PRISM Library
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Weather and Climate Unit Introduction
A 45-minute introduction lesson where students differentiate weather from climate, explain air masses and fronts, interpret weather maps, and connect the water cycle to weather patterns.
Predicting Traits
Students learn how to use Punnett squares to predict the probability of offspring inheriting specific traits, understanding dominant and recessive alleles, genotypes, and phenotypes.
Grade 8 Science Assessment
Comprehensive assessment covering NC DPI 2023 K-12 Science Standards for Grade 8 (EOG Aligned)
Grade 7 Science Assessment
Comprehensive assessment covering NC DPI 2023 K-12 Science Standards for Grade 7
Food Webs & Energy Flow
A 30 minute Grade 8 lesson on how energy enters ecosystems (mainly sunlight), how producers convert it to chemical energy, and how energy is transferred and lost as heat through a food web.
Why Charlotte Doesn't Freeze in June: Seasons & Earth's Tilt
Students watch the Generation Genius 'Causes of Seasons' video and build a mental model of how Earth's axial tilt, not its distance from the Sun, drives seasonal changes in temperature, daylight hours, and sunlight intensity across the hemispheres. The lesson connects abstract orbital mechanics to students' lived experience of seasons in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Under Our Feet
Students explore how water moves through soil and rock to form aquifers, understand how watersheds collect and channel water, and analyze human impacts on water quality.
Graphing Motion
Students learn to create and interpret position-time graphs, calculate speed from slope, identify periods of rest, constant speed, and acceleration from graph shape, and compare the motion of multiple objects on the same graph.
Unit Review - Heredity: Inheritance and Variation
Comprehensive unit review covering heredity and genetics: inherited vs. acquired traits, DNA/chromosomes/genes, alleles and dominance, genotype vs. phenotype, Punnett squares, sexual vs. asexual reproduction, genetic variation and survival, and environmental effects on inheritance.
Unit Test - Earth's Place in the Universe
Summative unit assessment covering Earth's cosmic address and solar system, the Goldilocks Zone, axial tilt and seasons, Moon phases, ocean tides, solar and lunar eclipses, and moons of the solar system.
Forces and Interactions: Putting It All Together
Students synthesize all unit concepts by connecting motion description to graphing to forces to electromagnetism, apply integrated knowledge to real-world scenarios (roller coaster, electric car, maglev train), and review key vocabulary from all four previous lessons.
Grade 8 Quick Quiz: Light, Albedo, Measurement, and the Water Cycle
A 5-question quiz on visible light and color, albedo, SI vs US customary units with a conversion, key water cycle processes, and Earth's usable water.
Unit Test - Heredity, Inheritance, and Variation
Summative unit assessment covering heredity and genetics: inherited vs. acquired traits, DNA/chromosomes/genes, alleles and dominance, genotype vs. phenotype, Punnett squares, sexual vs. asexual reproduction, genetic variation and survival, and environmental effects on gene expression.
States of Matter and Phase Changes
Students learn how particle arrangement and motion differ across solids, liquids, and gases, explore all six phase changes and the role of thermal energy, and interpret heating curves to understand what happens at each plateau.
Matter and Its Interactions Unit Introduction
A 60 minute unit introduction where students model atomic structure, use periodic table patterns to predict properties, distinguish elements/compounds/mixtures, and explain chemical reactions and conservation of mass using models and data.
Evidence for Evolution
Students explore four major lines of evidence for biological evolution: the fossil record (including transitional fossils), comparative anatomy (homologous, analogous, and vestigial structures), embryology, and molecular biology (DNA comparisons). Students also learn how modern classification systems reflect evolutionary relationships.
Your Cosmic Address
Students explore Earth's place in the universe, from our local solar system to the Milky Way galaxy and beyond, while understanding why Earth is uniquely suited to support life.
Matter and Its Interactions - Remix
A fast-paced review of the first three lessons covering atoms and subatomic particles, phases and properties of matter, and elements and the periodic table. Designed to get students caught up and re-oriented after absences.