Virginia Standards of Learning Science Grade 8

1.Where are the protons and neutrons in an atom found?

2.What charge does an electron carry, and where is that particle found?

3.A cart has a mass of 4 kilograms. A net force of 12 newtons pushes it along a level path. What is the cart's acceleration?

4.A neutral atom has 11 protons, 12 neutrons, and 11 electrons. What is its atomic number?

5.Two atoms each have 6 protons. One has 6 neutrons and the other has 8 neutrons. How are the atoms related?

6.An atom has 8 protons and 8 neutrons. What is its mass number?

7.A neutral sodium atom loses one electron. Which description fits the particle that remains?

8.A sample contains only copper atoms, and those atoms are not bonded to any other element. What is the sample?

9.Every pure sample of water contains hydrogen and oxygen atoms bonded in the same ratio. Why is water a compound?

10.A jar of trail mix holds peanuts, raisins, and pretzel pieces. Why is the jar a mixture rather than a compound?

11.Table salt is stirred into warm water until no grains can be seen. What is the salt water?

12.How are the elements ordered in the modern periodic table?

13.Sodium and potassium sit in the same column of the periodic table. What does that column suggest?

14.What is a period on the periodic table?

15.Which statement fits a typical metal such as copper or iron?

16.Sulfur is a nonmetal. Which property fits sulfur better than it fits iron?

17.Silicon is classified as a metalloid. What does that label mean?

18.Why do the noble gases in Group 18 seldom form compounds?

19.Lithium, sodium, and potassium are alkali metals. Which description fits this family?

20.Fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine belong to the halogen family. What is true of that group?

21.Sodium atoms transfer electrons to chlorine atoms, and the charged particles that result pull together. What bond is that?

22.Two oxygen atoms share electrons in an oxygen molecule. What holds those atoms together?

23.A block of ice on a winter porch in Roanoke melts into a puddle. What kind of change is the melting?

24.An iron rail in Norfolk grows a reddish-brown coating after months of damp air. What has happened to the iron?

25.In a sealed container, 30 grams of one reactant combine with 20 grams of another, and a gas forms. The container stays closed. What is the total mass inside afterward?

26.Damp wood shavings in an open pan have a mass of 40 grams. After the water has left as vapor, the dry shavings have a mass of 15 grams. Why is the mass in the pan smaller?

27.A rock sample in a Staunton classroom has a mass of 80 grams and a volume of 40 cubic centimeters. What is its density?

28.A solid pebble has a density of 4 grams per cubic centimeter. Liquid water has a density near 1 gram per cubic centimeter. What happens when the pebble is placed in the water?

29.Ice covers part of a pond in the Shenandoah Valley while liquid water stays underneath. Why does the ice remain on top?

30.Which description matches the particles of a gas in a closed tank?

31.Which pair of properties fits a liquid?

32.A pot of water on a stove in Alexandria is warmed but has not yet boiled. What happens to the water particles as the temperature rises?

33.Water in a kettle boils, and vapor leaves the spout. The vapor is still water. What is the boiling itself?

34.Every sample of pure water has two hydrogen atoms for each oxygen atom. What does that fixed ratio show?

35.Norfolk's average July high stays near 88 degrees Fahrenheit year after year, while tomorrow afternoon may bring a thunderstorm. Which statement uses the terms correctly?

36.A hockey puck glides across very smooth ice, and no noticeable net force acts on it. What does Newton's first law predict?

37.A loaded moving van is harder to start rolling than an empty wagon. Which idea explains the difference?

38.A textbook lies still on a desk. The desk pushes up with the same strength that gravity pulls down. What is true of the forces on the book?

39.A soccer ball sits at rest. During a kick, the forward force is stronger than friction. What happens to the ball?

40.A skateboard rolls along a concrete path in Virginia Beach and gradually slows. Which force mainly causes that slowing?

41.What is the weight of an object?

42.An astronaut's mass is 60 kilograms on Earth. Gravity at the Moon's surface is weaker. What is the astronaut's mass on the Moon?

43.A cyclist rides 36 kilometers on the Virginia Capital Trail in 2 hours at a steady rate. What is the cyclist's speed?

44.Two drones each fly at 8 meters per second. One heads east and the other heads west. How do their velocities compare?

45.A car on Interstate 64 speeds up from 10 meters per second to 20 meters per second. Which statement describes the car?

46.Two crates rest on the same smooth floor. Each receives the same net force, and the first crate has less mass. Which crate gains the larger acceleration?

47.A swimmer in a Newport News pool pushes backward on the water. What does Newton's third law say about the pair of forces?

48.Where the Rappahannock River meets the Chesapeake Bay, river water mixes with water from the Atlantic. What is that mixed coastal body?

49.A mover pulls a dolly 3 meters with a steady force of 50 newtons in the direction of motion. How much work is done on the dolly?

50.A hiker holds a heavy backpack still at shoulder height for two minutes. In the scientific sense, how much work is done on the backpack during that hold?

51.A small engine does 3000 joules of work in 10 seconds. What is its power?

52.A crowbar lets a person lift a rock with a smaller force than the rock's weight, while the hand moves farther than the rock. What is the tradeoff?

53.Workers roll a piano up a long ramp instead of lifting it straight onto a stage in Richmond. Why can the ramp require less force?

54.Which object has kinetic energy because of its motion?

55.A pumpkin sits on a porch rail above a yard in Orange County. What energy does that raised position give it?

56.A playground swing in Lynchburg is pulled high and released. Friction is small. Where is the swing's kinetic energy greatest?

57.A ball rolls down a grassy hill near Charlottesville and finally stops on flat ground. The kinetic energy seems to disappear. What happened to it?

58.A metal spoon sits in a hot bowl of soup. The handle warms even though the handle itself never enters the soup. How does thermal energy reach the handle?

59.Warm air from a floor heater rises, and cooler air sinks to take its place. What is that motion in the room?

60.Energy from the Sun crosses the nearly empty space between the Sun and Virginia. How does that energy travel?

61.A full bathtub and a cup of water taken from that tub are at the same temperature. Which comparison is correct?

62.A picnic cooler keeps ice frozen through a warm afternoon at First Landing State Park. Why does the cooler help?

63.A lamp plugged into a working socket glows. Which energy transfer is the lamp built to produce?

64.An oak on the Coastal Plain takes in carbon dioxide and water, stores energy in sugars, and releases oxygen. What is that process?

65.Coal from southwestern Virginia is burned at a power plant. Which statement describes that resource and the outcome of burning it?

66.Which resource is renewable for a community in Virginia?

67.A wave moves along the James River toward a dock. A bobber rises and falls but is not carried to the dock with each crest. What does the wave mainly transfer toward the dock?

68.On a diagram of a wave, what is the wavelength?

69.Four wave crests pass a pier every second. What is the frequency?

70.A guitar string is plucked softly, then plucked so it swings much farther from rest. The pitch stays the same. What changed?

71.A ringing bell sits in a jar from which nearly all the air has been removed. A listener just outside hears almost no ring. Why?

72.Why can sunlight reach Earth even though space along the path is nearly empty?

73.A student shakes one end of a rope, and a wave travels toward the other end while the rope itself moves up and down. What kind of wave is this?

74.Sound traveling through air is a longitudinal wave. How do the air particles move?

75.Which list runs from longest wavelength to shortest wavelength?

76.Within visible light, how do red and violet compare?

77.A hiker sees the Blue Ridge reflected in the still surface of a highland lake. Which behavior of light produces that mirror-like view?

78.A pencil standing in a glass of water looks bent at the waterline. The pencil is still straight. What makes it look bent?

79.A black shirt and a white shirt hang in the same sunny yard in July. Why does the black shirt usually feel hotter?

80.After a balloon is rubbed on a wool sweater, bits of paper jump toward the balloon. Why do the bits move?

81.Two balloons hang beside each other. Both carry a negative charge. What do the balloons do?

82.Why is copper a common choice for the wires that carry electricity through a house?

83.A plastic coating covers a copper wire in a wall. What is the coating's electrical job?

84.A flashlight bulb lights when the switch closes a loop from the battery, through the bulb, and back. It goes dark when the switch opens a gap. What does that show?

85.Three bulbs are wired in one loop. One bulb burns out and opens that loop. What happens to the other two bulbs?

86.Each lamp in a kitchen has its own path back to the source. One lamp burns out and opens only its branch. Why can the others stay on?

87.The north pole of one magnet is brought near the north pole of another magnet. What happens?

88.Paper clips cling to an iron nail while current flows in a coil around the nail. The clips drop when the current stops. What is the nail while the current flows?

89.Falling water at a dam spins a turbine attached to a generator. What is the energy outcome?

90.A wave on a slinky has a frequency of 2 hertz and a wavelength of 3 meters. What is the wave speed?

91.Liquid water leaves the surface of the Chesapeake Bay and becomes water vapor in the air. What is that process?

92.On a cool morning, droplets cover the outside of a cold juice bottle. The bottle has no leak. Where did the liquid on the outside come from?

93.Cloud droplets over the Piedmont grow heavy and fall as rain. Which part of the water cycle is the falling rain?

94.Rain falls on a hillside near Charlottesville, flows to the James River, and continues toward the Chesapeake Bay. What is the land area that drains to that river system called?

95.A parking lot in Norfolk replaces a grassy field. After a hard rain, more water races into the storm drains than it did from the field. Why?

96.Rain in the Valley and Ridge soaks through soil into a rock layer that holds water and can yield it to a well. What is that underground water called?

97.Sand and mud settle at a river mouth, then over a long time are compacted and cemented. What rock is the outcome?

98.Lava spills onto the surface and cools quickly into solid rock. What type of rock is the outcome?

99.Limestone is buried and changed by heat and pressure, but it does not melt. The outcome is marble. What process is that?

100.Water freezes in a crack in a boulder on the Blue Ridge. The ice expands, the crack widens, and a piece breaks off. What is that outcome?

101.Slightly acidic rainwater seeps through limestone in the Shenandoah Valley and slowly dissolves it, leaving caves. What is that process and outcome?

102.After a storm, the James River runs brown because soil is carried downstream. What is that transport called?

103.Where the James River slows as it meets quieter water, sand and mud settle and build up. What is that settling called?

104.In a cliff of undisturbed sedimentary layers on the Coastal Plain, a gray layer lies under a yellow layer. Which layer was deposited first?

105.A family drives from Virginia Beach inland toward the Blue Ridge. Which sequence names the regions they cross before those mountains?

106.Richmond grew beside rapids where the James River leaves harder rock and enters the sandy Coastal Plain. What is that boundary called?

107.The Valley and Ridge province in western Virginia has long ridges of folded sedimentary rock. What does that folding indicate?

108.Virginia has warmer summers and colder winters. What is the main reason for those seasons?