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Grade 8 Indiana's Academic Standards as outlined for eighth grade and how, through participation in our interactive program, teachers and students would review these important principles. English/Language Arts Reading: vocabulary development. Learn the origin of the root words used in science and better understand how the parts of each word help explain their meaning. Use word search and crossword puzzles as handouts to enhance vocabulary and review concepts presented. Listening and Speaking: comprehension and analysis and evaluation of oral communication. Use science to evaluate hypotheses, collect new information through observations and direct measurements, evaluate data by comparing and contrasting results, and summarize what was discovered in concluding statements. Mathematics Computation, Algebraic Functions. Use algebra and the functions of addition, multiplication and division to quantitate various sugars in food products. Measurement. Use soil monoliths and Indiana soil maps to discuss the concept of time from a geological standpoint. Discuss the concept of time from a digestive standpoint as the early processes of starch digestion are studied using simple hands-on experiments. Discuss the concept of an acre. Data Analysis and Probability: problem solving. Enhance student problem solving skills by using graphing techniques to illustrate results. Learn triangular graphing while determining soil texture. Relate enzyme activity and substrate concentration with reaction time. Using clays that contain contrasting water-binding capacities have the students monitor the evaporation of water from these clays and show the results of this work using line graphs. Science The Nature of Science and Technology: Discuss the concept of a theory and its role in asking scientific questions. Scientific Thinking: computation and estimation, communication. Discuss the concept of an acre. Estimate the reaction time for digestion assays varying enzyme and substrate concentrations. Show how a triangular graph can be used to describe soil. Show how bar graphs may be used in discussions of nutrient components of processed foods. The Physical Setting: forces of nature. Introduce charge and show the result of an electric current flowing in soil. Discuss clay and its negative charge and the ultimate effect it and organic matter have on nutrient movement in soils. The Living Environment: diversity of life, interdependence of life and evolution. Introduce the concept of genes and inheritance. Discuss some human traits characterized by one gene and how these traits are passed on to offspring. Discuss plant breeding and how new varieties of cultivated plants have been developed. In all environments there is constant change as organisms grow, die and decay. Food from plants provides energy and materials for growth and repair of the body. Discuss the nutrient component of fruits, vegetables, and grains. Using hands-on lab techniques examine how food is digested. The Mathematical World: shapes and symbolic relationships, reasoning and uncertainty. Use bar, line, and triangular graphs to show relationships between different subjects and to compare various unknowns. Utilize Lego TM blocks to build molecules of starch. Discuss carbohydrate synthesis and degradation, estimate enzyme activity using a simple hands-on experiment. Common Themes: systems, constancy and change. Do erosion experiments with and without plants and discuss the different outcomes as water moves through soil. Visit a wetlands site, observe the interaction of plants and animals in various ecosystems, and learn how buffer strips and wetlands purify runoff from fields. Use filter paper to illustrate the capillary movement of water and to produce a chromatograph by separating black ink into its color components. If you have any questions please e-mail either Sherry Fulk-Bringman at sherryfb@purdue.edu or Suzanne Cunningham at scunningham@purdue.edu . S. Fulk-Bringman and S. M. Cunningham |
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