Activity One: Matter Scavenger Hunt
Read
What is the World Made Of? All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases?
by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld to the class. Students will take their recording sheets and clipboards for a scavenger hunt in three places available to us – the classroom, the cafeteria, and the playground. For the duration of the school day, students will record the solids, liquids and gases they observe. The following day, their information will be consolidated and transferred to a large chart to post in the classroom for the duration of the curriculum unit. New information can be added as students discover new things.
This chart should be available for students to use throughout the duration of the unit and will be important as a reference tool. Other charts containing results from further investigations and discoveries should be added to the classroom, again to keep the information in front of the students and accessible for spelling and a content acquisition.
Example Recording Sheet:
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Write or draw examples of the states of matter that notice today. Use the information we learned about in the book,
What is the World Made Of?
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SOLID
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LIQUID
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GAS
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Activity Two: Solids Remaining Solid?
Have the students view
Bill Nye The Science Guy Phases of Matter
video found in various places online. During the video, Bill Nye shows many examples of solids being compressed and changing shape. Although the entire video is 32 minutes long, the information that students need for this lesson is presented within the first 10 minutes or so. Preview the video to determine how much to use for background information for the class.
This lesson, as a connection to the video, will allow students to experiment with compressing solids and observing any changes. Do they remain as solids as they change shape? The solids students will use for this investigation are foods they enjoy!
You will need: Trays, gallon sized zip top bags, plastic toy hammers, small wooden blocks about 4”x 2”x 2”, graham crackers, cookies, bread, cheerios, pasta
Place a small supply of each item in separate bags and close tightly. Teams of 2-3 students can take turns compressing first with the wooden block, and then with the toy hammer. Students can draw the before-and-after images of what they see in each bag. Are the contents of each bag still solids? How can you tell? What do you know about solids that helps you know the answer? Responses should include: that they still have the properties of a solid, a definite shape, smaller pieces. The responses should be charted on a classroom poster and before and after photos taken to refer to later.
Use the graham crackers and cookies for topping on ice cream or yogurt for a treat after the experiment!
Activity Three: Amazing Liquids Race
This experiment will demonstrate viscosity of a liquid, otherwise known as its tendency to flow.
You will need: Corn syrup, dish soap, honey, maple syrup, 2 pans (one cookie sheet, one pan with deeper sides such as a brownie pan or tray to catch the liquids), tape, ruler, plastic wrap, small cups or dishes to hold 3 tablespoons worth of each liquid, timer
Students will predict, based on their understanding of viscosity or thickness of liquids, which test liquid will travel the slowest down the paper to the marked finish line.
To set up the experiment, measure 12” from one end of the paper, drawing a line from side to side to create a finish line. Tape the paper to the back of the cookie sheet. Over the paper, tape a piece of plastic wrap to cover the entire paper. This plastic wrap will be replaced for each trial run of the various liquids.
Now the race is ready to begin. Place the racing pan vertically inside the deeper pan. Pour one liquid from the very top of the pan and time it as it travels to the line 12”down. Record the time, replace the plastic wrap, and test the next liquid. Retest each liquid 2 more times for a total of three trials for each liquid. Students should create a table to chart the three tests in this manner:
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Trial 1
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Trial 2
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Trial 3
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Corn syrup
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Dish soap
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Honey
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Maple syrup
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As a follow-up to this race, use a different set of liquids. These trials can be performed on another day or with a smaller group of students as an enrichment activity. Suggested groups of liquids are olive oil, vegetable oil, baby oil as one set and three brands of shampoo to discover any difference in a similar product. Performing races with thinner liquids is a bit trickier to time but could be fun if students are quick enough with the timer.
Activity Four: Popping Balloons
This activity will demonstrate that air, a gas, takes up space and when contained will cause pressure to build.
You will need: 20 – 30 balloons, all the same size, lots of air to blow them up
Begin by asking students if they have ever seen, heard or been able to pop a balloon. (Some students may not want to participate). Present 4 balloons of the exact same size but that have been blown up to different levels – approximately ¼, ½, ¾ and full. Ask the students to predict which balloon will be the easiest to pop and why they think that is so. The game for this lesson is modeled after the old fashioned game of running across a distance and then sitting down on a chair and on top of the balloon to pop it. Students will discover that the balloons inflated on ¼, ½ and ¾ are quite difficult to pop. The balloon just seems to roll around. The air inside (the gas) is not stretching the surface of the balloon enough to keep it still enough to pop. Those with more gas inside stretch the balloon, making the surface thinner and easier to pop. This game will show the students that, although we cannot see the air we breathe, once we contain it inside the balloon, we know it is there. And since balloons are rubbery, they will stretch. Ask students whether they think air might be in places that don’t stretch. Is there air in a jar or bottle? Can we capture air on other containers? How do we know if we have? Students will begin to understand that air is everywhere – we know that because we are able to breathe it even if we cannot see it!
Repeat this game so that all students are able to use balloons that are inflated to capacity. Everyone that wants to should have an opportunity to pop a balloon to experience the air leaving the balloon and deflating it back to its original size.
Activity Five: Crayon Melting / Solids – Liquid – Solid
This activity some changes caused by heating and cooling can be reversed.
You will need: a collection of broken crayons, clear cups for sorting, electric hot plate, low pan, foil cupcake liners, tongs, candy molds from craft store (small shapes such as stars, numbers, shells)
Students will see the crayons change from solid to liquid and back to solid in a new shape.
The students will peel the crayon pieces and sort them into large clear cups labeled with general colors – blue, yellow, red, green, purple, orange, black, gray (whites can go in this cup). After sorting is complete, the next step is to melt the crayons by color. Students are observers as the teacher handles this part of the procedure.
Arrange the candy molds so they are ready to be filled. Place the pan on the hot plate and fill it 2/3 with water. Place the foil cups, 3 at a time, in the water. Turn the heat to medium and fill the foil cups with 3 different colors. As the water heats up, the crayons will begin to melt. Students will be able to observe that during the melting process some crayons remain solid as others melt more quickly. Why might that happen? Eventually all the crayon pieces will melt and the mixing of slight color differences will be noticeable – for example, lighter greens with darker greens. Using the tongs, lift the cup of melted crayons out of the pan and pour the liquid into the candy molds to create the new shapes. It’s easy to over-fill so pour slowly.
It is important to practice this lesson prior to actually doing it with the students for a number of reasons: learning to manage the pouring, gauging how many crayons to melt at a time, and testing how long the liquid takes to cool and become solid again. Making a number of new crayons ahead of time will create a supply for students to all have a collection of colors and shapes.
Students can now use the new set of crayons to draw and color three examples each of the states of matter. With examples on the classroom charts generated in Activities One, Two, Three and Four, students should be able to show their understanding of the states of matter. An example of a simple worksheet follows.
