8th Grade Course Overviews by Content Area
Provided below are brief overviews of the content taught in core academic classes.  For more specific information regarding the scope and sequence of each curriculum, please utilize our curriculum maps, which can be found in Rubicon Atlas.

Language Arts
Students in ELA 8 read both fiction and nonfiction, with close attention to key ideas and details, craft, structure, and the integration of new ideas and knowledge. Reading units include Literary Traditions, Nonfiction Reading and Research, Science Fiction/Dystopia, and Reading Like a Writer (craft analysis.) Students write opinion, informational/explanatory, and narrative pieces, using the craft elements and organization appropriate to each. Eighth grade grammar includes the study of gerunds, participles, and infinitives, as well as active and passive voice. Students learn Greek and Latin affixes and roots to develop vocabulary and improve fluency.

Math
Math 8 focuses on four critical areas: (1) Number and Quantity; (2) Algebra and Function; (3) Geometry and (4) Measurement, Data and Probability. Students will: (a) Extend understanding of numbers to the real number system; (b) Understand the connections between proportional relationships, lines, and linear equations; (c) Solve linear equations and systems of linear equations; (d) Work with radicals and integer exponents; (e) Define, evaluate, and compare functions, and use functions to model relationships between quantities; (f) Understand congruence and similarity; (g) Use the Pythagorean Theorem; (h) Solve problems involving volumes of cylinders, cones, and spheres; (i) Investigate patterns of association in bivariate data.  Math Online Resources

Science

8th grade science provides a hands-on approach to the Life Sciences. Our units include Environmental Science, Taxonomy, Anatomy, Cytology and Cells, and Genetics.  We study life science by examining patterns in nature and discussing the systems that exist on each organizational level of living organisms. Students learn to use microscopes, design and implement lab experiments and investigations while collecting data and providing evidence-based claims throughout all units.
Social Studies
8th grade social studies covers the evolution of the human species until globalization of the world zones first introduced in Columbus’s voyages.  Students study how communities, production and development, and trade networks adapt and change over time and location.  A heavy emphasis is placed on reading non-fiction.