Grade 8 Summary

Unit 2: Lesson 1: What is in Space?

Most of the worlds is empty space a vacuum.

Galaxy: is an enormous collection of gas dust and billions of stars with their solar system held all
together by gravity.
Quasar: is a quasi-stellar object with black holes a billion times as huge as the sun.
quasars are the brightest shining objects in the universe and eclipse the existing Galaxy.
Satellite: is an object that orbits or rotates around another object.
it can be either natural or human made.
Earth has only one natural satellite is the moon.
The moon Characteristics:
In ancient times, the moon was used to measure the passing months.
The moon is the reason for having stable climate and sea tides on earth.
Our moon is the 5th largest satellite among other moons.
The moon has only about 1/6 of earth’s gravity.
The moon is covered by thousands of craters
Craters: large, rounded holes in the moon ground caused by explosion or an object hitting it.
There are two types two main types of craters:
Impact Craters: they occur when an object, such as an asteroid hit the moon’s surface.
Volcano Craters: they are formed when gases and lava explode from a volcano hole on the
moon’s surface.
Exploring the moon:
Galileo Galilei was the first one to discover four new moons, on Jupiter
The Russian spacecraft Luna 1 was the first to reach the moon.
NASA is US agency responsible for science and technology related to Air and Space.
Unit 2: Lesson 2: Outer Space

Extraterrestrial life also known as exobiology or Astrobiology.

Extraterrestrial life: is life that occurs outside earth.
Asteroids: are rocks that revolve around the sun but are too small to be called planets.
The largest asteroids are called Planetoids.
Unidentified flying Objects or UFOs.
Until now there is still no proof that UFOs exists
The purpose of having mission to another planets is to study outer space.
Apollo 11 was the greatest mission to the moon the mission was undertaken by Neil Armstrong.

Unit 2: Lesson 3: Types of Disasters

A disaster: is a disorder causing human economic, material, or environmental loss.

Not all disasters are caused by nature.
Natural disaster: is catastrophic which takes place from any slow or quick natural and geologic
process on Earth.
Tornadoes are also known as twisters or whirlwinds.
Man-made disaster: are actions and threats caused by humans.
Technological disasters: are man-made disaster that occur due to human error when trying to
control anything related to technology.
Label each disaster as natural technological or man-made:
Gas explosions - technological disaster
Avalanche - natural disasters
Mining accident - man-made disaster
Floods - natural disasters
Chemical Releases - technological disasters
Tornado - natural disasters
War - man-made disasters
Fire in a building - man-made disasters
Droughts - natural disasters
Wildfires - natural disasters

Unit 2: Lesson 4: Earth’s Resources

Natural resources fall into two main categories renewable resources and non-renewable
resources.
Types of natural resources:
Renewable resources: are the resources that are continuously found in nature and can be
replaced or recovered for example animals and water.
Renewable resources are two types organic and inorganic.
Organic renewable: are all the resources that originate from living things such as animals or
plants.
Inorganic renewable: are all the resources that originate from nonliving things such as wind or
water.
Non-renewable resources: these types of resources are hard to be replaced once they are
consumed.
non-renewable resources are also categorized as organic and inorganic.
Organic non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels.
Inorganic non-renewable resources such as minerals and rocks.
Water is the most useful resources for humans.
There are three main categories of water resource: Saltwater, Groundwater, and Surface water.
Salt water found in oceans and seas this is the most abundant water resources on earth.
Desalination is the process of removing salt from saltwater.
Salt water is the main source for salt that we use every day it is also used as a source of
hydroelectricity.
Groundwater is the most abundant source of freshwater, groundwater water which is stored
underground in aquifers. Water Well, is another example of groundwater.
An aquifer is a whole or crack where water is stored.
Surface water is the water in lakes and rivers.

Unit 2: Lesson 5: Deep into Our Oceans

More than 70% of Earth's surface is ocean.

Ocean has five main layers known as zones extended from the surface to the deep dark depths.
Ocean layers:
Epipelagic zone: This is the surface layer extended from the surface 200 meter downward. It's
also known as the sunlight zone because it receives the most sunlight.
70% of the ocean’s animal live in this zone.
Mesopelagic zone: Only extremely faint light passes through it; it’s also known as twilight zone.
Bathypelagic zone: It has a constant temperature level this zone is all is known as the dark zone
or midnight zone.
Abyssopelagic zone: This zone has no lights at all.
Hadalpelagic zone: This zone is the deepest layer of the ocean, also known as the trenches.