IB-Style Science Notes – Class 8

(Elaborated)
13. Respiration
🧠 Key Concept: Energy Conversion

Respiration is the process by which cells release energy from food (mainly glucose) to
power life processes like movement, growth, and repair.

🔹 Types of Respiration:
1. **Aerobic Respiration** – happens in the presence of oxygen:
- Glucose (from food) + Oxygen → Carbon Dioxide + Water + Energy (ATP)
- Word Equation:
Glucose + Oxygen → Carbon dioxide + Water + Energy
- Chemical Equation:
C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂ → 6CO₂ + 6H₂O + Energy (ATP)
- This is the most efficient form of respiration and occurs in most plants, animals, and
humans.

2. **Anaerobic Respiration** – happens without oxygen (in muscles during heavy exercise,
or in yeast):
- Glucose → Lactic acid + Energy (in animals)
- Glucose → Alcohol + Carbon dioxide + Energy (in yeast)

💡 Difference from Breathing:

- **Breathing** is a physical process (inhaling/exhaling air).
- **Respiration** is a chemical process in cells.

📌 Where does it happen?

- Takes place inside the mitochondria of the cell (called the 'powerhouse of the cell').

🔬 Importance:
- Provides energy (in the form of ATP) that helps in all other life processes.
- Without respiration, cells cannot survive or perform their functions.

🌍 Real-life example:
- When you run, your muscles need more energy → you breathe faster to get more oxygen
→ aerobic respiration speeds up.
- If oxygen runs low, muscles do anaerobic respiration → results in lactic acid → causes
cramps.
14. Digestion
🧠 Key Concept: Systems and Processes

Digestion is the process by which food is broken down into simpler, absorbable forms.

🔹 Steps of Digestion:
1. **Ingestion** – Taking food into the mouth.
2. **Digestion** – Breaking down food:
- Mechanical (chewing in mouth)
- Chemical (enzymes breaking food into nutrients)
3. **Absorption** – Nutrients absorbed in the small intestine.
4. **Assimilation** – Nutrients used by cells.
5. **Egestion** – Removal of undigested waste.

🧪 Organs Involved:
- Mouth (teeth + saliva), Esophagus, Stomach, Small Intestine, Large Intestine, Anus
- Liver (produces bile), Pancreas (produces digestive enzymes)

📌 Important Enzymes:
- Amylase: starch → sugar
- Protease: protein → amino acids
- Lipase: fat → fatty acids + glycerol

15. Reproduction
🧠 Key Concept: Continuity of Life

Reproduction is the process by which living organisms produce offspring.

🔹 Types of Reproduction:
1. **Asexual Reproduction** – One parent, no gametes, offspring are identical (clones).
- Example: binary fission in bacteria, budding in yeast.
2. **Sexual Reproduction** – Two parents, involves fusion of gametes (egg and sperm),
offspring are genetically different.

🧬 Human Reproductive System:

- Male: Testes (produce sperm), Penis
- Female: Ovaries (produce eggs), Uterus, Vagina

🔄 Fertilization:
Sperm + Egg → Zygote → Embryo → Baby

💡 Puberty:
Hormonal changes that cause physical and emotional changes (voice deepens, hair growth,
menstruation, etc.)

16. Genetics
🧠 Key Concept: Inheritance

Genetics is the study of heredity — how traits are passed from parents to offspring.

🔬 DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid):

- Found in the nucleus of cells.
- Carries instructions for traits like eye color, height, etc.
- Made of genes (small sections of DNA).

🧬 Chromosomes:
- Humans have 46 chromosomes (23 pairs).
- One set from mother, one from father.

🧪 Dominant vs Recessive Genes:

- Dominant gene: seen if present (e.g., brown eyes).
- Recessive gene: seen only if both copies are recessive (e.g., blue eyes).

Gregor Mendel:
- Known as the father of genetics.
- Did pea plant experiments to show how traits are inherited.

🔁 Variation:
- Caused by different gene combinations and environment.
- Explains why siblings can look different.

17. Adaptation
🧠 Key Concept: Survival and Evolution

Adaptation is a characteristic that helps an organism survive in its environment.

🔹 Types of Adaptation:
1. **Structural** – Body parts or physical features (e.g., thick fur, long neck)
2. **Behavioral** – Actions or behaviors (e.g., migration, hibernation)
3. **Physiological** – Internal body processes (e.g., camels storing fat in humps)

🌍 Examples:
- Cactus has thick stems and spines to survive in deserts.
- Polar bears have white fur to blend into snowy surroundings.
- Birds migrate to warmer areas during winter.

18. Food Chains and Food Webs

🧠 Key Concept: Ecosystems and Interdependence

🔗 **Food Chain**:
A sequence that shows how energy is transferred from one organism to another.
Example: Grass → Grasshopper → Frog → Snake → Eagle

📌 Trophic Levels:
- Producer (plants)
- Primary Consumer (herbivores)
- Secondary Consumer (carnivores)
- Tertiary Consumer (top predators)

🌐 **Food Web**:
A network of interconnected food chains showing complex feeding relationships in an
ecosystem.

♻️**Decomposers**:
Break down dead organisms (e.g., bacteria, fungi) and return nutrients to the soil.

19. Pressure
🧠 Key Concept: Force and Area

🔹 Pressure = Force ÷ Area

📐 Units:
- Pressure: Pascal (Pa)
- Force: Newton (N)
- Area: square meters (m²)

📌 Examples:
- Knives have sharp edges to increase pressure and cut easily.
- Wide tires reduce pressure on soft ground.

🔬 Atmospheric Pressure:
- The pressure exerted by air around us.
- Decreases as we go higher in altitude.
20. Light
🧠 Key Concept: Reflection and Refraction

🔦 Light travels in straight lines and enables us to see things.

🔹 Laws of Reflection:
1. Angle of incidence = Angle of reflection
2. Incident ray, reflected ray, and normal all lie on the same plane

🔍 Refraction:
- Bending of light when it passes through different materials (e.g., air to water)
- Light slows down in denser mediums

📌 Convex and Concave Lenses:

- Convex: converges light, used in magnifying glasses
- Concave: diverges light, used in peepholes

21. Acids and Bases

🧠 Key Concept: Chemical Properties

🔹 Acids:
- Taste sour
- pH less than 7
- Turn blue litmus red
- Examples: lemon juice, vinegar, hydrochloric acid

🔹 Bases (Alkalis when dissolved in water):

- Taste bitter and feel slippery
- pH more than 7
- Turn red litmus blue
- Examples: baking soda, soap, sodium hydroxide

🔬 Neutralization:
- Acid + Base → Salt + Water
- Used to treat indigestion or neutralize soil acidity.

MATH – IB STYLE FORMULA SHEET

(Class 8)
1. Basic Algebra and Arithmetic
📐 Key Formulas:
- a² - b² = (a - b)(a + b)
- (a + b)² = a² + 2ab + b²
- (a - b)² = a² - 2ab + b²
- Distributive Property: a(b + c) = ab + ac
- Order of operations: BODMAS (Brackets, Orders, Division/Multiplication,
Addition/Subtraction)

2. Geometry
📏 Area and Perimeter:
- Square: Area = a², Perimeter = 4a
- Rectangle: Area = l × b, Perimeter = 2(l + b)
- Triangle: Area = ½ × base × height
- Circle: Area = πr², Circumference = 2πr
- Trapezium: Area = ½ × (a + b) × height

3. Volume and Surface Area

📦 Volume:
- Cube: V = a³
- Cuboid: V = l × b × h
- Cylinder: V = πr²h
- Cone: V = (1/3)πr²h
- Sphere: V = (4/3)πr³

🧊 Surface Area:
- Cube: 6a²
- Cuboid: 2(lb + bh + hl)
- Cylinder: 2πr(h + r)
- Sphere: 4πr²

4. Probability
🎲 Probability = (Number of favorable outcomes) / (Total number of outcomes)

- Probability of an event ranges from 0 (impossible) to 1 (certain)

- Example: Probability of getting a 3 on a dice = 1/6
- Complement of an event A: P(not A) = 1 – P(A)
5. Data Handling
📊 Mean, Median, Mode:
- Mean = Sum of values / Number of values
- Median = Middle value (when arranged in order)
- Mode = Most frequent value

📈 Range = Highest value – Lowest value

Types of graphs: Bar graph, Histogram, Pie chart, Line graph

6. Unit Conversions
📏 Length:
- 1 meter = 100 centimeters
- 1 kilometer = 1000 meters
- 1 centimeter = 10 millimeters

💱 Currency (as of recent estimates):

- 1 US Dollar ≈ 83 Indian Rupees (may vary daily)
- 1 Euro ≈ 90 Indian Rupees

📦 Volume:
- 1 liter = 1000 milliliters
- 1 cubic meter = 1000 liters

⚖️Weight:
- 1 kilogram = 1000 grams
- 1 ton = 1000 kilograms