Week 4: Year-End Integration & Assessment

Grade 8 Science | Rosche

MS-PS3-1 · MS-PS3-2 · MS-PS3-5 · MS-ETS1-1

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The Phenomenon: Year-End Integration & Assessment

Engineering Design Showcase + CCC Year-End Synthesis

What have you learned, built, and proven this year — and how do the 7 Cross-Cutting Concepts connect it all?

Driving Question: Year-End Integration: Engineering design showcase + CCC synthesis

Animation of heat transfer processes — conduction, convection, and radiation — synthesizing this year's thermal energy concepts
Animated diagram. Watch once before beginning the station activities.

Congratulations — You Made It to the End of 8th Grade Science

This week you'll demonstrate everything you've built across 8 cycles of science — from kinetic energy in Cycle 1 to thermal engineering in Cycle 8. This is not a test to pass. It is a showcase of your growth as a scientist and engineer. You'll present your best design work, apply all 7 Cross-Cutting Concepts to a new scenario, and reflect on who you've become as a thinker.

Animated explanation of the week's focus question. Watch then reason about why this happens.
Key Vocabulary (8 terms) — Practice Tool

Cognate Strategy: Many science words look similar in English and Spanish — use your Spanish to learn science!

Term Spanish Definition
scale escala Relative size or extent of phenomena
proportion proporcion Relationship between quantities at different scales
quantity cantidad Amount that can be measured
cause and effect causa y efecto Relationship where one event leads to another
pattern patron Regularity observed in data or nature
model modelo Representation used to understand complex systems
gravity gravedad Force of attraction between all objects with mass
orbit órbita Path of one object around another due to gravity

Hook – Year-End Synthesis Orientation

Orient to the Year-End Integration week structure and showcase preparation.
Hook concept anchor for Year-End Integration & Assessment. Vocab cards: scale, proportion, quantity, cause and effect. What have you learned, built, and proven this year — and how do the 7 Cross-Cutting Concepts connect it all?
Hook: Year-End Integration & Assessment

Part 1: Cycle 8 Synthesis (25 points)

Before the showcase, you'll complete a brief synthesis review connecting the three thermal phenomena from Weeks 1–3: the Hot Spoon Mystery (conduction), the Thermos Mystery (all three transfer methods + conservation of energy), and the Hot City Mystery (urban heat islands). This review is your final opportunity to show mastery of MS-PS3-1 and MS-PS3-3.

Week 4 Structure Overview

  • Part 1 — Cycle 8 Synthesis (25 pts, 20 min): Connect W1–W3 thermal energy concepts (C7 connectors absorbed: chemical reactions → exo/endothermic → heat) through synthesis questions
  • Part 2 — Engineering Design Showcase (35 pts, 30 min): Present your best Station 3 design from any cycle this year
  • Part 3 — CCC Year-End Synthesis (25 pts, 20 min): Apply all 7 Cross-Cutting Concepts to a novel physical science scenario
  • Part 4 — Year-End Reflection (15 pts, 15 min): Growth mindset reflection on your science identity and favorite design challenge
  • Bonus — Gravity & Orbits (10 pts): PhET simulation connecting energy and scale/proportion to planetary systems (MS-ESS1-2)

How to Prepare

Review your Station 3 work from Cycles 1–8. Choose the project you're most proud of — the one where you made the most interesting design decisions or where you revised your thinking. You don't need to memorize facts. You need to explain your reasoning.
COMPLETE THE HOOK FORM

Orient to the Year-End Integration assessment structure.

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Worked Example – Applying All 7 CCCs to a New Scenario

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Worked Example concept anchor for Year-End Integration & Assessment. Vocab cards: scale, proportion, quantity, cause and effect. What have you learned, built, and proven this year — and how do the 7 Cross-Cutting Concepts connect it all?
Worked Example: Year-End Integration & Assessment

Worked Example: Using All 7 CCCs on a Solar Panel System

Scenario: A neighborhood in St. Louis installs a community solar array on the roof of their recreation center. Over the first year, they collect energy production data, compare their electricity bills, and notice the roof is cooler by 8 °C. Use all 7 Cross-Cutting Concepts to analyze this system.

CCC Application Walkthrough

  1. Patterns: Energy production peaks in July and dips in December — a seasonal pattern matching solar angle and day length.
  2. Cause and Effect: The solar panels convert radiation into electricity rather than heat, directly reducing the roof temperature (cause) and lowering cooling costs (effect).
  3. Scale, Proportion, and Quantity: 100 m² of panels converts ~15 kW of solar energy — a tiny fraction of the Sun's total output, but significant at the neighborhood scale.
  4. Systems and System Models: The solar array is a subsystem of the building's energy system, which connects to the electrical grid — removing panels changes the whole system's behavior.
  5. Energy and Matter: Solar energy (radiation) is converted to electrical energy (electrons flowing) — energy is conserved; it changes form, not amount.
  6. Structure and Function: The photovoltaic cell's layered silicon structure (p-n junction) is specifically designed to capture photon energy — structure determines function.
  7. Stability and Change: The neighborhood was in energy-cost instability (high bills, aging infrastructure). The solar array restores stability by reducing dependence on grid electricity.
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Station 1 – Part 2: Engineering Design Showcase

Present your best Station 3 engineering design from any cycle this year.
Station 1 concept anchor for Year-End Integration & Assessment. Vocab cards: scale, proportion, quantity, cause and effect. What have you learned, built, and proven this year — and how do the 7 Cross-Cutting Concepts connect it all?
Station 1: Year-End Integration & Assessment

Part 2 — Engineering Design Showcase (35 points)

Choose your best Station 3 engineering design from any cycle this year. This could be your heat transfer device (C8 W1), thermal container (C8 W2), urban cooling solution (C8 W3), or any Station 3 design from Cycles 1–7. The best choice is the one where your scientific reasoning is strongest — not necessarily the one you scored highest on.

Showcase Submission Requirements

  1. Design summary (5 pts): What was the problem? What were the criteria and constraints? What did you design?
  2. Scientific principles (10 pts): Which NGSS concepts from this year's curriculum does your design apply? Be specific — use vocabulary and cite the cycle where you learned each concept.
  3. Testing and iteration (10 pts): How did you test your design? What did you change between your first and final version? What evidence showed improvement?
  4. Communication (10 pts): Is your explanation clear? Would a classmate who hadn't done your cycle understand your design and why it works?
COMPLETE THE STATION 1 FORM

Present and explain your best engineering design from this year.

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Station 2 – Part 3: CCC Year-End Synthesis

Apply all 7 Cross-Cutting Concepts to demonstrate integrative scientific thinking.
Station 2 concept anchor for Year-End Integration & Assessment. Vocab cards: scale, proportion, quantity, cause and effect. What have you learned, built, and proven this year — and how do the 7 Cross-Cutting Concepts connect it all?
Station 2: Year-End Integration & Assessment

Part 3 — CCC Year-End Synthesis (25 points)

The 7 Cross-Cutting Concepts are science's most powerful analytical lenses — patterns, cause and effect, scale/proportion/quantity, systems, energy and matter, structure and function, and stability and change. Great scientists use ALL of them on every problem. Today you'll apply all 7 to a novel scenario involving the Mississippi River ecosystem near St. Louis.

Novel Scenario: The Mississippi in Summer

In summer 2022, the Mississippi River near St. Louis reached record-low water levels AND record-high water temperatures simultaneously. Fish die-offs occurred; barge traffic stalled; drinking water intake for East St. Louis required emergency treatment. For each of the 7 CCCs, write 2–3 sentences analyzing this event through that lens. Use your full year of science vocabulary — thermal energy, ecosystems, chemical reactions, natural selection, energy flow — wherever they apply.

Bonus (10 pts): Gravity & Orbits — MS-ESS1-2

Use the PhET Gravity and Orbits simulation to model Earth's orbit around the Sun. Vary the Sun's mass and observe how orbital speed and path change. Answer 3 questions: (1) What pattern describes the relationship between the Sun's mass and Earth's orbital speed? (2) How does gravity demonstrate the CCC of Systems — what would happen to Earth's climate if the Sun's gravity suddenly doubled? (3) At what scale does gravity operate compared to the thermal forces you studied in Cycles 1 and 8?
COMPLETE THE STATION 2 FORM

Apply all 7 Cross-Cutting Concepts to a novel physical science scenario.

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Station 3 – Part 4: Year-End Reflection

Reflect on your growth as a scientist and engineer across the full year.
Station 3 concept anchor for Year-End Integration & Assessment. Vocab cards: scale, proportion, quantity, cause and effect. What have you learned, built, and proven this year — and how do the 7 Cross-Cutting Concepts connect it all?
Station 3: Year-End Integration & Assessment

Part 4 — Year-End Reflection (15 points)

This is the most important 15 minutes of the year — not because of the points, but because it asks you to look at yourself clearly and honestly. Scientists grow by noticing where they were wrong and where they got better. This reflection is yours to keep.

Reflection Prompts

  1. Biggest scientific shift (5 pts): What idea from this year most changed how you see the world? (Not just "I learned X" — but how does it change how you observe something in your daily life, your neighborhood, or your family?)
  2. Engineering identity (5 pts): Describe a moment this year when you felt like an actual engineer or scientist — not just a student doing an assignment. What were you doing? What made it feel real?
  3. Favorite design challenge (5 pts): Which Station 3 challenge was most interesting to you? What would you do differently now — with everything you know from all 8 cycles — that you couldn't do at the time?

A Note from the Science Department

You spent this year asking questions that professional scientists ask every day: Why does this happen? What's the pattern? How can I design something better? The skills you practiced — constructing arguments from evidence, planning investigations, building models — are skills that change communities. The thermal physics you learned this cycle can literally keep your neighbors cooler and safer. Science is not just a subject. It is a way of taking care of the world.
COMPLETE THE STATION 3 FORM

Complete your year-end science identity and growth reflection.

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Exit Survey — Final Year-End Reflection (15 pts)

Final exit survey: brief reflection on growth, science identity, favorite design challenge. (Already counted toward Part 4 total above; see the form linked below.)
Exit Ticket concept anchor for Year-End Integration & Assessment. Vocab cards: scale, proportion, quantity, cause and effect. What have you learned, built, and proven this year — and how do the 7 Cross-Cutting Concepts connect it all?
Exit Ticket: Year-End Integration & Assessment

Final Exit Ticket — Year-End Integration

Your final exit ticket brings together the full year: 2 NEW questions connecting Cycle 8 thermal engineering to the urban heat island design challenge; 2 SPIRAL questions drawing on earlier cycles (Cycle 1 kinetic energy foundations and Cycle 7 exothermic reactions as heat sources); and 1 INTEGRATION question applying the SEP of Engaging in Argument from Evidence — you'll evaluate a classmate's design claim and decide whether their evidence is sufficient to support it, using thermal principles as your reasoning framework.

COMPLETE THE EXIT TICKET

Demonstrate year-end synthesis of science concepts and practices.

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Enrichment & Extension
Go Deeper

Optional content if you finish early or want to go deeper.

Scientist Spotlight: Dr. Lewis Howard Latimer

Lewis Howard Latimer (1848–1928) was a Black American inventor and engineer whose work made the electrification of cities possible. The son of formerly enslaved parents, Latimer taught himself mechanical drawing and became one of the most skilled patent draftsmen in the country. He worked alongside both Alexander Graham Bell (drafting the telephone patent) and Thomas Edison — but his most significant contribution was inventing a durable carbon filament for the incandescent lightbulb in 1882. Edison's original filaments burned out in hours; Latimer's lasted for weeks. This advancement — based on the thermal properties of carbon and how it transfers heat at high temperatures — made electric lighting practical for homes and streets. Latimer also supervised the installation of electric street lighting systems in New York, Philadelphia, Montreal, and London. The thermal engineering principles you studied all year — how materials conduct, resist, and emit heat — are exactly the principles Latimer mastered to transform cities. His story reminds us that Black engineers have always been building the infrastructure of modern life.

Environmental Justice: The Full Year — Science as a Tool for St. Louis

Across eight cycles, you studied science through the lens of your community. From the chemical contamination of Sauget and East St. Louis (Cycle 7) to the thermal inequity of North City neighborhoods (Cycle 8) to the ecosystem health of the Mississippi River (Year-End), every unit has been grounded in what is actually happening to real people in the St. Louis region. Environmental justice asks a simple question: Who bears the burden of environmental harm, and who has access to solutions? In St. Louis, the answer has followed racial and economic lines consistently for over a century. But science is also a tool of change: the weatherization engineers who insulate North City homes, the urban planners who plant trees in Walnut Park, the chemists who test the floodplain soil in Sauget — they are all applying the same science you practiced this year. You are now part of that tradition. Use it well.

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Week 4 Complete!