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Today, students completed a lab that helped investigate Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion. It is based on the “Newton’s Cradle” toy, and it involves colliding marbles (see video here). Of course, for every action within the lab, there is an equal and opposite reaction. One marble rolled in, one marble rolled out. One marble slowed down, one marble sped up. And thus, we proved that Newton’s 3rd Law is indeed true.

This bundle includes an entire year's worth of material. It includes lessons, labs, projects, tests and more. The seven units include are as follows: Unit 1 - Forces and Motion Unit 2 - Chemistry Unit 3 - Genetics Unit 4 - Evolution Unit 5- Astronomy Unit 6 - Earth's Systems Unit 7 - Environmental Science The school year aligns closely with the NGSS for Grade 8, albeit with a few fun twists. It also includes a summative capstone project for each unit. To learn more, please visit www.MrAscience.

This is a bundle of all of the lessons, labs, PowerPoints, and worksheets for Unit 7: Environmental Science. The bundle also includes the Unit 7 Test and its answer key. For a walkthrough of the unit, including pictures and videos, please click here.

This bundle includes all of my class materials for Unit 1: Forces & Motion. It includes daily lessons, games, labs, and the Unit 1 Test. It also includes the weeklong Martian Lander Project. For pictures, videos, and more information, please visit my website here!

Today, students read a modified version of Garrett Hardin's "The Tragedy of the Commons." In his essay, he outlines how common resources like the atmosphere or the ocean often get degraded due to overuse. After reading, students completed the "Checking for Understanding" questions on the back of the worksheet. Then, we had a class discussion about how The Fishing Lab from yesterday was a classic example of the Tragedy of the Commons.

Today, we completed a lab that simulated how bacteria have evolved to resist modern antibiotics. We used two dice to represent the drug penicillin. And we started off with a group of 20 strep bacteria, each one with a strength rating from 1-10. Students rolled the dice for each bacterium, and if they rolled higher than the cell’s strength rating, they successfully killed off that bacterium. After rolling for all 20 cells, students copied over the survivors and had them reproduce, as if the germ

Weather and climate are two different things. And it’s an important difference. While weather includes the day-to-day fluctuations in temperature, wind, clouds, and precipitation, climate is more like the long-term average. For example, we all know that the average weather in Marshfield, Massachusetts is quite different from that of the Sahara desert. Today, students completed a WebQuest that helped them investigate weather vs. climate. It covered the different types of climate, mapped climate p

his is a bundle of all of the lessons, labs, PowerPoints, and worksheets for Unit 5: Astronomy. The bundle also includes the Unit 5 Test and its answer key. For a walkthrough of the unit, including pictures and videos, please click here.

This is a bundle of all of the resources I use to teach Unit 2: Chemistry in 8th grade. It includes worksheets, labs, PowerPoints, and even the Unit 2 Test. The pages range from 201-222 in students' binders. This means from Unit 2-Page 1, all the way to Unit 2-Page 22.

This is a bundle of all of the lessons, labs, PowerPoints, and worksheets for Unit 4: Evolution. The bundle also includes the Unit 4 Test and its answer key. For a walkthrough of the unit, including pictures and videos, please click here.

This is a bundle of all of the lessons, labs, PowerPoints, and worksheets for Unit 3: Genetics. The bundle also includes the Unit 3 Test and its answer key. For a walkthrough of the unit, including pictures and videos, please click here.

This is a bundle of all of the lessons, labs, PowerPoints, and worksheets for Unit 6: Earth's Systems. The bundle also includes the Unit 6 Test and its answer key. For a walkthrough of the unit, including pictures and videos, please click here.

We completed a WebQuest today that asked students to investigate mining, simply defined as the collection of Earth’s solid, underground resources. The assignment began by having students investigate some commonly mined materials. Then students read about how and why many minerals can be found at the edges of Earth’s tectonic plates. Lastly, they researched the different methods of mining and their environmental impact. To download a copy of the lesson, click the link below.

Today we did a lab called “The Genetics of Taste.” Students did a taste test that included four different compounds: sodium benzoate, thiourea, phenylthiocarbamide, and a control group. As the taste test went along, students realized that there were certain compounds they could taste and certain compounds they couldn’t. On the other hand, their partners tastes were entirely different. (Click here to see a video of the lab in action). The lesson is that taste is genetic! Your sense of taste is c

The Deforestation Board Game is designed to be taught over three days. Day 1 - Students play the board game without forestry laws. They seek to maximize profit, which results in clear-cutting and deforestation. (To learn more, click here.)Day 2 - Students are taught about deforestation using the included PowerPoint. This lesson includes an explanation of the problem as well as a promising solution: sustainable forestry. (To learn more, click here.)Day 3 - Students play the board game with a s

Learn about the wildfires that struck Los Angeles in January of 2025. This worksheet will walk children (Grade 8-12) through the three major fires and their impact. Then students will research how factors like climate change, La Niña, and recent droughts have all made the fires worse. Finally, they will learn about solutions both good (Super Scoopers!) and bad (ocean water).

We began Unit 7 today with one of my favorite lessons: The Fishing Lab. It used to be called the Candy Fishing Lab, but recently I have become more health conscious and switched to using goldfish. Not actual goldfish. Yuck! That would be gross. I mean the Pepperidge Farm crackers. The goal of the lab is simple: survive until the end of the game. But accomplishing that goal is not so simple. Each “day” students walked up to their group’s “fish pond” and took a few “fish.” What they don’t fully u

Human population, land use, the extraction of resources, and pollution have all been increasing. To understand how overpopulation is linked to the environmental crisis, one must understand how populations grow. In this experiment, students used dice to model human population growth. They started with a population of six dice. Then they rolled the dice. Rolling a “1” meant that person died and must be removed from the population. Rolling a “5” or a “6” meant that person had a child, and one die m

Today was the first day of our “Evolutionary Tree Project.” Students put together a blank copy of a phylogenetic tree, cut it out, taped it together, and added it to their binder. Then they added ten “transition species.” These are species that, while perhaps they are no longer living, were part of an evolutionary transition from one species to another. These included moss, ferns, archaeopteryx, and even the eel-like conodronts. They cut out each transition species card, folded it, and glued it

Today in class, students completed the Phase Changes Lab. Because nothing enthralls 8th graders like watching ice melt! They started off with a thermometer frozen within a block of ice, then put it into a beaker, and then heated it for 30 minutes. All the while, they kept track of the temperature. Their graph ended up looking like this one on my website. As the ice warmed, it’s temperature rose, up until its melting point. Then the temperature plateaued during the melting process. Then it rose