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Proposed NGSS Standards for 8th Grade

California Department of Education
Proposed Standards
July 29, 2013

Grade 8

On July 10, 2013 Superintendent Torlakson recommended the following to the State Board of Education (SBE): That the State Board adopt Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for California as follows:

• Kindergarten through grade five (K–5) at each grade level as presented by NGSS;
• At specific grade levels in middle school, sixth, seventh, and eighth; and
• In grade spans for grades nine through twelve (9–12) as presented in NGSS.

NGSS presents middle grade standards in a grade span of sixth through eighth grade. However, California is a K-8 Instructional Materials adoption state and requires that standards be placed at specific grade level - sixth, seventh, and eighth. Therefore, the Superintendent recommended the adoption of the placement of these original NGSS standards at each grade level as described in the document below. This arrangement of standards was developed by the Science Expert Panel (SEP), a group made up of kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12) teachers, scientists, educators, business, industry representatives and informal science educators. Feedback was provided by the Science Review Panel and from the public via three open forums and a webinar.

The SEP used the following criteria to arrange the performance expectations (standards) for grades six, seven, and eight:

• Performance expectations were placed at each grade level so that they support content articulation across grade levels (from fifth through eighth grade) and provide the opportunity for content integration within each grade level.

• The final arrangement of performance expectations reflected a balance both in content complexity and number at each grade level with human impact and engineering performance expectations appropriately integrated.

In addition to these criteria, the SEP worked to ensure that the performance expectations could be bundled together in various ways to facilitate curriculum development.

The chart below illustrates the vision for middle school: opportunities for articulation between grades (six, seven, and eight) within the disciplines as well as opportunities for content integration across disciplines at each grade.

Middle School Learning Progression

Keep this chart in mind as you explore the arrangement of the performance expectations explained below.

First, the performance expectations for grade eight are listed. The order in which the performance expectation in each discipline is listed does not imply the order of teaching or the instructional sequence. This is followed by a discussion of how bundling the performance expectations provides a content topic view to which one can more easily apply cross-cutting concepts as the topics are integrated. Lastly, the performance expectations are presented in a six through eight topic view to illustrate articulation from sixth to seventh to eighth grade for each discipline.

Grade Level List of Performance Expectations

The performance expectations assigned to eighth grade are:

• LS3-1. Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism.
• LS4-5. Gather and synthesize information about the technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.
• LS4-1. Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.
• LS4-2. Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.
• LS4-3. Analyze displays of pictorial data to compare patterns of similarities in the embryological development across multiple species to identify relationships not evident in the fully formed anatomy.
• LS4-4. Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.
• LS4-6. Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over time.
• ESS1-1. Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons.
• ESS1-2. Develop and use a model to describe the role of gravity in the motions within galaxies and the solar system.
• ESS1-3. Analyze and interpret data to determine scale properties of objects in the solar system.
• ESS1-4. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth's 4.6-billion-year-old history.
• ESS3-4. Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
• PS2-1. Apply Newton’s Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.
• PS2-2. Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.
• PS2-3. Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.
• PS2-4. Construct and present arguments using evidence to support the claim that gravitational interactions are attractive and depend on the masses of interacting objects.
• PS2-5. Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.
• PS3-1. Construct and interpret graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object.
• PS3-2. Develop a model to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system.
• PS4-1. Use mathematical representations to describe a simple model for waves that includes how the amplitude of a wave is related to the energy in a wave.
• PS4-2. Develop and use a model to describe that waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials.
• PS4-3. Integrate qualitative scientific and technical information to support the claim that digitized signals are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than analog signals.
• ETS1-1. Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
• ETS1-2. Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
• ETS1-3. Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
• ETS1-4. Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.

Topic Arrangement for Integration

Bundling these performance expectations provides a topic view of the performance expectations to which one can more easily apply cross-cutting concepts as seen in this chart:

Cross Cutting Concepts

While many cross-cutting concepts could be used to organize the performance expectations, the SEP identified two: Stability & Change and Scale, Proportion & Quantity. Examples of how the cross-cutting concepts could be used to deepen and connect student understanding are presented below.

Stability & Change is one of the cross-cutting concepts emphasized in eighth grade. Stability in any system is a dynamic condition of balance between competing effects, which depends on the conditions of the system. A system may be said to be stable when it can maintain its condition and function over extended periods of time, even though, viewed on a longer time scale it is slowly changing. When conditions within or forces acting on a system change, the system may continue to function, change gradually, or undergo more sudden changes. A system may have a range of conditions under which it has stable function or changes gradually, but may change or fail catastrophically outside that range (e.g., population collapse in an ecosystem). Gradual change over extended time is a major emphasis of this cross-cutting concept for the eighth grade.

Natural selection, biological adaptation, examination of the fossil record and evolution represent changes over extremely long periods of time. Likewise, change over long periods of time in the geosciences supports understanding of rock strata and the history of earth, as well as the evolution of the solar system and space. In the physical sciences, change in position over time, the result of forces acting on objects, and movement of waves all represent descriptions of how objects, energy, or systems change on shorter time scales, starting from an unstable condition with unbalanced forces or non-equilibrium conditions of motion or energy flows (e.g., motion of a pendulum or weight on a spring).

Scale, Proportion & Quantity is the second cross-cutting concept emphasized in eighth grade. In modeling any system as a set of sub-systems, one must choose the scale of space and time that needs to be modeled in order to understand the phenomena in question (e.g., the human body as a set of body systems or as a collection of cells). Students must be able to think of the system at different scales, be able to quantify aspects of the system and consider how changes in scale affect proportions and quantities within it. Units of measure are critical to this thinking.

The scale of time and space is huge when making sense of the universe in earth and space science and, in life science, the fossil record/rock strata are understandable when linked through a long time scale. Students’ mathematical understanding of the representation of large numbers and their conceptual understanding of the ratios of such numbers is critical to understanding the science. A conception of relative sizes of objects (mass and volume) and of distances between them, an understanding of how gravitational interactions scale with distance, and their role in interpreting and predicting motion within galaxies and the solar system are significant elements of this grade level’s science concepts. The mathematical relationships or proportionalities among different types of physical quantities associated with an object (such as energy, mass, velocity, or distance from the ground) must be interpreted to understand the magnitude of the energy associated with the object or system and how it changes when position or velocity changes. Analogously, the amplitude of a wave is proportionally related to the energy that the wave is transporting, and the frequency scale and wavelength have a proportional relationship between them and the speed of travel of the wave.

Arrangement for Articulation

This chart illustrates the topic arrangement of the performance expectations to link the learning progression from elementary through middle school in each discipline.

Learning Progression

Life Science (six–eight):  The learning progression builds from the individual organism in sixth grade to its place in an ecosystem in seventh grade to the development of these systems over time in eighth grade. In sixth grade, the focus is on the structure of cells and organisms include body systems, growth and development, and the basis of sexual and asexual reproduction. More detailed DNA-level of understanding is deferred to eighth grade, after students have developed sufficient understanding of chemical processes and atomic level structure for these concepts to be meaningfully developed. The performance expectations at seventh grade develop the idea of the interdependence of organisms to each other and abiotic factors as well as the cycling of matter and flow of energy that maintains ecosystems. These concepts are supported by the energy and matter concepts from sixth and seventh grade. In eighth grade, the critical ideas of variability and natural selection are introduced, and, together with the ideas of deep time and the fossil record, form the basis for the relationship between the history of the earth and life on it. These topics require understanding of time scale and population distributions of traits that need eighth grade level mathematical sophistication.

Earth and Space Science (six–eight): The learning progression builds from the interaction of earth’s systems in fifth grade to a deeper exploration of the hydrosphere and atmosphere in sixth grade. These two systems play very large roles in weather conditions and in regional and global climate. In seventh grade, the focus turns to the geosphere as student learn about changes to the earth’s surface, plate movement and the formation of earth materials. In eighth grade, the earth takes its place in the solar system and the universe as students get a much broader sense of time and space including the more cosmic perspectives of the solar system, Milky Way galaxy, and a universe teeming with other galaxies.

Human Impact (six–eight): Embedded in the Earth and Space Science Performance Expectations are those PEs for human impact. In sixth grade, the PE asks students to apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.  This links nicely with the concepts of weather and climate. In seventh grade, the PE highlights natural hazards providing opportunities to investigate earthquakes and connect with plate tectonics. In eighth grade, the PE challenges students to think deeply about the consequences of human population growth and resource consumption.

Physical Science (six–eight): The learning progression builds on the knowledge of the particulate structure of matter from fifth grade as student develop an understanding of energy in terms of the motions of particles of matter in sixth grade. Students investigate thermal energy and the transfer of energy. They are also introduced to a conceptual understanding of potential and kinetic energy with the full mathematical understanding of the concepts delayed until eighth grade. In seventh grade, the structure and property of matter and chemical reactions are studied. These build on and deepen ideas from K-5, connect to the chemical nature of the earth and life science concepts in seventh grade, and begin to develop atomic and molecular level ideas about matter that are the base for eighth grade and high school science. Eighth grade provides opportunities to continue the study of forces and interactions built in K-5, applied in the context of structure and function in sixth grade, and structure and properties of matter in seventh grade, and finally to the context of space science in eighth grade. In eighth grade, mathematical expressions and relationships for forces and interactions and kinetic and potential energy are introduced and students begin to build an understanding of them that includes these more quantitative aspects. Waves and electromagnetic interactions are also not introduced until eighth grade because of the mathematical representations required to describe and quantify their properties. 

Engineering (six–eight): There are four engineering PEs. They are arranged for each grade to maximize opportunities for students to engage in the engineering practices. These standards can be combined with any of the science disciplines to provide rich learning experiences for students.