8th Grade Physics

Teacher:  Jamie York (Read more about his biography here)

Dates for 4-week course:
March 29 to April 30, 2027 (with one week break for Spring Break)

Times for Live Sessions:  Monday through Thursday at 9:15am MT, and Friday at 9:15am MT for student group meetings.  Each session lasts between 35 and 60 minutes, and the students spend around 20 minutes each day watching a record presentation.  Please note that all times are given in Mountain Time (MT), which is two hours behind ET, and one hour ahead of PT.

Course Description

While seventh-grade physics concentrates on the observation of natural phenomena, eighth-grade physics focuses on how knowledge of those natural phenomena has led to discoveries and inventions that have transformed our society, such as the telescope, the electric motor, and the hydraulic jack.  

The four-week main lesson block begins with optics, studying prisms, refraction, the generation of color, and lenses.  The culminating experience with optics is when the students have the opportunity to make their own Galilean telescope.  The next topic is electromagnetism, which is introduced by showing how an electrical current produces a magnetic field.  This can be used to do work, as the students discover by building their own electric motors, and, perhaps, telegraphs.  We then learn about some basic laws of electricity and how it is used in our modern world.  The third (and last) major topic is pressure, both in water and in air, which leads nicely to the principles of hydraulics and aeromechanics.  

Throughout the block, the daily routine consists of watching recorded demonstrations, doing hands-on activities, and attending live sessions to discuss observations and concepts with the teacher.  Once per week, the students gather in small groups to work on a group activity.  Additionally, the students write, as clearly as they can, about highlights in their main lesson books.  Finally, on the last day, each student gives a brief presentation to their classmates on a physics topic of their choice.

Topics covered:

• Optics: refraction index, lenses, optical bench, telescope, after images,  Goethe’s prism experiments, color wheel
• Electromagnetism: Oersted’s demo, lefthand rule, induction, generators, I = V/R , P = I·V, E = P·T, build an electric motor
• Pressure: Exchange of temperature/pressure/volume, hydraulics, Archimedes’ Principle, Pascal’s Principle, Aeromechanics, barometer