Eighth Grade Curriculum

Eighth Grade Math

In the middle school, the students use Impact Math, which is similar to the Everyday Math program because it teaches students how to solve a problem. For more on our math program click here.

Grade Level Benchmarks

• I.1 Identifies functions as linear or nonlinear and contrast their properties
  I.2 Represents variability or change by ordered pairs, tables, graphs or equations
  II.1 Make and test conjectures about characteristics and properties of two and three dimensional objects
  II.2 Compute and interpret slope, midpoint, and distance
  II.3 Apply proportional reasoning or formulas to solve problems
  III.2 Identifies and analyzes sampling techniques and simulations
  III.3 Represents and interprets 2 variable data with a scatter plot. Describes the patterns and makes predictions.
  IV.1 Explains and uses the inverse and identity properties. Writes small numbers in scientific notation
  IV.2 Estimates, computes, and solves problems with rational numbers including ratios, rates, proportions, percents, and derived measurements.
  IV.3 Find and approximate square roots
  V.1 Demonstrates fluency with algebraic number operations in a variety of ways
  V.2 Solve linear equations and uses the context of the problem to interpret and explain concepts and solutions.
  VI.1 Solve problems involving simple dependent and independent events
  VI.2 Uses discrete mathematical concepts to model situations and solve problems including existence, optimization, and counting problems.

Eighth Grade English Language Arts

In our upper grades, the teachers use components of the Four Blocks in addition to their Prentice-Hall Literature Textbook and novel studies. For more about our language arts program click here.

Grade Level Benchmarks

• Meaning and Communication
  ∑ Explores a wide variety of text and genre
  ∑ Reads and writes variety of text with accuracy, rate and expression
  ∑ Prioritizes generalizations from main ideas in oral and written texts
  ∑ Uses strategies to recognize words in context using structural clues
  ∑ Uses word structure, sentence structure and prediction to aid in decoding
  ∑ Writes using narrative and expository structure
  ∑ Writes to make formal requests, to influence policy changes
  ∑ Create, draft, revise, edit, publish, and evaluate different forms of writing
  ∑ Spells words in context using strategies and resources
  ∑ Determine the meaning of the words and phrases in context
  ∑ Speaks and reads with rhythm, tempo, and inflection while varying volume and pitch
  Language
  ∑ Communicates effectively with variety of audiences and for different purposes
  Literature
  ∑ Respond to multiple text types by speaking, illustrating, and/or writing in order to highlight the overall message, to determine personal and universal significance, and to analyze and interpret key (MS5.1)
• Voice
  ∑ Exhibit individual style to enhance the written message
  ∑ Explains how author’s intended message may represent values, beliefs, and cultural/historical contexts
  Skills and Processes
  ∑ Uses strategies to construct meaning
  ∑ Writes using different strategies
  Genre and Craft of Language
  ∑ Analyzes rising action, turning point, and falling action narrative plot in a variety of genres
  ∑ Analyzes elements such as figurative language, irony, and symbolism in short stories and novels
  ∑ Writes expository reports or essays using multi-paragraph structure
  ∑ Clarifies central purpose, major ideas, and supports details in oral and written expository
  ∑ Differentiates text patterns across genres to convey meaning
  ∑ Recognizes how authors may influence or mislead through bias, stereotyping, omission, and emphasis
  ∑ Applies knowledge of text features to locate information and construct meaning
• Depth of Understanding
  ∑ Analyze and explain overall message, theme or central purpose of oral or written text
  ∑ Apply new perspectives from themes, universal truths, and issues of importance within and across oral or written texts to create a deeper understanding
• Ideas in Action
  ∑ Integrates personal experiences and understanding of world themes and perspectives in oral and written text
  ∑ Integrate multiple methods to respond to oral and written text by extending, synthesizing, and artistically representing the authors’ ideas and compare responses with others
  ∑ Critically judge content in oral and written text by relating to personal or global issues, recognizing influences of persuasive techniques, and noting stereotype or bias
• Inquiry and Research
  ∑ Uses appropriate resources for the task
  Critical Standards
  ∑ Selects and applies individual and/or established standards to personal or other written text to reflect on merit or portfolio contents, document literacy growth, to establish a distinct personal style
  ∑ Develop and or use individual or established standards to critically judge aesthetic qualities and literary merit of text and to recommend preferences to others

Eighth Grade Science

The Science curriculum at Bay County Academy is a hands-on exploratory program that meets all of the Michigan Benchmarks and Standards. For more information on the science program click here.

Middle School Science Benchmarks

• Science
  1.1.1 Generate scientific questions about the world based on observation
  1.1.2 Design and conduct simple investigations
  1.1.3 Investigate toys/simple appliances and explain how they work, using instructions and appropriate safety precautions
  1.1.4 Use measurement devices to provide consistency in an investigation
  1.1.5 Use sources of information to help solve problems
  1.1.6 Write and follow procedures in the form of step-by step instructions, recipes, formulas, flow diagrams and sketches
  1.1.7 Gather and synthesize information from books and other sources of information
  1.1.8 Discuss topics in groups by being able to restate or summarize what others have said, ask for clarification or elaboration and take alternative perspectives
  1.1.9 Reconstruct previously learned knowledge
  2.1.1 Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of claims, arguments, or data
  2.1.2 Describe limitations in personal knowledge
  2.1.3 Describe the advantages and risks of new technologies
  2.1.4 Recognize the contributions made in science by cultures and individuals of diverse backgrounds
• Life Science
  3.1.1 Describe the similarities/differences between single-celled and multi cellular organisms
  3.1.2 Explain why specialized cells are needed by plants and animals
  3.1.3 Explain how cells use food as a source of energy
  3.2.1 Compare and classify organisms into major groups on the basis of their structure
  3.2.2 Describe the life cycle of a flowering plant
  3.2.3 Describe evidence that plants make and store food
  3.2.4 Explain how selected systems and processes work together in plants and animals
  3.3.1 Describe how the characteristics of living things are passed on through generations
  3.3.2 Describe how heredity and environment may influence/determine characteristics of an organism
  3.4.1 Describe how scientific theory traces possible evolutionary relationships among present and past life forms
• Physical Science
  4.1.1 Measure physical properties of objects or substances (mass, weight, area, temperature, dimensions, volume)
  4.1.2 Describe when length, mass, weight, area, or volume are appropriate to describe the size of an object or the amount of a substance
  4.1.3 Classify substances as elements, compounds or mixtures
  4.1.4 Describe matter as consisting of extremely small particles (atoms) which bond together to form molecules
  4.1.5 Describe the arrangement and motion of molecules in solids, liquids, and gases
  4.1.6 Describe energy and the many common forms it takes (mechanical, heat, light, sound, electrical, magnetic, chemical, nuclear)
  4.1.7 Describe how common forms of energy can be converted, one to another
  4.1.8 Describe electron flow in simple electrical circuits
  4.1.9 Use electric currents to create magnetic fields
  4.2.1 Describe common physical changes in materials: evaporation, condensation, thermal expansion, and contraction
  4.2.2 Describe common chemical changes in terms of properties of reactants and product
  4.2.3 Distinguish between physical and chemical changes in natural and technological systems
  4.2.4 Describe how waste products accumulating from natural and technological activity create pollution
  4.2.5 Explain physical changes in terms of the arrangement and motion of atoms and molecules
  4.3.1 Qualitatively describe and compare motions in three dimensions
  4.3.2 Relate changes in speed or direction to unbalanced forces in two dimensions
  4.3.3 Describe the forces exerted by magnets, electrically charges objects and gravity
  4.3.4 Design strategies for moving objects by application of forces, including the use of simple machines
  4.4.1 Explain how sound travels through different media
  4.4.2 Explain how echoes occur and how they are used
  4.4.3 Explain how light helps us to see
  4.4.4 Explain how objects or media reflect, refract, transmit, or absorb light
  4.4.5 Describe the motion of pendulums or vibrating objects (frequency, amplitude)
  4.4.6 Explain how waves transmit energy
  4.5.1 Describe common patterns of relationships among populations
  4.5.2 Predict the effects of changes in one population in a food web on other populations
  4.5.3 Describe how all organisms in an ecosystem acquire energy directly or indirectly from sunlight
  4.5.4 Describe the likely succession of a given ecosystem over time
  4.5.5 Identify some common materials that cycle through the environment
  4.5.6 Describe ways in which humans alter the environment
  4.5.7 Explain how humans use and benefit from plant and animal materials
• Earth Science
  5.1.1 Describe and identify surface features using maps
  5.1.2 Explain how rocks and minerals are formed
  5.1.3 Explain how rocks and fossils are used to determine the age and geologic history of the earth
  5.1.4 Explain how rocks are broken down, how soil is formed and how surface features change
  5.1.5 Explain how technology changes the surface of the earth
  5.2.1 Describe various forms that water takes on the earth’s surface and conditions under which they exist
  5.2.2 Describe how rain water in Michigan reaches the oceans
  5.2.3 Describe the origins of pollution in the hydrosphere
  5.3.1 Describe the composition and characteristics of the atmosphere
  5.3.2 Describe patterns of changing weather and how they are measured
  5.3.3 Explain the water cycle and its relationship to weather patterns
  5.3.4 Describe health effects of polluted air
  5.4.1 Compare the earth to other planets in terms of supporting life
  5.4.2 Describe, compare, and explain the motions of planets, moon and comets in the solar system
  5.4.3 Describe and explain common observations of the day and night skies
  5.4.4 Explain current scientific thinking about how the solar system formed

Eighth grade Social Studies

Bay County Academy proudly uses Mosaica's Paragon Curriculum to teach social studies. For more on Paragon click here.

Middle School Social Studies Benchmarks

• Historical Perspective
  1.1.1 Construct and interpret timelines of people and events from the history of Michigan and the US through the era of reconstruction and from the history of other regions of the world
  1.1.2 Describe major factors that characterize the following eras in United States History: the Meeting of Three Worlds (beginnings to 1620), Colonization and Settlement (1585-1763), Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1815), Expansion and Reform (1801-1861) and Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
  1.1.3 Select a contemporary condition in Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe and Latin America and trace some of the major historical origins of each
  1.2.1 Use narratives and graphic data to describe the settings of significant events that shaped the development of Michigan as a state and the United States as a nation during the eras prior to Reconstruction
  1.2.2 Identify and explain how individuals in history demonstrated good character and personal virtue
  1.2.3 Select conditions in various parts of the world and describe how they have been shaped by events from the past
  1.2.4 Use historical biographies to explain how events from the past affected the lives of individuals and how some individuals influenced the course of history
  1.3.1 Use primary and secondary records to analyze significant events that shaped the development of Michigan as a sate and the United States as a nation prior to the end of the era of reconstruction
  1.3.2 Analyze interpretations of major events selected from African, Asian, Canadian, European and Latin American history to reveal the perspectives of the authors
  1.3.3 Show that historical knowledge is tentative and subject to change by describing interpretations of the past that have been revised when new information was uncovered
  1.3.4 Compose narratives of events from the history of Michigan and of the US prior to the era of Reconstruction
  1.4.1 Identify major decisions in Michigan and the US history prior to the end of the era of Reconstruction, analyze contemporary factors contributing to the decisions and consider alternative courses of action
  1.4.2 Identify major decisions in the history of Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, and Latin America, analyze contemporary factors contributing to the decisions and consider alternative courses of action
  1.4.3 Identify the responses of individuals to historic violations of human dignity involving discrimination, persecution and crimes against humanity
  1.4.4 Select historic decisions and evaluate them in light of core democratic values and resulting costs and benefits as viewed from a variety of perspectives
• Geographic Perspective
  2.1.1 Locate and describe the diverse places, cultures, and communities of major world regions
  2.1.2 Describe and compare characteristics of major world cultures including language, religion, belief systems, gender roles and traditions
  2.1.3 Explain why people live and work as they do in different regions
  2.2.1 Locate, describe and compare the ecosystems, resources and human environment interactions of major world regions
  2.2.2 Locate major ecosystems, describe their characteristics, and explain the process that created them
  2.2.3 Explain the importance of different kinds of ecosystems to people
  2.2.4 Explain how humans modify the environment and describe some of the possible consequences of those modifications
  2.2.5 Describe the consequences of human/ environment interactions in several different types of environments
  2.3.1 Locate and describe major economic activities and occupations of major world regions and explain the reasons for their locations
  2.3.2 Explain how governments have divided land and sea areas into different regions
  2.3.3 Describe how and why people, goods and services and information move within world regions and between regions
  2.3.4 Describe the major economic and political connections between the US and different world regions and explain their causes and consequences
  2.4.1 Draw a sketch map of the world from memory
  2.4.2 Locate and describe major cultural, economic, political and environmental features of Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and North and South America and the processes that created them
  2.4.3 Describe major patterns of world population, physical features, ecosystems, cultures, and explain some of the factors causing the patterns
  2.4.4 Compare major world regions with respect to cultures, economy, governmental systems, environment and communications
• Civic Perspective
  3.1.1 Describe how the federal government in the US serves the purposes set forth in the Preamble to the Constitution
  3.1.2 Distinguish between representative democracy in the US and other forms of government
  3.1.3 Explain how the rule of law protects individual rights and serves the common good
  3.1.4 Explain the importance of limited government to protect political and economic freedom
  3.2.1 Identify the essential ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the origins of those ideas and explain how they set the foundation for government in the US
  3.2.2 Describe provisions of the US Constitution which delegate to government the powers necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was established
  3.2.3 Explain means for limiting the powers of government by the US Constitution
  3.3.1 Distinguish between civil and criminal procedure
  3.3.2 Identify disparities between American ideals and realities and propose ways to reduce them
  3.4.1 Evaluate information and arguments from various sources in order to evaluate candidates for public office
  3.4.2 Explain how the Constitution is maintained as the supreme law of the land
  3.5.1 Describe the purposes and functions of major international, governmental organizations
  3.5.2 Describe means used by the US to resolve international conflicts
• Economic Perspective
  4.1.1 Use economic reasoning when comparing price, quality and features of goods and services
  4.1.2 Evaluate employment and career opportunities in light of economic trends
  4.1.3 Analyze the reliability of information when making economic decisions
  4.2.1 Using a real example, describe how business practices, profit and a willingness to take risks enables an entrepreneur to operate
  4.2.2 Compare various methods for the production and distribution of goods and services
  4.2.3 Describe the effects of a current public policy on businesses
  4.2.4 Examine the historical and contemporary role an industry has played and continues to play in a community
  4.3.1 Distinguish between public and private goods using contemporary examples
  4.3.2 Identify and describe different forms of economic measurement
  4.3.3 Use case studies to assess the role of government in the economy
  4.3.4 Distinguish different forms of taxation and describe their effects
  4.4.1 Compare the historical record of market economies in solving the problem of scarcity
  4.4.2 Describe the roles of the various economic institutions which comprise the American economic system such as governments, business firms, labor unions, banks and households
  4.4.3 Use case studies to exemplify how supply and demand, prices, incentives and profits determine what is produced and distributed in the American economy
  4.4.4 Analyze how purchasers obtain information about good and services from advertising and other sources
  4.5.1 Identify the current and potential contributions of national and world regions to trade
  4.5.2 Examine the role of the US government in regulating commerce as stated in the US Constitution
  4.5.3 Describe the historical development of the different means of payment such as barter, precious metals or currency to facilitate exchange
• Inquiry
  5.1.1 Locate and interpret information about the natural environments and cultures of countries using a variety of primary and secondary sources and electronic technologies, including computers an telecommunications where appropriate
  5.1.2 Use traditional and electronic means to organize social science information and to make maps, graphs and tables
  5.1.3 Interpret social science information about the natural environment and cultures of countries from a variety of primary and secondary sources
  5.2.1 Pose a social science question about a culture, world, region or international problem
  5.2.2 Gather and analyze information using appropriate information technologies to answer the question posed
  5.2.3 Construct an answer to the question posed and support their answers with evidence
  5.2.4 Report the results of their investigations including the procedures followed and possible alternative conclusions
• Public Discourse and Decision Making
  6.1.1 State public policy issues and their related ethical, definitional and factual issues as questions
  6.1.2 Trace the origins of a public issue
  6.1.3 Explain how culture and experience shape positions that people take on an issue
  6.2.1 Engage each other in conversations which attempt to clarify and resolve national and international policy issues
  6.3.1 Compose essays expressing decisions on national and international policy issues
• Citizen Involvement
  7.1.1 Use laws and other ethical rules to evaluate their own conduct and the conduct of others
  7.1.2 Engage in activities intended to contribute to solving a national or international problem they have studied