Date: January 16th – January 24th, 2018

Cycle: One (1) – Term 2

Time: 200 mins

Class: Form 1-1, 1-2

Age Group: 12-13 years

Subject: Integrated Science

Topic: Matter

Subtopic: Solids, Liquids and Gases

Objectives: By the end of the cycle, students should be able to:

Cognitive

 Students will understand what the scientific term “matter" is.

 Students will understand the three basic forms of matter

 Students will be introduced to the difference between physical properties and

chemical properties of substances.

4.Students will understand density, hardness and brittleness of solids.

5.Students will learn about Friedrich Mohs and the Mohs scale of hardness

Psychomotor

Affective
In this science lesson plan for grades 4-6, students will explore the basic foundation of

chemistry through the study of the basic forms of matter and by conducting experiments on

the properties of matter - in this case, solids. Students will also learn about the Friedrich Moh

Hardness Scale.

Objectives and Goals

Goals:

1.Students will acquire a knowledge of what scientific “matter" is and how scientists study

matter in scientific inquiry to understand our world and the universe.

2.Students will understand the difference between physical properties and chemical

properties of matter.

Objectives:

1.Students will understand what the scientific term “matter" is.

2.Students will understand the three basic forms of matter.

3.Students will be introduced to the difference between physical properties and chemical

properties of substances.

4.Students will understand density, hardness and brittleness of solids.

5.Students will learn about Friedrich Mohs and the Mohs scale of hardness.
Vocabulary

1. matter (definition from freedictionary.com)

a. Something that occupies space and can be perceived by one or more senses; a physical

body, a physical substance, or the universe as a whole.

b. Physics Something that has mass and exists as a solid, liquid, gas, or plasma.

2. Solid one of the three physical forms of matter, having a solid shape and form, not liquid

or gaseous.

3. Liquid a substance(one of three physical forms of matter) which flows easily and is not

solid or gaseous.

4. Gas a substance (one of three physical forms of matter) which is completely fluid and has

no definite shape or volume.

5. Element basic chemical substance, e.g hydrogen, oxygen, (in specific combinations form

compounds).

6. Compound a chemical substance made up of two or more elements. e.g H20 (water)Topic:

Movement of particles

7. Chemical a substance formed by reactions betweentwo elements.

8. Chemical properties a property used to characterize materials in reactions that change their

identity.

9. Substance a chemical substance is a material with a specific chemical composition.

10. Freidrich Mohs an Austrian mineralogist who invented the Mohs scale of relative mineral

hardness.

11. The Mohs Scale a measurement scale of 10 common substances ranked as to how “hard"

they are.
12. Plasticity the capability of being formed or molded; the quality of being plastic.

13. Brittleness firm and solid, but easily broken by force

14. Hypothesis hypothesis is an explanation which can be tested in some way which ideally

will either proves or disproves the hypothesis. It is a scientific question that we ask about a

problem or a scientific phenomenon that we then attempt to find an answer to by conducting

scientific experiments.

15. Experiment conducting scientific tests in an attempt to prove or disprove a hypothesis.

Procedures

This lesson will take 3 sessions of 45-60 minutes each session

Session 1: 30 minutes: Discussion and introduction of matter.

Student will discuss what they think they know about matter with leader/teacher. Students

will be directed to check out the website describing basic matter in its three forms: liquid,

solid and gas.

Have students make a chart on paper with the three headings of liquid, solid and gas and

begin to list items that fit those categories. Prompt as needed.Provide students with the book:

What is Matter by Don Curry. Have students read from the book in silent reading time. Ask

them to find items that are solid to be tested in session three for hardness and brittleness,

plasticity.

Provide students with vocabulary handout listing the words to be learned and ask them to

look up the meanings in the dictionary as “homework".

Session 2: 30 to 45 minutes Vocabulary review and introduction of physical properties and

chemical properties of substances

Review vocabulary words to see if students have discovered the correct definitions. Discuss

the terms as needed, offering explanations and examples. Offer the following information in

lecture form during the discussion.

Lecture notes for session 2:

Every substance in our world is made up of what we call “chemicals". Every chemical has its

own unique characteristics. Some are physical things that we can see and feel, such as color,

hardness, texture. We can look at every item in our world like the desk we sit at, or the water

we drink and ask some basic questions about each of them to understand how they exist in

our world. Some common questions we might ask about any substance or thing could include

the following: (write these on chalkboard or have them in a handout to distribute to student)

Physical properties of substances:

1. Is is liquid, solid or gas?

2. What color is it? Is it shiny or dull? Is it rough or smooth? Can we see through

it(transparent) or is it solid? (opaque)

3. Is it a powder or crystal?

4. Can it be stretched or bent? Procedures

This lesson will take 3 sessions of 45-60 minutes each session

Session 1: 30 minutes: Discussion and introduction of matter.

Student will discuss what they think they know about matter with leader/teacher. Students

will be directed to check out the website describing basic matter in its three forms: liquid,

solid and gas.

Have students make a chart on paper with the three headings of liquid, solid and gas and

begin to list items that fit those categories. Prompt as needed.Provide students with the book:

What is Matter by Don Curry. Have students read from the book in silent reading time. Ask

them to find items that are solid to be tested in session three for hardness and brittleness,

plasticity.

Provide students with vocabulary handout listing the words to be learned and ask them to

look up the meanings in the dictionary as “homework".

Session 2: 30 to 45 minutes Vocabulary review and introduction of physical properties and

chemical properties of substances

Review vocabulary words to see if students have discovered the correct definitions. Discuss

the terms as needed, offering explanations and examples. Offer the following information in

lecture form during the discussion.

Lecture notes for session 2:

Every substance in our world is made up of what we call “chemicals". Every chemical has its

own unique characteristics. Some are physical things that we can see and feel, such as color,

hardness, texture. We can look at every item in our world like the desk we sit at, or the water

we drink and ask some basic questions about each of them to understand how they exist in

our world. Some common questions we might ask about any substance or thing could include

the following: (write these on chalkboard or have them in a handout to distribute to student)

Physical properties of substances:

1. Is is liquid, solid or gas?

2. What color is it? Is it shiny or dull? Is it rough or smooth? Can we see through

it(transparent) or is it solid? (opaque)

3. Is it a powder or crystal?

4. Can it be stretched or bent?This activity is based on a lesson from the Living by Chemistry

curriculum developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science (see citation).

During this activity students explore in depth their own understanding of what constitutes

"matter" and work together as a group to create a definition for matter.

Students work in pairs to debate how to sort "items" printed on cards into three categories:

"matter", "non-matter" and "unsure" and then try to determine what properties all items in

each category have in common. A whole class discussion about "tricky" items follows during

which students ultimately agree on a definition of matter.

You can choose which cards you would like to use depending on your students' age, abilities,

and experiences. As an example, for elementary grades, you might choose not to use the

entire set.

Learning goals/objectives for students:

Students will be able to define matter and give examples for matter and non-matter.

Content background for instructor:

This is a great activity to assess students' prior knowledge and misconceptions about matter.

Sorting the items into matter or non-matter will most likely result in a rich discussion full of

controversies and intriguing questions.

Some of the items are meant to be thought provoking:

Wind can be felt on your skin and you can see the wind move branches of trees. But wind

itself it not matter. It is the movement of air, which itself is matter.

Electricity is similar. You can see the result of electricity at work - a light bulb lighting up for

example and you can feel electricity as an electric shock. But electricity is just the the

movement/flow of an electric charge - it is not matter itself. It is the movement of matter

(electrons).

Sound is the result of air movement against your eardrum and not matter itself.

A flame or fire can also pose difficulties. The smoke that rises up from the fire or flame

contains vaporized gases and small particles and therefore contains matter. But the fire and

flame themselves, the light and heat emitted, are energy, not matter.

The concept of energy is very abstract and can be pretty hard for students to grasp -

especially younger ones. Energy is the ability or capacity to do work or supply heat.

When discussing what all items in the matter category have in common, some students might

say that all matter can be detected with one of our senses. Challenge students to notice that a

lot of items that are matter cannot be seen - at least with the naked eye (atoms, DNA,
bacteria, dissolved sugar) and that some items that are non-matter can be felt (heat, wind,

electricity).

Some common textbook definitions of matter are:

Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass.

Matter has mass and volume.

Students might challenge those definitions, arguing that air (or gases in general) does not

have mass (which they do). This is a great way to tie in an exploration where students try to

design an experiment to find out whether air/gas has mass or not.

Getting ready:

Check out What is matter kit from the SEP resource center or make your own set of cards

using the attachment. If you make the cards yourself, printing the item names on address

labels and sticking them on index cards works well

Daly Ralston Resource Center:

What is matter? Kit (upper grades) K172

What is matter? Kit (lower grades) K233

What is matter? Kit (bilingual) K235

Lesson Implementation / Outline

Introduction:

Have students reflect on what they already know about matter by having them respond in

their journals to the following questions:

"What is matter? Give two examples of matter and two examples of non-matter."

OR "Solids, liquids and gases each have measurable mass. What parts of this statement do

you agree with? Disagree? Explain your answer in detail."

Activity:

Introduce the activity to the students:

If chemistry is the study of matter then to understand chemistry they must first understand

what matter is. Through this activity students will collectively define matter.

By defining the term as a group, students will start to develop into a community of scientists.

Science has its own language, but this language is built, collectively by the practicing

community of scientists who agree on definitions for the terms they are using.

Explain the activity:

Each pair will receive a set of “items”. The students' task is to work together and discuss

whether each item is or is not matter. Ask students to discuss why they think the item is or is

not matter and to challenge each others' thinking.

Have students create a table to categorize their items: Matter, not matter or unsure

Based on their categorizations, ask students to come up with properties the things in the

matter category have in common (and that apply to all matter). Ask students to make a list of

these properties. What about things that are not matter or that they are unsure about?

Have students report out

Stress that the following two big ideas are critical to this and other report-outs:

Constructing an argument and defending a position – as students share their conclusions with

the class, challenge them to explain why they made that decision. What evidence do they

have?

Thinking critically and being skeptical. Explain that you want them to be working as a

community and to really push all of their thinking. Encourage students to direct their report-

out to the group, not to the teacher. Encourage students to ask one another questions.

Ask a team to get the class started on this report out. Perhaps by sharing what item had the

most interesting discussion for their pair. Why? And what does this tell us about matter?

Leave this discussion solely student-centered at this time. Have pairs report out, challenge

and question each other, share their difficulties categorizing certain item etc. Refrain from
judging, correcting or giving the "right" answer. Instead, probe students' ideas by asking "Did

anyone else have trouble categorizing this item? Why?". "How did other pairs categorize this

item? Why?". Highlight students' confusions, difficulties and controversies.

After all "tricky" items have been discussed (see Instructor background section above), ask

students to share if they were able to find common characteristics of items in the matter

category as well as of items in the non-matter category. Ask students: "If something is not

matter - what is it?"

Collect responses about characteristics of matter/non-matter on blackboard/overhead while

students report out. Again, don't comment just yet - just record. Challenge students' responses

by asking the class "Does everyone agree with this?," "Is that characteristic true for all items

in the matter category?" etc.

Add and cross out characteristics of matter until all students agree that ALL matter shares

those common characteristics.

Based on that list of characteristics, ask students to create a definition of matter that

everybody can agree on. Write down the definition on a wordwall or large poster to refer

back to during later lessons.

Share some textbook defintions of matter and have students compare these definitions to

theirs. Are those definitions useful for them? Do they give them any more insights?

Checking for student understanding:

While students work in pairs, sorting the items, walk around, listen in on their discussions

and ask probing questions to get a sense of students' understanding of matter.

The discussion of students' placement of items will reveal students' misconceptions and

internal struggles about the concept of matter.

The pre-activity journal reflection can be repeated at the end of the class to determine how

students' ideas might have changed.

Wrap-up / Closure:

Have students repeat their pre-activity journal reflection at the end of the class to determine

how students' ideas might have changed.

Extensions and Reflections

Extensions and connections:

Lessons dealing with the different states of matter, changes in the state of matter,

investigations determining whether all matter truely has mass and volume, can follow this

lesson. Important science skills such as measuring mass and volumes of liquids, gases and

regular and irregular solids can be tied in as well.

Reflections:

Trying to sort the cards into matter or non-matter items sounds easy - but it is not. Even

adults can struggle with a lot of the tricky items. SEP does this activity during the Chemistry

of Life summer course with teachers and it regulary sparks interesting discussions full of

controversies.

Attachment

Size

What is matter items.doc

Subtopic: Diffusion and Osmosis

Objectives: By the end of the cycle, students should be able to:

 Cognitive (80 mins)

1. Review Term 1 exam to seek clarifications for misconceptions

2. Explain the process of diffusion and osmosis

3. Explain the effect of diffusion and osmosis on plant and animal cells

4. Understand the functional role of the cell membrane in diffusion and osmosis
 5. Relate the concepts of osmosis and diffusion to the requirements of plant and

animal cells

 Psychomotor (120 mins)

1. To observe diffusion using a tea bag.

2. To investigate the effects of different concentrations of salt solution of plant cells

(potato tuber)

 Affective (40 mins)

1. Appreciate how cells maintain a constant environment through osmosis and why it

is important

Content:

Diffusion: the movement of molecules from an area of high concentration to an area of low

concentration.

Osmosis: the movement of water molecules from an area of high concentration to an area of

lower concentration through a selectively permeable membrane.

Prerequisites:

Students should have a basic understanding of cell structure and biological molecules. They

should be familiar with the concept of solute, solvents and concentration.

Materials/Aids: beaker, water, food colouring, biology textbook, potato slices, salt, mass

balance
Teaching/Learning Strategies: discussion, questioning, demonstration

Process skills: representing, inferring, analysing, reasoning, critical thinking, drawing,