Grade 8 Units

Explore Grade 8 unit plans in Science, Social Studies, Math, and Language Arts with standards-aligned lessons that support rigorous, engaging instruction.

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Grade 8 Science Units

Unit Plan 11 (Grade 8 Science): Newton’s Third Law in Action

Grade 8 NGSS unit using Newton’s Third Law to design devices that harness equal and opposite force pairs to move or control the motion of two interacting objects.

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Grade 8 Science Units

Unit Plan 10 (Grade 8 Science): Newton’s Laws—Motion Basics

Grade 8 NGSS unit where students use force diagrams and motion graphs to show how changes in motion depend on net force and mass through hands-on investigations.

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Grade 8 Science Units

Unit Plan 9 (Grade 8 Science): Matter & Interactions—Quarter Synthesis

Grade 8 NGSS unit integrating atoms, molecules, reactions, mass conservation, and thermal energy with engineering design to model and solve real-world systems.

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Grade 8 Science Units

Unit Plan 8 (Grade 8 Science): Designing Thermal Devices

Grade 8 NGSS engineering unit where students design, build, test, and improve devices that absorb or release thermal energy using particle models and data.

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Grade 8 Science Units

Unit Plan 7 (Grade 8 Science): Thermal Energy & Particle Motion

Grade 8 NGSS-aligned unit where students model how adding or removing thermal energy changes particle motion, temperature, and states of matter using data.

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Grade 8 Science Units

Unit Plan 6 (Grade 8 Science): Synthetic Materials & Natural Resources

Grade 8 NGSS unit where students research how synthetic materials come from natural resources and analyze their benefits, drawbacks, and societal impacts.

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Grade 8 Science Units

Unit Plan 5 (Grade 8 Science): Conservation of Mass in Reactions

Grade 8 NGSS unit where students model atom rearrangement and measure mass to show matter is conserved in chemical reactions using closed systems.

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Grade 8 Science Units

Unit Plan 4 (Grade 8 Science): Physical vs. Chemical Changes

Grade 8 NGSS unit modeling how thermal energy changes particle motion, temperature, and state, helping students explain physical vs chemical changes with evidence.

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Grade 8 Science Units

Unit Plan 3 (Grade 8 Science): Properties of Substances

Grade 8 NGSS-aligned unit where students use data, properties, and CER writing to tell physical changes from chemical reactions using clear evidence.

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Grade 8 Science Units

Unit Plan 2 (Grade 8 Science): Atoms, Molecules & Structures

NGSS-aligned Grade 8 science unit using atomic models to show how atoms form molecules and extended structures, building foundations for chemical reactions.

Grade 8 Science Units

Unit Plan 1 (Grade 8 Science): Science Skills & Modeling Foundations

Kick off Grade 8 science with an NGSS-aligned unit on lab safety, measurement, graphing, and modeling matter and energy using criteria and constraints.

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Grade 8 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 36 (Grade 8 Social Studies): Cumulative Synthesis & Exhibition

Show what you know through exhibits, debates, and timelines that connect freedom, conflict, and progress across U.S. history—using evidence, maps, and civic reasoning to explain change and propose informed action.

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Grade 8 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 35 (Grade 8 Social Studies): Legacy of Reconstruction and Civic Struggle

Reconstruction reshaped race, citizenship, and justice—expanding rights through the 13th–15th Amendments while Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, courts, and civic resistance contested equality.

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Grade 8 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 34 (Grade 8 Social Studies): Economic Recovery and Sharecropping

Investigate how the postwar South rebuilt through sharecropping, tenant farming, and the crop-lien credit system—and how land use, soil, and market access shaped persistent debt and regional specialization.

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Grade 8 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 33 (Grade 8 Social Studies): Rights and the Reconstruction Amendments

Analyze the 13th–15th Amendments—their promises of freedom, citizenship, and voting rights—and how courts, states, and communities expanded or restricted those rights.

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Grade 8 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 32 (Grade 8 Social Studies): Reconstruction Plans and Politics

Compare Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction—their goals, powers, and outcomes—and analyze how checks & balances, federalism, and citizen participation shaped post-Civil War change.

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Grade 8 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 31 (Grade 8 Social Studies): The War’s End and Immediate Aftermath

Trace how surrender terms, Lincoln’s assassination, and post-war devastation shaped spring–summer 1865—impacting communities, migration, and the first steps toward Reconstruction.

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Grade 8 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 30 (Grade 8 Social Studies): Turning Points and the Emancipation Proclamation

Evaluate how leadership choices and the Emancipation Proclamation reshaped the Civil War—redefining war aims, influencing major campaigns, and shifting constitutional, political, and diplomatic outcomes.

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Grade 8 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 29 (Grade 8 Social Studies): Life During the Civil War

Explore how soldiers, civilians, and enslaved people experienced the Civil War, highlighting civic action, scarcity, and economic trade-offs that shaped daily life and choices.

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Grade 8 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 28 (Grade 8 Social Studies): The Civil War Begins

Analyze how secession, early battles, and geographic and resource differences shaped Union and Confederate strategies—revealing why terrain, rivers, rail, and industry influenced early Civil War outcomes.

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Grade 8 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 27 (Grade 8 Social Studies): Midyear Synthesis—Expansion to Division Timeline Project

Connect geography, economic change, and political conflict in a visual timeline showing how territorial growth, infrastructure, and market shifts drove the United States from expansion toward sectional division and war.

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Grade 8 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 26 (Grade 8 Social Studies): The Road to War

Trace how key events from 1850–1860—from Fugitive Slave Act to John Brown’s raid and Lincoln’s election—escalated sectional tensions, reshaped politics, and drove the nation toward war.

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Grade 8 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 25 (Grade 8 Social Studies): Sectionalism and Compromise

Analyze how slavery and politics split the U.S., and why the Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, and Kansas–Nebraska Act delayed yet deepened sectional conflict.

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Grade 8 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 24 (Grade 8 Social Studies): The Market Revolution

Connect regional specialization, new transport and communication tech, and financial systems to national growth—while revealing trade-offs and rising sectional tensions.

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Grade 8 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 23 (Grade 8 Social Studies): Reform Movements and Democracy in Action

Explore how abolition, women’s rights, education reform, and temperance movements used petition, press, and assembly to expand U.S. democracy and challenge its limits.