Middle School Science Blog

Tracy has a nice lesson plan and handout on identifying chemical reactions posted on her website: http://sciencespot.net/Pages/classchem.html#chemreactions .  I modified the ppt slides she had posted for her 8th graders to use with my 6th graders as a guided lesson.

I used this lesson after we had already learned how to balance chemical equations using the hands on lesson I created and described below (also found on my Chemistry page):

Balancing Chemical Equations Activity – one of my long time favorite activities. Students will learn how to read formulas, count atoms, create and read chemical equations, and balance chemical equations using a hands on activity with color coded formulas:

• handout/worksheet with directions (pdf)
• coefficient cards (pdf) – laminate and reuse each year
• formula cards (pdf) – laminate and reuse each year
• Answer Key for the balanced equations (pdf)
• Practice balancing equations worksheet (pdf) and more from ScienceSpot.net

We worked through the problems together and I called on students to first identify the chemical reaction and then balance the equation. After a few slides, they began to recognize the types of reactions quickly and had a good understanding of how to identify and balance the equations.

• Click here for the ppt: Google Slides (Public)
• to save the slides, you can select “file” then “Make a copy” or “download as”