Grade 8 Hands-on
School Year 2023/24
Forces and Fluids: Cargo Ship - Science - 2023/24
Students built model cargo ships in order to study buoyancy. First, the students brainstormed and drew blueprints. Then, the students built the ships and tested them in the water by adding weights to determine the maximum cargo capacity of their ships. Students performed various other measurements and calculations about their ships, including mass, volume, density, and buoyant force. Lastly, students made brochures to advertise their ships.
Filtration and evaporation - Science - 2023/24
Students performed filtration and evaporation experiments in order to demonstrate how substances in mixtures can be separated. First, the students used a filter funnel and filter paper to separate sand from water. Then, students filled bowls with salt water, and used hot plates to evaporate the water, leaving the salt behind. Lastly, they wrote down their observations in their science notebooks.
Dissection Lab - Science - 2023/24
Students dissected pig hearts in order to learn about the circulatory system. First, students bisected the hearts. Then, students opened the hearts and identified the four chambers. Students also found the following major blood vessels: vena cava, aorta, pulmonary trunk, and pulmonary veins.
Character Cards - English - 2023/24
Creating unique character cards was the first creative writing task for Grade 8 this year. They are a fun, creative way for the students to demonstrate their knowledge of grammar and vocab. This project was wildly successful, due to the fact that the project format contained elements of video games and anime which are very popular with the students.
1) Choose a character. Consider the character's name, appearance, personality traits and powers.
2) Create a picture of the character. The picture can be drawn by hand, painted, sketched or created digitally.
3) Write a description of the appearance of the character. The description should match the picture and use at least 5 vocab words for physical description.
4) Write a description of the personality of the character. The description should match the picture and use at least 5 vocab words for personality traits.
5) Write down the statistics and powers of your character. Also include a description of the characters' powers, if they have any magical abilities.
Real Numbers in Real Life - Math - 2023/24
The students were asked to make a poster displaying the real number system. They were asked to display it in a way that was unique and different to the other diagrams you can find on the internet and provide 5 examples of each subset.
They were asked to create a number line onto which they plotted 10 numbers in order from smallest to biggest and using numbers from the examples they had chosen. They calculated and explained why they saw certain numbers in that position of the number line.