GRADE 8
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Earth and Space Systems: Grade 8 – Water Systems
APPLICABLE EXPECTATIONS:
By the end of Grade 8, students will:
- investigate the major features of the earth’s water resources (e.g.,
oceans, rivers, lakes, glaciers, ice-caps, snowfall, clouds) and the effects
of large bodies of water on global climate and ecosystems;
- identify the various states of water on the earth’s surface and the
conditions under which they exist (e.g., glaciers, snow on mountains, and
polar ice-caps are solid states of water; oceans, lakes, rivers and groundwater
are liquid states of water; the atmosphere contains water in its gaseous state);
- describe the distribution and circulation of water on the earth (e.g., oceans,
glaciers, rivers, groundwater, the atmosphere);
- compare the formation of geological features on the ocean floor (e.g., sea
mounts, continental shelves, trenches) and the formation of lakes and rivers;
- investigate how large bodies of water affect the weather and climate of
an area (e.g., lakes affect snow precipitation);
- describe factors that affect glaciers and polar ice-caps, and describe the
effects of glaciers and polar ice-caps on the environment (e.g., annual precipitation,
temperature)
- evaluate human use of water and the economic and environmental effects of
that use (e.g. filtration plants, tourism, industrial applications, control
of water flow);
- evaluate the positive and negative effects on the earth’s water supply
of the development of natural resources (e.g., use of oil rigs, pulp and paper
mills);
- identify ways in which humans have tried to contain damage caused by water
(e.g., flood control, dune vegetation, coastline reconfiguration);
- explain how changes in the water table (e.g. changes in the water level
in wells) relate to the water cycle;
- discuss the technologies used to extract and secure oil and natural gas
from the ocean floor and the possible economic and environmental costs and
benefits.
The following vignettes address these expectations:
Glaciers,
Dirt, and the Sydenham River
Groundwater;
isn’t it grand?
Bounce
on a Bog
Carolinian
Canada
The McKeough
Floodplain
Amazing
Maize
Capt.
Steinhoff and Shipbuilding in Wallaceburg
Lager,
Ale and Mathew Bixel
Big Wheels,
Keep on Turning
Ontario’s
Glass Company
When Waters
Run High…
The Changing
Landscape
The Great
Enniskillen Swamp
Black
Gold! The Beginnings of the Oil Industry