Science — Grade 8

Resources on the web

Monkey pay-per-view

In this Science Update, from Science NetLinks, students hear about an experiment in which monkeys were given a carefully measured amount of juice when they looked at, or away from, various pictures. This study may provide information about humans with autism. (Learn more)

Format: activity/lesson plan (grade 6–8 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Monkey brains

In this Science Update, from Science NetLinks, students hear about the discovery that our brains add new cells as we get older. (Learn more)

Format: activity/lesson plan (grade 8–11 Science and Social Studies)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Mona Lisa's smile

In this Science Update, from Science NetLinks, students hear about how the Mona Lisa's smile appears to change depending on where on her face you look. (Learn more)

Format: activity/lesson plan (grade 6–8 Visual Arts Education and Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Modern Leeching

In this Science Update, from Science NetLinks, students will hear about how leeches, popular in medicine in the 1800s, are still used by doctors today, sometimes for safely removing congested blood from a wound. (Learn more)

Format: activity/lesson plan (grade 6–8 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Mass extinction

In this Science Update, from Science NetLinks, students hear about a study that may cast doubt on the belief that a giant asteroid wiped out most of life on earth almost 250 million years ago. (Learn more)

Format: activity/lesson plan (grade 6–8 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Lying on email

In this Science Update, from Science NetLinks, students hear about a study that explores the challenge of detecting lies and cons over email. (Learn more)

Format: activity/lesson plan (grade 6–8 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Lying

In this Science Update, from Science NetLinks students hear about how people generally see their own lies as being less harmful and more due to situation and not personality, while they are more likely to blame personality if another person lies. (Learn more)

Format: activity/lesson plan (grade 6–8 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Louis Pasteur — A microbe discoverer

This lesson from Science NetLinks is the second in a series on microorganisms. This lesson focuses on Pasteur, his discovery of microorganisms, and the process of pasteurization. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

LIFE: From diversity to DNA

A collection of four units for seventh and eighth grade science covering human body systems, genetics, cells, and microbes and disease. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 7–8 Science)

Provided by: Kenan Fellows for Curriculum and Leadership Development

JFK analysis

In this Science Update, from Science NetLinks, students will hear atmospheric chemist Ken Rahn describe how he and a ballistics specialist have re-analyzed the data from two major forensic studies of the John F. Kennedy assassination. (Learn more)

Format: activity/lesson plan (grade 6–8 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Inventors and innovators

The purpose of this Science NetLinks lesson is to use the Internet to explore the scientific enterprise and the contributions to science of various people. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Introducing static electricity

Students perform simple experiments creating static electricity. They will demonstrate how opposite charges attract each other and like charges repel each other. Then students will explore a website that further explains these concepts. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 7–12 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Introducing atoms

In this lesson from Science NetLinks, students will be asked to review websites to learn about the atom's basic structure and the positive and negative charges of its subparticles. This is the first of a series of four lessons about static electricity. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 7–12 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Interpreting the evidence

This lesson, the second of a two-part series from Science NetLinks, offers useful information and activities to help students understand how scientists learn about civilizations that have disappeared. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Science and Social Studies)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Human language

In this Science Update, from Science NetLinks, students hear about how, despite apparent differences in language, all language systems possess similar human characteristics. (Learn more)

Format: activity/lesson plan (grade 8 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

How scientists study aging

In this lesson, students will explore a website to learn how scientists are studying the relationship between aging and caloric restriction. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 7–8 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Hollywood dinosaurs

Students examine characteristics of the scientific process in the study of dinosaurs. This lesson allows students to differentiate between fact, theory, and speculation as they relate to dinosaurs. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Harvesting the ocean for medical science

In this Xpeditions lesson, students are introduced to two marine species, one (the horseshoe crab) that is currently invaluable in the field of medicine and another (Bugula neritina) that is likely to prove beneficial in the future. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Science)

Provided by: National Geographic

The grooviest of fabrics

In this Science Update, from Science NetLinks, students hear about the invention, manufacture, and development of polyester. (Learn more)

Format: activity/lesson plan (grade 8 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Fossilized dinosaur heart

Students will distinguish between ornithischian and saurischian dinosaurs and identify traditional distinctions between reptilians and mammals focusing on heart physiology and metabolism. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8–12 Science)

Provided by: Cable News Network