Grade 8 · printable course

Physical Science: Matter, Energy, and Interactions

Grade 8 · 448 pages · 77 lessons · PDF, print at home

This is a full year of physical science built around one idea: everything, matter, heat, sound, light, electricity, is made of tiny particles moving and interacting, and the total amount of "stuff" (mass, energy, or charge) never actually disappears, it just moves around or changes form. Your child will do kitchen-table labs (baking soda and vinegar in a sealed bag, ropes and slinkies, homemade circuits), draw a lot of dot-and-arrow diagrams, and gradually learn to explain everyday things, why a hot spoon burns your hand, why a bird can sit on a power line, why a prism makes rainbows, using that one particle idea instead of guessing. The math stays simple: no equation shows up without a picture or table first, and nothing goes beyond what a calculator and a bit of algebra can handle.

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What is inside

Every unit and lesson in this book, in order. The same lessons are taught online at lettersanddevotion.com, so a family can move between paper and screen.

Physical Science: Matter, Energy, and Interactions

77 lessons · try a lesson online free

Unit 1: The Particle Model of Matter12 lessons
  1. 1.Atoms and molecules as the building blocks of all matter
  2. 2.Particle arrangement and motion in solids, liquids, and gases
  3. 3.The relationship between particle spacing/motion and macroscopic state behavior
  4. 4.Density as mass per unit volume, linked to particle spacing
  5. 5.Density as evidence for distinguishing substances that look alike
  6. 6.Temperature as average particle kinetic motion
  7. 7.Conservation of particle number during phase change
  8. 8.Conservation of particle number applied to an untaught phase-change context
  9. 9.The distinction between phase change and chemical change at the particle level
  10. 10.Generalization of the particle model to untaught states of matter
  11. 11.Synthesis of particle spacing, motion, and conservation to explain a novel scenario
  12. 12.Textual evidence supporting a scientific claim about phase change
Unit 2: Chemical Reactions and Conservation of Mass10 lessons
  1. 13.Persistence of individual atoms across a chemical reaction, shown in particle diagrams
  2. 14.The distinction between closed and open systems
  3. 15.Evidence that distinguishes chemical change from physical change
  4. 16.Conservation of mass in closed versus open systems during a gas-producing reaction
  5. 17.Conservation of mass applied to a novel closed-system reaction not used in instruction
  6. 18.Shared evidence of chemical change across reactions occurring at very different rates
  7. 19.Conceptual word-equation representation of chemical reactions with atom tallying
  8. 20.Exothermic versus endothermic classification from textual evidence in an unfamiliar source
  9. 21.A novel everyday phenomenon evaluated for chemical change and mass-conservation evidence, using no in-class example
  10. 22.The error in claiming atoms are destroyed to explain apparent mass loss
Unit 3: Forces and Newton's Laws9 lessons
  1. 23.Balanced vs. unbalanced forces on a moving object
  2. 24.Newton's first law (inertia) and its relation to friction
  3. 25.Net force calculation from multiple force vectors on one axis
  4. 26.The F=ma relationship among force, mass, and acceleration
  5. 27.Application of Newton's second law to an unfamiliar mechanical context
  6. 28.Newton's third law as a general structure across dissimilar contexts
  7. 29.Construction of an interaction pair from a single given force
  8. 30.Validity of a free-body diagram against the physical scenario it represents
  9. 31.Synthesis of Newton's three laws into one design justification
Unit 4: Energy: Forms, Transfer, and Conservation9 lessons
  1. 32.Kinetic, gravitational potential, elastic potential, and thermal energy forms
  2. 33.The kinetic energy equation and its non-linear dependence on speed
  3. 34.The relationship between an equation's exponent structure and its graphical shape
  4. 35.Work as force multiplied by distance in the direction of force
  5. 36.Heat transfer direction and thermal equilibrium at the particle level
  6. 37.Conservation of total energy across transformations in an unfamiliar closed system
  7. 38.Energy dispersal versus energy destruction in a bouncing-ball system
  8. 39.Efficiency as a ratio of useful output energy to total input energy
  9. 40.Energy dispersal patterns across sections of a mechanical energy system
Unit 5: Waves: A Model for Energy Transfer10 lessons
  1. 41.Amplitude and wavelength as features of a transverse wave diagram
  2. 42.The definition and unit of frequency
  3. 43.The causal link between particle-to-particle collision and mechanical wave propagation
  4. 44.The distinction between longitudinal and transverse particle motion
  5. 45.The wave speed relationship v=fλ
  6. 46.The difference between particle oscillation and net energy transport in a wave
  7. 47.Superposition of two wave pulses on a shared medium
  8. 48.Reflection of a mechanical wave at a media boundary
  9. 49.The relationship among wave speed, frequency, and wavelength across a medium change
  10. 50.Common errors in measuring amplitude and wavelength on a diagram
Unit 6: Sound and the Behavior of Mechanical Waves8 lessons
  1. 51.Wavelength and amplitude as distinct measured features of a wave diagram
  2. 52.The frequency formula applied to counted wave cycles over a measured time interval
  3. 53.The causal mechanism by which sound requires a medium of particles to compress and rarefy
  4. 54.The independence of pitch (mapped to frequency) and loudness (mapped to amplitude) as separate wave properties
  5. 55.Timbre as the additional wave complexity (overlapping frequencies) beyond the fundamental frequency and amplitude
  6. 56.Resonance as a match between a driving frequency and an object's natural frequency
  7. 57.An original experimental design isolating frequency as a variable independent of medium, for unfamiliar sound sources
  8. 58.The sequence of wave emission, reflection, and detection described in a technical text about sonar/ultrasound
Unit 7: Light: Waves Without a Medium9 lessons
  1. 59.The medium requirement difference between light and sound waves
  2. 60.The mechanism distinguishing electromagnetic waves from mechanical waves
  3. 61.The law of reflection (angle of incidence equals angle of reflection)
  4. 62.The structural difference between reflection and refraction at a boundary
  5. 63.The causal relationship between medium speed change and the direction of light bending
  6. 64.The wavelength-based explanation of prism dispersion
  7. 65.The causal link between a wave's medium requirement and its behavior at a boundary
  8. 66.An experimental method for detecting a wave's medium dependence
  9. 67.The inverse relationship between wavelength and frequency across the electromagnetic spectrum
Unit 8: Electricity and Magnetism10 lessons
  1. 68.Charge transfer as the cause of static electricity
  2. 69.Conservation of charge
  3. 70.The distinction between current and voltage
  4. 71.A closed series circuit
  5. 72.Current paths in series versus parallel circuits
  6. 73.Non-contact force, comparing magnetism and static electricity
  7. 74.Electromagnetism: current producing a magnetic field
  8. 75.Electromagnet applications in an unfamiliar device context
  9. 76.Current path and voltage difference in an unfamiliar real-world scenario
  10. 77.The integrated circuit-and-static-electricity performance task

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