I teach the state core and use that as a guide to my class. I use textbooks as they relate to the core. I do not teach a textbook chapter by chapter.

The themes for Eighth Grade Integrated Science are change and energy. The "Benchmarks" in the eighth grade Core emphasize change as an organizing concept to understand matter and energy. Eighth graders should understand the relationship between energy and changes in matter. When matter combines, energy is absorbed or released and matter is rearranged to make new substances with new properties. The essential change that occurs in living organisms involves photosynthesis and respiration. The processes of change that shape and reshape the Earth continue today as in the past and require energy. Objects require energy to move, and this motion can be described, measured, and predicted.

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