Plastic Spoon – to pour water out of graduated cylinder and separate pennies
This is a simple & fun lab to have students practice measuring and reading volume as well as use water displacement to determine the volume of a penny – an irregularly shaped object.
Students will design their own series of 10 tests with the following criteria:
All pennies must be under water inside of the graduated cylinder.
The volume of water must not pass the 100 mL (or highest) increment.
All data is recorded carefully.
Students were able to carefully measure and determine that the volume of a penny was 0.35 mL – most students were very close with a range of 0.33 – 0.37 mL.
Students will practice their measurement skills using a graduated cylinder to determine volume and a triple beam balance to determine mass.
Students will determine the density of water by completing 10 trails and finding an average.
I use this lab to tie their measuring skills together and introduce the concept of density. We then do further explorations of density and practice using the formula.
This lab is a modified version of the lab posted at Middle School Chemistry – for further details about the lesson, please click on this link.
Statements: Different ways to use the 16 statements, or facts, about Solids, Liquids, and Gases:
give each group 2-4 facts to discuss and place into the Venn Diagram
give each group all 16 facts to discuss, then ask each group to place one fact into the diagram
this is the versions I use, see below for details
give each student or pair of students only 1 fact
give every student all 16 facts and have them glue it into their Venn diagram
give every student all 16 facts and have them ‘dry fit’ the statements then handwrite them into their Venn diagrams (you can laminate and reuse the statements for each class) (I prefer to have the students write the facts into their Venn diagrams.)
How to use this version of the activity:
Whole class activity
Discuss what we know about Solids, Liquids, and Gases.
Give each student one of the 16 facts. They are not to share their facts with the class until it was their turn to present.
They may or may not know the answer to their fact, and we discussed this first. I told them I would give them clues if they needed help and not to worry too much about getting the answer ‘wrong’.
After a minute or so to think about it, ask the person with Fact #1 to stand and read their fact to the class. The rest of class will think about the fact and where it might go into the Venn Diagram, but not share their answers.
The person with Fact #1 will guess where the fact fit into the Venn Diagram. Once they give the correct answer, click on the Google Slide and the answer will pop up on the screen.
Everyone will write fact #1 into their notes.
Optional:
Using a blue colored pen or pencil, the students will fill in the phrases related to the states of matter and their characteristics, such as definite shape or volume.
Using a red colored pen or pencil, they can write in the phase changes, such as evaporation. They will notice that all of the phase changes are placed where two states of matter overlap.
For example, evaporation is placed where liquids and gases overlap.
Then ask the person with Fact #2 to read their fact to the class, and so on until all 15 facts are posted.
We would discuss each fact and any questions they might have.
If you have more than 16 students, you can have them work with a partner and guess together.
Cooperative Groups
Instead of each student having only one fact, you can have the class work in cooperative groups and give one set of the 16 facts to a group of 4 students.
The students will discuss/share their facts within their group and come to an agreement on where it should go.
They will place the facts on top of the Venn Diagram where they think it is the best fit.
Once each group has had a chance to discuss their facts, you can go over the answers as a class.
Starting with #1, have the first group tell the class where they think it belongs in the Venn diagram and why.
If their answer is correct, show the answer in the Venn diagram and have each student write that fact into their notes.
Optional: Using a blue colored pen or pencil, the students will fill in the phrases related to the states of matter and their characteristics, such as definite shape or volume.
Using a red colored pen or pencil, they can write in the phase changes, such as evaporation. They will notice that all of the phase changes are placed where two states of matter overlap.For example, evaporation is placed where liquids and gases overlap.
If it in incorrect, go to the next group and have them share where they think it belongs.
Ask the next group for fact #2, and repeat the steps above until all 16 facts have been placed into the Venn diagram and each group has had a chance to place a fact into the Venn Diagram.
Independent Seat Work, or as part of a Station/Center/Review
You can also do this activity where each student will cut out all 16 facts and work independently to figure out where each fact would go in the Venn Diagram. They will then write in the facts as each answer is discussed.
As a station/center activity/review, you can have a blank laminated Venn Diagram, a laminated answer key, and laminated facts. Students can guess where each fact goes into the diagram, then check their work with the answer key and write the answers into their worksheet
Older Version:
Phases of Matter Venn Diagram
This is an interactive/SmartBoard activity to show the relationship between the phases of matter and phase change.
Part 1 – Discussion and Categorizing: Students will work in collaborative groups to determine where each statement will go into the Venn diagram. In their notes, they will pencil in an ‘S’ for solid, ‘L’ for liquid, ‘SL’ if it goes between Solid/Liquid, etc… next to each statement on their list.
Part 2 – SMART Board: Each group will have a turn to make a guess to place one of the statements into the Venn diagram. If the group is correct, it stays in the Venn diagram and each student writes the statement into their Venn diagram handout and crosses it off the list. If the statement is incorrectly placed into the diagram, the statement is returned to the list outside of the diagram. The next group chooses a statement, and so on, until all of the statements have been placed correctly into the Venn diagram.
Using a blue colored pencil, the students will fill in the phrases related to the states of matter and their characteristics, such as definite shape or volume. Using a red colored pencil, they can write in the phase changes, such as evaporation. They will notice that all of the phase changes are placed where two states of matter overlap. For example, evaporation is placed where liquids and gases overlap.
Middle School Science Blog 