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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, 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

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

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

Today we began our “Martian Lander Project,” which is a modern take on the age-old egg drop experiment. The goal of the project is for students to design a spaceship that can land an egg safely after a drop of 5 meters. This is equivalent to a drop of 13 meters on Mars. We imagined each egg as a capsule containing a team of astronauts that must land safely on the Martian surface. And of course, the goal of our experiment is the same as its real-life equivalent: minimize the force of impact. But

Today students completed the Gravity Drop Lab. In the experiment we tried to prove that (a) gravity causes objects to accelerate and (b) gravity affects all objects equally. Students dropped a heavy metal marble and a lighter plastic marble through a photogate from varying drop heights. Then they calculated the speed at which the marble was falling. By doing this, they noticed two things. First, the higher the drop height, the smaller the time through the photogate — the marble was falling faste

Today was the second day of the Lost in Space project. We spent the first half of class going over the rules and students spent the second half of class strategizing with their teammates. The rules are fairly simple: Goal: Find a new home-planet in this faraway solar system. Turns: Each turn in the game will last 1:00. Turn Options:TRAVEL: Ships can move as many spaces as they want, up to their “Speed Rating.” ATTACK: You can attack other nearby ships by rolling dice. PROBE: You can use probes t

We did an experiment today where students investigated how the temperature of Earth’s surface can change. Students used a small tray that contained water (the ocean), sand (the beach), and grass (the forest). Then they turned on a small light to simulate the sun. Over the course of the lab, they kept track of how the temperature of each surface changed. The temperature of the forest changed slightly, while the temperature of the ocean was fairly constant. The temperature of the beach changed dra

Today, students practiced using the formulas we learned yesterday. Students took turns running, walking, jogging, and rolling across the classroom. We measured the distance and time for each student, and the either calculated their speed or acceleration. I tried to mix in different units (ft/s, m/s, m/s2) to make sure they are familiar with a variety of examples. But really this was a day about practicing the formulas.

After yesterday’s lecture on seasons, today it was time to apply what we learned. Students completed the Seasons Lab (posted below). They used a flashlight to simulate the sun and used graph paper to simulate Earth’s surface. As the angle of the graph paper was increased, as in winter, the light became more and more spread out. Of course, this is what causes the winter drop in temperature; the sun’s energy is spread out over a large area, so it feels weaker. Students traced the area that was ill

Weather has three main components. The first is temperature, which is simply a measure of how fast atoms/molecules are moving. The second is wind, which is caused by the uneven heating of Earth’s surface, which creates convection currents. We have covered both of those components already in Unit 6. The last component was new today: clouds & precipitation. When two air masses collide, and one has a high density and the other has a low density, clouds & precipitation form. The low-density air

Today was the first day of my favorite project of the year: Lost in Space. Students were divided into groups of 3-4. We began with a presentation introducing the premise of the project. To make a short story shorter, the project takes place in the future, each team of students represent a team of astronauts from a specific country, and the goal of each country is to search a new solar system for a potentially habitable planet. The project will last five days, and today was only the introduction.

Today we introduced a chemistry topic that we’ve been hinting at all along: The Law of Conservation of Mass. The law basically says “No matter can ever be created or destroyed” and it flew in the face of conventional wisdom that predated modern science. Today we use it to explain everything from rain to boiling water to fire. And the bottom line is you can’t create or destroy an atom; they can only be rearranged. Even more modern topics like nuclear weapons don’t necessarily break the law. After

Today we did a lesson on modern examples of evolution. These are examples that we humans have observed, since Darwin, that have illustrated the process of natural selection. The first example was the very famous peppered moth which evolved from white into black to help blend in with England’s industrial pollution. The second example was the ivory trade, which has forced African elephants to evolve shorter tusks. And the last example was drug-resistant bacteria, germs that have evolved to resi

The "Outbreak!" project is designed to be taught over five days. After the introductory PowerPoint, students are given the attached worksheet (pg317). Each of the five days of the project are outlined below. Day 1 - Introduction (click here to learn more)Day 2 - Test Infected Patients (click here to learn more)Day 3 - Examine DNA (click here to learn more)Day 4 - Analyze Reproduction (click here to learn more)Day 5 - Produce a Vaccine (click here to learn more)* Looking back from the 2020s,

Today was the second and final day of our “Making Babies” project. Students began by finishing their sperm and egg cells (any absent students were given filled-in copies, as posted here). Then they cut out all 46 chromosomes and glued them on Page 311. This including flipping a coin to determine whether the father would pass on an X or a Y. Then they determined the baby’s traits by looking at the genes located on each chromosome. They finished off by drawing a picture of their baby on the back.