Matter is described as anything that has mass and volume. What causes matter to exhibit these properties? It is also said that for anything to exist it must be able to be measured. How do we measure the various forms of matter? Why do some forms of matter combine with one another and others will not combine?
This unit is intended to give the average student a basic understanding of matter and its behavior. In so doing, the student will become familiar with some laboratory techniques, terminology, and equipment used by people in the scientific community.
In many cases, our Middle School students are not exposed to any laboratory investigations or meaningful activities which will stimulate or aid in their interest and/or understanding of science.
This unit will help accomplish these goals by beginning with the study of atoms and the periodic table. We will use “A” group elements to discuss and predict chemical reactions.
We will then move to the metric system of measurement and become familiar with the units and instruments we will use for measuring matter. We will complete this section by finding the density of several objects to evaluate the students understanding of the units and the measuring instruments.
The next topic will be the “states of matter.” We will discuss the the characteristics of each state and end the study by adding heat to iced water and observing and graphing the results as it goes from the solid to liquid to gaseous state.
Solutions will then be covered and a solubility curve will be constructed using grams of potassium chlorate vs. temperature to complete this topic.
The unit will be culminated by the growing and studying of crystals.
