8th Grade Science: An Update!

In the first term of 8th grade science, students focused on building lab skills for high school and learning about planning, running, and reporting on a multi-month lab experiment. They reviewed their understanding of how to work with chemicals safely through chromatography where they ran various experiments, from testing the chlorophyll in leaves to determine what color they will change to to testing with solvent works best for paper chromatography. They also had the opportunity to complete a fetal pig dissection to review their biology work from 6th grade, and to refresh their dissection skills. This involved learning about ethical decision making as students thoughtfully determined how they wanted to participate - hands-on, observing, or by completing a virtual dissection. Throughout the entire term, students were also running their Plants in Space experiments, where they designed and set up an experiment testing a randomly drawn variable that could impact plant growth in space. Students ordered materials, took regular measurements and observations, and then culminated their work by writing a full length lab report with in depth analysis. These experiments ranged from plants being upside, grown underwater, and hydrated with liquids like coffee and tea.

The 8th grade term culminated with the top secret experience of Mission, where students were able to draw upon a variety of skills they had been training with throughout science in unknown ways…