Grade 8 · Integrated Human Systems Science
Grade 8 marks the shift from prediction to responsible decision-making. Learners coordinate multiple models, reason with uncertainty, and evaluate competing priorities. They are ready to confront the reality that complex systems do not have single correct answers.
Continuing Anchor Ideas
Now treated as decision lenses, these anchors force students to grapple with uncertainty, incomplete info, and ethical responsibility.
Complex systems involve uncertainty and incomplete information.
Students learn to make decisions even when data is missing or ambiguous.
Decisions create winners, losers, and unintended consequences.
Students identify who benefits, who is harmed, and what surprises might occur.
Optimization in one domain may degrade another.
Students analyze tradeoffs where fixing a problem in one system creates a problem in another.
Ethical considerations are inseparable from technical solutions.
Students integrate values and ethics directly into their scientific reasoning.
Models inform decisions but do not remove responsibility.
Students understand that data supports a choice, but the human is responsible for the outcome.
Grade 8 learners can coordinate multiple interacting models, reason with uncertainty, and evaluate competing priorities. They are developmentally ready to move beyond "correct answers" and defend decisions using evidence, tradeoffs, and projected outcomes.
What Grade 8 adds to the system: Synthesis across all domains. Decision-making replaces prediction as the dominant task, and ethics become a normalized part of scientific reasoning.
Grade 8 Standards by Domain
Students assess risks, evaluate tradeoffs, and justify management decisions across complex human and natural systems.
8-HS1
Water Systems, Risk, and Governance
Clean Water & Sanitation
Governance
Risk
- 8-HS1.1 Students analyze risks to water systems from environmental, technological, and social factors.
- 8-HS1.2 Students evaluate tradeoffs in water allocation and management decisions.
- 8-HS1.3 Students assess uncertainty in water system models and predictions.
- 8-HS1.4 Students justify water management decisions using evidence, ethics, and projected outcomes.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Risk-mapping simulations, allocation modeling, governance role-play with data support.
8-HS2
Energy Systems, Transitions, and Equity
Affordable & Clean Energy
Transitions
Equity
- 8-HS2.1 Students analyze energy transition scenarios under technical and social constraints.
- 8-HS2.2 Students evaluate tradeoffs among efficiency, cost, reliability, and environmental impact.
- 8-HS2.3 Students assess uncertainty in energy forecasting models.
- 8-HS2.4 Students defend energy system decisions using multi-criteria analysis.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Transition modeling, cost-benefit analysis, equity impact simulations.
8-HS3
Health Systems, Policy, and Ethics
Good Health & Well-Being
Policy
Ethics
- 8-HS3.1 Students analyze health outcomes under different environmental and policy conditions.
- 8-HS3.2 Students evaluate tradeoffs between individual freedom and population health.
- 8-HS3.3 Students assess uncertainty in health data and projections.
- 8-HS3.4 Students justify public health decisions using evidence and ethical frameworks.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Policy simulations, ethical dilemma analysis, intervention modeling.
8-HS4
Infrastructure Decision-Making and Resilience
Industry & Infra
Decisions
Resilience
- 8-HS4.1 Students evaluate infrastructure options under competing constraints.
- 8-HS4.2 Students analyze long-term impacts of infrastructure decisions.
- 8-HS4.3 Students assess uncertainty and risk in infrastructure planning.
- 8-HS4.4 Students justify infrastructure investments using resilience criteria.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Scenario planning, lifecycle modeling, resilience tradeoff analysis.
8-HS5
Urban Systems, Policy, and Competing Needs
Sustainable Cities
Needs
Policy
- 8-HS5.1 Students analyze urban systems with competing demands for space and resources.
- 8-HS5.2 Students evaluate policy decisions affecting urban sustainability.
- 8-HS5.3 Students assess uncertainty in urban growth models.
- 8-HS5.4 Students justify urban planning decisions using evidence and projected impacts.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Urban policy simulations, growth forecasting, stakeholder negotiation exercises.
8-HS6
Production Systems and Responsibility
Consumption & Production
Trade
Responsibility
- 8-HS6.1 Students analyze global production systems and dependencies.
- 8-HS6.2 Students evaluate environmental and social impacts of consumption choices.
- 8-HS6.3 Students assess uncertainty in global supply chains.
- 8-HS6.4 Students justify responsible production and consumption decisions.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Supply chain simulations, impact mapping, decision justification tasks.
8-HS7
Aquatic Ecosystem Management Under Uncertainty
Life Below Water
Conflict
Stewardship
- 8-HS7.1 Students analyze competing uses of aquatic ecosystems.
- 8-HS7.2 Students evaluate ecosystem management strategies under uncertainty.
- 8-HS7.3 Students assess ethical considerations in conservation decisions.
- 8-HS7.4 Students justify ecosystem management plans using evidence and ethics.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Ecosystem tradeoff simulations, conservation planning exercises.
8-HS8
Terrestrial Ecosystem Management
Life on Land
Land Use
Tradeoffs
- 8-HS8.1 Students analyze land-use conflicts and ecosystem services.
- 8-HS8.2 Students evaluate conservation and development tradeoffs.
- 8-HS8.3 Students assess uncertainty in land management outcomes.
- 8-HS8.4 Students justify land-use decisions using multi-criteria reasoning.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Land-use planning simulations, service valuation, decision defense.
Grade 8 throughline: Optimization in one domain may degrade another. Students must make decisions under uncertainty, creating winners and losers, and explicitly justifying their ethical choices.
Design and Practice Standards
Applied throughout the year, these practices require students to integrate models, data, and ethics to defend their decisions.
- 8-DSP1 Students integrate multiple models to inform decisions.
- 8-DSP2 Students analyze uncertainty and limitations in data.
- 8-DSP3 Students evaluate ethical implications of solutions.
- 8-DSP4 Students construct evidence-based arguments that defend decisions under competing constraints.
What Grade 8 accomplishes
Students synthesize across all eight SDGs simultaneously. The need for disciplinary mastery in High School (Grade 9) becomes obvious as they hit the limits of what generalist models can solve.