your explanation. Include how mass is related. Approximant writing length = 3/4 to one page 

24.

• Define Newton’s Second Law of Motion. 

• Draw an example. 

• Fully explain your drawing illustrating Newton’s Second Law of Motion (The dump truck law). Include how mass is related. Approximant writing length = 1/2 page, at least.

25.

• Define Newton's Third Law of Motion.

• Draw an example. 

• Fully explain your drawing illustrating Newton’s Third Law of Motion (action reaction). Approximant writing length =  1/2 page, at least. 

26.

• Define compound machine.

• Draw a compound machine. 

• Label the four simple machines found on your compound machine. Approximant writing length = two sentences. 

27.

• Describe how sound is made and transmitted to your ear. 

• Draw an example of how sound is transmitted to your ear. 

• Fully explain your drawing illustrating how things make sound and then transmit the sound to your ears? Include words like vibrate and air molecules. Approximant writing length = 1/2 page 

28.

• Draw how the high and low pitches are made.

• Fully explain your drawing illustrating how something vibrating could produce different pitches of sound. You will need to include information on how the size of object is related to the pitch. Approximant writing length = 1/2 page 

29.

• Define light and pigment. 

• State the three primary colors for light and pigment. Also state which one of them may form white and which one forms black. Approximant writing length = 1/2 page

30.

• Define reflection. 

• Draw the following illustrating what happens when a light beam (photon) that enters a mirror at 30 angle. 

• Label the beam coming in, beam going out and the two angles (30 degrees). 

• Repeat steps “A” and “B” using a photon coming in at an 80-degree angle. 

• Repeat steps “A” and “B” using a 5-degree angle. 

• Repeat steps “A” and “B” using a 90-degree angle.