8th Grade Curriculum

The Academic Team is the Olympiad of the mind.  

Students who excel in trivia in a variety of subjects, will enjoy competing against other area schools.

Try-outs are the end of September and practices start in October.

In an effort to encourage the development of moral character in students, Union Public Schools has incorporated the Character Counts! program into its educational curriculum. Developed by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, the Character Counts! program is based on six core values, or "Pillars of Character": respect, responsibility, fairness, trustworthiness, caring and citizenship.

The 8th Grade Center offers a number of courses for students.

See all of course offerings for the 8th Grade Center.

The 8th Grade Center offers an English Learner curriculum to those students for whom English is not a primary language. Students participate in small group instruction that focuses on the English language.

The 8th Grade Center provides many extracurricular activities and organizations for students. These organizations include everything from academic teams to athletics and spirit teams.  

Wrestling, cross country, track, golf and tennis are school-sponsored athletic activities available to 8th grade students. However, these activities are not offered at this building and may meet after the regular school day.

Eighth graders are getting a chance to explore careers thanks to two Paxton-Patterson Career labs offered in Future Ready Career classes at the Union 8^th Grade Center.

Both labs offer a wide range of careers and support pathways into high school and support our mission of ‘100 Percent College and Career Ready graduation’.

The 8^th Grade Center has two classrooms, each with 12 labs. One classroom explores medical careers and the other explores a variety of other careers. In the medical class, students can learn more about nursing, dental, mental health, veterinary, and emergency medial technicians, while the other classroom offers an assortment of other careers from engineering, construction, hospitality, cosmetology and criminology, for example.

Students are surprised to learn there is a lot more bookwork involved before they can operate the labs but they said once they operate the labs, they appreciate the preparation they were asked to do. Teacher Janet Teel oversees the medical classroom while teacher Meg Counterman oversees the other one.

The labs help students decide if they are interested in exploring a career, or just as important, if they are not interested in pursuing a particular career.

Medical Careers Through Hands-On Learning

Future Pathways in New Career Connections Class

The purpose of the National Junior Honor Society is to create an enthusiasm for scholarship, to stimulate a desire to render service, to promote worthy leadership, and to encourage the development of character and citizenship in students at the Union 8th Grade Center.  

Students who have an average of 3.6 GPA from second semester of seventh grade and first semester of eighth grade are invited to begin the membership process are in January of eighth grade each year.

Student Council

8th Grade students also participate in a Student Council.  

MATHCOUNTS is a nationally recognized middle school math competition program sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers.  

Beginning in September, the 8th Grade Center provides opportunities for students to come together after school and work through challenging math problems both individually and collaboratively.

These practices allow for all methods of solving problems (creatively, pictorially, algebraically, etc.), and all students are welcomed to participate.

For more information, visit MATHCOUNTS.

Starting in eighth grade, students can join Union’s FIRST Tech Challenge teams, The Bazinga Project and Project Agnizab.

Union students are mentored by older students and STEM leaders in the community to learn about engineering design, programming, and documentation.  

Each year the students are given a new game they have to analyze and then design a robot to complete certain tasks in a timed and competitive setting.

Since 2014, Union’s team has won numerous awards and participated in the state championship.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) at Union Public Schools is an interdisciplinary approach to learning that encourages students to inquire, explore, and problem solve. 

Student of the Month is a recognition program for students who have been nominated by their teachers.

Union students showcase their art work during YouthArts!

YouthArts! is one of the longest running festivals of its type in the state of Oklahoma. 

Visit the District Fine Arts page.