Got Force?
Students use various surfaces and a weighted car to see how far the car will travel using balanced and unbalanced forces.
Circuit Designers
Students will work in small groups of two to three on a structured challenge around circuits which includes requirements such as including using a switch or a conductor. They will then use that knowledge to work on a collaborative challenge to solve a relevant problem related to elephant poaching. Students will create a containment system that will have an alarm system, a lighting system, and a way to pass through. Finally, they will review the other projects and discuss similarities and differences in the design.
Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells
Students will categorize cells as prokaryotic or eukaryotic by identifying the presence or lack of a nucleus.
Teacher Summing Up Lesson
Lights, Camera, Action!
Students compare and contrast potential and kinetic energy by creating a real-world model through a movie.
Does it have Potential?
Students will work with partners to investigate how mass, potential energy, and kinetic energy act on objects dropped from varying heights.
Video of the lesson being taught
Earth’s Movements
Students will work in small collaborative groups to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth as it revolves around the Sun which creates a day and night cycle.
Biotic and Abiotic Factors of an Ecosystem
Students will explore abiotic and biotic factors in various ecosystems by working through stations. Students will be able to identify and describe abiotic and biotic factors within an ecosystem.
Uses of Energy Lab
Students will rotate through lab stations equipped with objects and videos as they explore the uses and conversion of five different types of energy.
Going on an Expedition
Students observe how dunes and canyons are created through agents of erosion by weathering and erosion.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Vertical Alignment
Click below to learn about the TEKS related to the unit and Research Lesson. The highlighted student expectation(s) is the chosen focus for the Research Lesson.
Motion Pictures
In this lesson, students will be introduced to the concept of motion representation using distance vs. time graphs. Students will recognize labeling of axes, steepness related to speed, horizontal lines as non-motion, and downward slope as return to origin.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Related to the Unit
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Earth: A Tilted Affair
After a brief review of direct and indirect sunlight, students will arrange heat maps and globes around a drawing of the Sun based on the tilt of Earth and how it affects Earth’s temperature.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Related to the Unit
Click below to learn about the TEKS related to this unit.
Manifest Density
Students will design a foil boat and add mass to test relative density.
Students describing how they got their boat to float.
Stop, Collaborate, and Rotate
Students will explore the Earth's rotation and its relation to the Sun and the Moon. Then, students will create a visual representation of this relationship and present it to the rest of the class.
Teacher doing Introduction
Gravity in Space
Students will participate in stations that reinforce their understanding of gravity, especially gravity in space.
10 OnTRACK Grade 8 Science: Force, Motion, and Energy
Students will explore the relationship between force, motion, and energy.
What's going on with our plates?
The students will work collaboratively in small, ability-based groups in stations that will require them to use their academic vocabulary, academic language, and self-assessment to generate a product showing what they have learned.
Let's FIND Speed!
This research lesson requires students to distinguish between speed, distance, and time. Students will use formulas to calculate the three using a checklist. Students will also create their own speed, distance, or time word problem using the knowledge gained in this lesson.
Study Edge Chemistry
In Chemistry, students will conduct laboratory and field investigations and make informed decisions using critical thinking and scientific problem solving. Students will study a variety of topics that include characteristics of matter, use of the Periodic Table, development of atomic theory and chemical bonding, chemical stoichiometry, gas laws, solution chemistry, thermochemistry, and nuclear chemistry. Students will investigate how chemistry is an integral part of our daily lives (TAC §112.35(b)(1)).
This video book is brought to you by TEA and Study Edge. It may be used to teach an entire Chemistry course or to supplement traditional Chemistry textbooks.
This open-education-resource instructional material by TEA is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License in accordance with Chapter 31 of the Texas Education Code.
Please provide feedback on Study Edge's open-education-resource instructional materials.
Study Edge Physics
In Physics, students will conduct laboratory and field investigations, use scientific methods during investigations, and make informed decisions using critical thinking and scientific problem solving. Students study a variety of topics that include: laws of motion; changes within physical systems and conservation of energy and momentum; forces; thermodynamics; characteristics and behavior of waves; and atomic, nuclear, and quantum physics. Students who successfully complete Physics will acquire factual knowledge within a conceptual framework, practice experimental design and interpretation, work collaboratively with colleagues, and develop critical thinking skills (TAC §112.39(b)(1)).
This video book is brought to you by TEA and Study Edge. It may be used to teach an entire Physics course or to supplement traditional Physics textbooks.
This open-education-resource instructional material by TEA is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License in accordance with Chapter 31 of the Texas Education Code.
Please provide feedback on Study Edge's open-education-resource instructional materials.
17 OnTRACK Scientific Process Skills
This binder contains seventeen separate resources focused on the scientific processes for conducting laboratory and field investigations.