Virginia Department of Education
Heat Transfer and Heat Capacity
It's time to increase the heat! Young chemists demonstrate heat transfer and heat capacity in an activity-packed lab, showing the transitions between solid, liquid, and gaseous phases of materials. Individuals plot data as the...
LABScI
Acids and Bases: Cabbage Juice pH Indicator
Explore the range of pH using an assortment of household liquids. Scholars create their own pH indicators from cabbage and determine the pH of several liquids. To further their exploration, individuals use the same liquids to create...
Foundation for Water & Energy Education
What is the Water Cycle? Activity B
Curious physical scientists follow a lesson plan on the properties of water with this lesson plan on distillation. They observe a miniature water cycle model that filters dirty water into clean water. These two lessons combined are an...
University of Colorado
Happy Landings: A Splash or a Splat?
Huygens spacecraft landed on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005, making it the farthest landing from Earth ever made by a spacecraft. In this hands-on activity, the 12th installment of 22, groups explore how density affects speed. To do this,...
Messenger Education
Cooling with Sunshades
Messenger's sun shade measures 8 ft x 6 ft and will have temperatures reaching 700 degree Fahrenheit on the outside while maintaining a cool 70 degrees underneath. In the third activity of four, groups discuss the basic properties of...
Cornell University
Glued into Science—Classifying Polymers
Explore the unique characteristics of polymers. A complete lesson begins with a presentation introducing polymers. Following the presentation, young scientists develop a laboratory plan for creating substances using polymers. They...
It's About Time
Polymers
All plastics contain polymers, but not all polymers are plastic. Young chemists make their own polymer and compare the properties to those of other states of matter. After a reading passage, pupils answer analysis questions about natural...
Curated OER
Slime and Intermolecular Attractions
Students explore the strength of intermolecular attractions. They make slime and compare the difference in the physical properties of sheet and powdered polyvinyl alcohol with polyvinyl acetate.
LABScI
Viscosity: The Fluid Lab
There's more to fluids than meet the eye—they include gases, liquids, and polymers, too! Scholars complete three hands-on activities exploring different properties of fluids. They explore viscosity by measuring the resistance, or...
Curated OER
Name That Gas!
Young scientists discover that air is a mixture of different gases - mainly nitrogen and oxygen. The properties of some of the other gases found in oxygen are listed in a table, then learners must decide which one of those gases is...
Curated OER
Boiling and Freezing Points of Water
Challenge your sixth graders with this lesson about the freezing and boiling points of water. In these activities learners graph temperature data, read and analyze information, and identify the freezing and boiling points of water and...
Curated OER
Hot Stuff
Very young scientists who are learning about solids, liquids, melting, and freezing will use this instructional activity to identify things that would melt if put in a warm place. There are eight objects altogether, and learners place a...
Science 4 Inquiry
Battle of the Waves
Which travels faster, light or sound? Scholars work in groups to simulate the ability for waves to travel through solids, liquids, gases, and through a vacuum. Then, they learn about the properties of a mystery wave and must determine...
Curated OER
Chemistry of Carbon
After giving basic details about the properties of carbon, some of the common functional groups and molecules are featured. There is some information about specific functions and impact on the human body. The diagrams are helpful and...
Curated OER
Chemistry of Carbon: Building Blocks of Life
After giving basic details about the properties of Carbon, some of the common functional groups and molecules are featured. There are some details about specific functions and impact on the human body. The diagrams are helpful and could...
Curated OER
Insects?
Can you tell the difference between a bug and an insect? Aren't they the exact same thing? Let your learners explore, identify, classify, and document the differences they see in bugs and insects. The activity sheet suggests several...
Curated OER
Activity #9 A State Debate!
Students list individual properties of solids, liquids, and gases. They examine that some properties have more than one state of matter. Pupils consider whether shaving cream, is a solid, a liquid, or a gas, or some combination.
Curated OER
Robots
Students explore the two kinds of fluids: liquids and gases. They explain that liquids (water), unlike gases (air), cannot be compressed. This property makes them ideal for hydraulic work applications.
Curated OER
Learning Cycle Lesson Plan
students investigate, develop inferences, and identify general descriptions for each of the three states of matter - solid, liquid, and gas. students investigate water, by observing and stating inferences about, the properties of each...
Curated OER
Ice Cream Science
Students review properties of matter and discuss how materials change when things are done to them. They observe how materials change as a reaction to temperature by following the procedure to make ice cream and recording the temperature...
Curated OER
Activity #8 Which State Are You In?
Students define, give similarites and differences between solids, liquids, and gases. They compare and contrast a solid, liquid and gas in terms of shape, volume, compressibility, diffusion and density. Pupils classigy common...
Curated OER
Phases of Matter
Young scholars describe the motion of solids, liquids and gases. In this chemistry lesson, students describe how temperature affect motion of the particles. They determine the physical properties of each phase.
Curated OER
Do These Properties Matter?
Third graders rotate between three property stations, the solid station, the gas station, and the liquid station. They experiment with each activity until the teacher gives the signal to change.
Curated OER
Melting and Freezing
Fifth graders observe experiments with ice and water. They complete a Venn diagram listing the properties of each. They experiment with ice and water, comparing their weights. They note the weights are equal.