STANDARD 5.1 - ALL STUDENTS WILL LEARN TO IDENTIFY SYSTEMS OF
                               INTERACTING COMPONENTS AND UNDERSTAND HOW 
                               THEIR INTERACTIONS COMBINE TO PRODUCE THE 
                               OVERALL BEHAVIOR OF THE SYSTEM. 

Descriptive Statement: The natural world and the world built by humans both provide 
examples of systems where interacting parts work together as a whole.  This standard asks 
students to analyze, understand, and design systems of integrating parts. 

Cumulative Progress Indicators 

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in the preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, 
students: 

4.  Describe components of a system and how they influence one another. 
5.  Recognize that most systems are components of larger systems and that the output of one component can become the input to other components. 
6.  Disassemble and reassemble the components of a system, analyzing how they interact with each other. 

STANDARD 5.2 -  ALL STUDENTS WILL DEVELOP PROBLEM-SOLVING, 
                                DECISION-MAKING, AND INQUIRY SKILLS REFLECTED BY 
                                FORMULATING USABLE QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES, 
                                PLANNING EXPERIMENTS, CONDUCTING SYSTEMATIC 
                                OBSERVATIONS, INTERPRETING AND ANALYZING DATA, 
                                DRAWING CONCLUSIONS, AND COMMUNICATING 
                                RESULTS. 

Descriptive Statement: Students best learn science by doing science.  Science is not merely a collection of facts and theories but a process, a way of thinking about and investigating the world in which we live.  This standard addresses those skills that are used by scientists as they discover and explain the physical universe - skills that are an essential and ongoing part of learning science. 

Cumulative Progress Indicators 

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in the preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, 
students: 

6.   Identify problems that can be solved by conducting experiments. 
7.   Design and conduct experiments incorporating the use of a control. 
8.   Collect and organize data to support the results of an experiment. 
9.   Communicate experimental findings using words, charts, graphs, pictures, and diagrams. 
10.  Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of claims, arguments, and data. 
11.  Assess the risks and benefits associated with alternative actions. 

STANDARD 5.5 - ALL STUDENTS WILL INTEGRATE MATHEMATICS AS A 
                              TOOL FOR PROBLEM-SOLVING IN SCIENCE, AND AS A 
                              MEANS OF EXPRESSING AND/OR MODELING SCIENTIFIC 
                             THEORIES. 

Descriptive Statement: Galileo is credited with asserting that "Mathematics is the language with which God wrote the Universe." Science cannot be practiced or learned without appreciation of the role of mathematics in discovering and expressing natural laws.  This standard recognizes the need for students to fully integrate mathematics skills with their learning of science. 

Cumulative Progress Indicators 

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in the preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, 
students: 

5.    Recognize and comprehend the orders of magnitude associated with large and small physical quantities. 
6.    Express experimental data in several equivalent forms such as integers, fractions, decimals, and percents. 
7.    Infer mathematical relationships among variables using graphs, tables, and charts. 
8.    Express the output units of the calculation in terms of the input units. 
9.    Select appropriate measuring instruments based on the degree of precision needed. 
10.  Find the mean and median of a set of experimental data. 

STANDARD 5.8 - ALL STUDENTS WILL GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE
                               STRUCTURE AND BEHAVIOR OF MATTER. 

Descriptive Statement: Exploring the nature of matter and energy is essential to an 
understanding of the physical universe.  This standard leads students from their experiences 
with the states and properties of matter, to the development of models of the atom and the 
underlying principles of chemistry. 

Cumulative Progress Indicators 

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in the preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, 
students: 

4.   Identify characteristic properties of matter, and use one or more of those properties to separate a mixture of substances. 
5.   Show how substances can react with each other to form new substances having characteristic properties different from those of the original substances. 
6.   Know that all matter is made up of atoms that may join together to form molecules, and  that the state of matter is determined by the arrangement and motion of the atoms or molecules. 
7.   Explain how atoms are rearranged when substances react, but that the total number of atoms and the total mass of the newly formed substances remains the same as that of the original substances. 
8.   Explain that over 100 different atoms, corresponding to over 100 different elements, have been identified and can be grouped according to their similar properties. 

STANDARD 5.9 - ALL STUDENTS WILL GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF 
                               NATURAL LAWS AS THEY APPLY TO MOTION, FORCES, 
                              AND ENERGY TRANSFORMATIONS. 

Descriptive Statement: Basic principles of physics emerge in this standard, where the study of force and motion leads students to the concept of energy.  All forms of energy are introduced and investigated, and principles of transformation and laws of conservation are developed. 

Cumulative Progress Indicators 

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in the preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, 
students: 

8.    Explain how a moving object that is not being subjected to a net force will move in a straight line at a steady speed. 
9.    Show that when more than one force acts on an object at the same time, the forces can reinforce or cancel each other, producing a net force that will change the speed or direction of the object. 
10.  Investigate how the force of friction acts to retard motion. 
11.  Describe the various forms of energy, including heat, light, sound, chemical, nuclear, mechanical, and electrical energy, and that energy can be transformed from one form to another. 
12.  Explain how heat flows through materials or across space from warmer objects to cooler ones until both objects are at the same temperature. 
13.  Explain that the sun is a major source of the earth's energy and that energy is emitted in various forms, including visible light, infrared and ultraviolet radiation. 
14.  Show how light is reflected, refracted, or absorbed when it interacts with matter and how colors appear as a result of this interaction. 
15. Show how vibrations in materials can generate waves which can transfer energy from  one place to another.