Name _________________________________________________ Period _______
Final Exam
8th Grade Science: Monday, June 16th
Ecosystems
1. Vocabulary: ecosystem, biotic, abiotic, niche, habitat, commensalism, mutualism,
parasitism, producers, consumers, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, scavenger, decomposer,
climate, food web, energy pyramid, photosynthesis, and biome.
2. What is biodiversity? What are the 3 most diverse biomes and what are 2 reasons why
biodiversity is important?
3. Describe five ways biodiversity is being decreased (HIPPO)
4. Introduced species-what are they? How do they arrive in new areas? What type of damage
can they cause? How can we get rid of them?
5. What are some biotic and abiotic parts of an ecosystem?
6. Be able to draw or explain/identify roles in a food web if given some information about the
organisms in it. (producer, consumer, scavenger, etc.)
7. What happens if one part of the food web/food chain is removed? Which populations go
up? Which populations go down?
8. Be able to identify the type of relationship between two organisms (parasitism,
commensalism, mutualism)  
9. Be able to explain how the six different abiotic factors affect the living organisms in an
ecosystem. Why is each abiotic factor important? (use your foldable)
10. What do food webs and energy pyramids show us?
11. Why does being a vegetarian make sense using the energy pyramid?
12. What do plants produce during photosynthesis? What do they use?
Atmosphere:
13. The layers of the atmosphere in order and explain the key characteristics of each.
14. Identify the primary gases in the atmosphere and explain which is most abundant, second
most abundant, etc.
15. What happens to air pressure as you increase in altitude?
16. Explain the importance and location of the ozone layer. What are the causes and effects of
a thinning ozone layer. Be sure to use the terms Ultraviolet radiation, ozone layer and
chlorofluorocarbons in your answer.
17. Define and describe the methods of heat transfer discussed in class and your textbook:
a. Conduction
b. Convection
c. Radiation
18. What is wind? What three things cause wind and wind patterns?
19. What causes high and low pressure in air? In which direction does air move?
20. What is the Coriolis effect, what causes it, and how does it affect wind in the northern and
southern hemispheres?
21. Identify the global wind patterns on the map below (polar easterlies, westerlies, trade
winds, douldrums, and jet stream)
22. Why are trade winds important to U.S. history?
23. Explain what the jet stream is, where it is, and why it is important to pilots and weather
forecasters
24. Distinguish between sea breeze and land breeze, how are they formed?
Weather
25. What source of energy drives all the wind and weather of Earth? Be able to explain how.
26. What is the difference between weather and climate?
27. Identify what four factors are used to describe the weather and what instruments are used to
measure these four factors.
28. What are clouds and how do they form? (think of the cloud lab)
29. How are clouds classified? (3 heights, 3 shapes, know the names for the height levels and
shapes plus the name of the rain forming cloud, and what kind of cloud is fog)
30. What are air masses, where do they get their temperature and humidity from?
31. What are the names and characteristics (dry/moist, warm/cool) of the four air masses that
primarily affect the US? What type of weather would we feel if a continental polar air
mass were to arrive in NJ? Why?
32. What is a front?
33. What are the four types of fronts we usually see? Be able to identify a diagram showing
the four different types of fronts and the four symbols used.
34. Be able to identify examples of severe weather and how they form. Why do only certain
types of severe weather occur in certain parts of the world? (Why won’t California see a
lot of tornadoes, will Alaska see a hurricane? Why? What is tornado alley? Why is it
called that?)
35. What type of weather is associated with high and low pressure areas?
36. What are isobars and isotherms? Can you construct/read a map made of these lines?
Water
37. Read and interpret a chart showing the distribution of water on earth (fresh vs. salt, solid vs
liquid)
38. Identify ways in which water is important to humans, plants, climate, cultures, and life.
39. Be able to describe the unique chemical formula and structure of water- why is it a “polar”
molecule? What does this polarity allow water molecules to do?
40. Three phases of water: temperatures at which they change phase, how active are the
molecules in each phase, what do we call each type of change (melting, condensing, etc)
41. What is cohesion and what are some examples?
42. What is adhesion and what are some examples?
43. What is surface tension and what are some examples?
44. What is capillary action and what are some examples?
45. Parts of the water cycle including transpiration. Does the total amount of water on earth
change or stay the same?
46. What is heat capacity and why is it important to the climates of coastal areas?
47. Why are oceans important to humans?
48. What does salinity mean? How can the salinity of the ocean increase or decrease?
49. What is desalination? How is it done?
50. What is a current? What is the difference between a surface current and a deep ocean
current? How does each time form?
51. What are some examples of surface currents?
52. What makes water more dense (salty and cold) in deep ocean currents? What is a
thermohaline current?
53. What are tides and what causes them? What is a spring vs. a neap tide?
54. What are gyres?
55. How do ocean currents affect the climates of coastal areas?
56. What are waves and how are they different from currents and tides?
57. What are the parts of a wave?