Week 9: Demonstrating What You Know

This final week of the first quarter is all about demonstrating everything you learned since August up to this point.  For Gifted students, this week you will share your Matter Documentary Videos. For my other classes, you will demonstrate what you know by completing the second part of the Matter Test. All students will use the remaining three days of this week to work on the standards project. The standards project will be the first  summative grade of the second quarter. Below I have included more practice websites in preparation for classroom assessments and projects.

See you in the classroom!

Practice quizzes and test
Matter Quiz
Atoms Quiz
Pure Substances and Mixtures Quiz
Elements and Compound Quiz
Properties and Changes Quiz
Periodic Table Quiz #1
Periodic Table Quiz #2
Law of Conservation (Balancing Equations) Quiz #1
Law of Conservation (Balancing Equations) Quiz #2

Our Agenda this Week:

(The schedule changes to match the needs of my students.)

	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY
GIFTED	Check videos at school; Water Essays Due; Law of Conservation of Matter Sim	Video Projects Due	Finish Video Projects; Standards Project	Standards Project	Standards Project; Energy Vocabulary
REGULAR	Law of Conservation of Matter	Matter Test; Standards Project	Standards Project	Standards Project	Standards Project; Energy Vocabulary
Next Week:  Energy Unit & Vocabulary; Conference Week

Week 7: The Periodic Table

There is a new hit song on the radio waves now...well...maybe not on your local radio station, but definitely a cool song to listen to if I say so myself.

How cool was that?

So probably by now you have figured out that we are finally going to talk about that big poster on the classroom wall.  Well if that was your thought, you are most certainly correct. We already know the story of Dmitri Mendeleev and how the periodic table came about, but if you need a refresher click here. 

Before we get into the heart of the matter, we will start this week with three discovery learning stations. 

Learning Station 1: The Periodic Table
This learning station is all about figuring out how to organize the missing elements from the periodic table and then hypothesizing about five elements with regard to their chemical properties. Check out this video before class on Monday. 

Learning Station 2: Atomic Structure Models
This learning stations requires that you choose an atom and build it according to the information provided on the periodic table. You will be assigned one element to study at this station. You will want to review your notes on the structure of the atom to help you out on this activity. Please watch this video before class on Monday.

Learning Station 3: The Law of Conservation of Matter
The Law of Conservation of Matter states that in the formation of new substances matter can neither be created nor destroyed.  You will be busy providing evidence to support this law. Be careful though, things can get pretty messy if you don't follow the directions! Here's the last video you need to watch before Monday.

After we have completed the learning stations, we will share our findings as a class. Be prepared to discuss what you've learned, in addition to asking any questions that will help you clear up any areas of confusion. 

Our focus for the remainder of the week will be the periodic table. Are you ready?

Additional resources for this week include:
Hunting the Elements Periodic Table [PDF]
Periodic Table Games
Element Flash Cards
Periodic Table Name Game
Nova's Elemental Quiz
Periodic Table Quiz
Printable Periodic Table Test (Don't do 28-29 and 43-46; answer key available in classroom)

 

Week 6: Atoms and Molecules

I think the banana smell has left the room! Thank goodness because I don't think we could observe them one more week. Here is a video of what we did with this lab.

 
Now that we are done with describing matter, let's look at matter at a microscopic level. If I told you that matter was made of up billions of specks too small for the human eye to see, would you believe me? Of course you would! These really tiny particles are known as atoms.  So how small are they you ask? Well let's turn to this really awesome video on the atom!

Okay, so let's quickly review:

1. What is all matter composed of?
2. How small is an atom?
3. What does the atom contain?
4. Where does most of the atom's mass come from?
5. What is between the nucleus and the electrons?

How does an atom differ from a molecule? 

Atoms are the building blocks of all matter. This means that everything is composed of the atoms currently known to man. Unfortunately we can't just walk up to an atom and look at it because it is to small for the naked eye.  However, if we could get our hands on really fancy (and expensive) science equipment we could probably get to see what an atom looks like. Atoms are composed of two main areas: the electron cloud and nucleus. If we zoom even further into the two areas we would come across even smaller particles (subatomic) called protons, electrons, and neutrons. Protons and neutrons are found in the nucleus of the atom while the electrons are moving around the nucleus within the election cloud. 

If you recall from last week, elements are formed from the same type of atom.  In other words, the hydrogen element is composed of millions of hydrogen atoms. This is why it is a pure substance. (Oh look, another vocabulary word from last week!) When we take two or more elements (of the 118 to choose from) and bond (combine) them together we have molecules. Some molecules like to share electrons while others have more of a give-and-take partnership, but more on that later.  

In order to know how many elements are contained in a chemical bond we look to the chemical formula for the answer.  The chemical formula is composed of letters and numbers that indicate the ratio of elements within a bond.  Water or H2O means that there are two hydrogen (H) atoms to one oxygen (O) atom in every water molecule (see image below).

See this image in video by clicking here.

Later this week we are going to do something called Paper Blogging. This video is similar to what we are going to do.  

By the way, I came across this e-chapter and thought I would share it with you. It covers many of the topics we've been and will cover.

Other Helpful Resources for this week:
Subatomic Particles (Practice Quiz)
Atomic Structure (Practice Quiz)
The Atom Quiz 

Week 5: Hunting the Elements

Okay so far we have talked about ways in which to describe matter

• Physical properties
• Physical changes
• Chemical properties
• Chemical changes
• States of Matter (motion of particles)
• Changes of States
• Pure Substances (elements and compounds)
• Mixtures (homogeneous and heterogeneous)
• Atoms*
• Molecules*

*We will talk about these for another couple of weeks.

After a long weekend and a test (or video productions), it's time to go on a hunt of the elements. We have been talking about the elements for a few days and now it's time to see elements in action. Here is a snapshot of where we are headed this week! No 80s clothes or scratchy footage in this awesome video!




Good luck on Tuesday's test! See YOU in the classroom!
Matter Practice Test

Week 4: Describing Matter - Pure Substances and Mixtures

Last week we talked about the properties and changes of matter.  Then we took our learning and applied it to an experiment: Banana and the Yeast Lab. We created a controlled experiment where compared the decomposition rates (dependent variable) between bananas. To see if yeast (independent variable) influences the decomposition of the banana we had to cover at least one banana sample with the substance and leave the other banana alone. To make our observations and avoid a lot of mess, we enclosed the banana samples in Ziploc bags. I am working on a video of this lab so stay tuned...

This week, we will continue making observations on what we observe happening to our banana samples.  Our focus this week is to identify any changes over the next few days and draw conclusions based on those observations. 

While we are experimenting, we will also begin learning about pure substances and mixtures. It's vital to tie everything we have been learning into our overarching Essential Question (You know the slide that I show you almost every day?). Instead of writing out a long-winded explanation I think a nice visual (or two) may be in order! 

But first let's take a quick commercial break and watch this video.

Not bad, right? Okay so matter can be broken down into two categories: Pure Substance or Mixture. So here is the work we've been doing this week on this topic:

How do you decide if something is a pure substance or mixture? Let's look at this in more detail.

Pure substances are substances that cannot be broken down any further because they are already in their simplest form. Examples of pure substances are elements and compounds. Mixtures, on the other hand, are physically-combined substances.  Mixtures can either be homogeneous (uniform throughout or can't see every substance that is in the mix) or heterogeneous (not uniformed throughout and you can pretty much see everything in its composition). Another name for a homogeneous mixture is a solution. 

Have you heard that there is some real science behind macaroni salad?




...and even more!



Whoa! Did someone just say there's a test next week?

Okay folks, here are some links to a few review activities I found online:
The Study of Change
Classification of Matter

Week 3: Describing Matter

We have learned that there are several ways to describe matter. Some of those ways include the state of matter and identifying matter by specific properties.  The properties can either be physical or chemical.  Physical properties include color, shape, magnetism, density, malleability, boiling point, and phase at room temperature.  Chemical properties include the matter's ability to form gas bubbles, rust, react with other substances, not react with other substances, and ability to burn. Keep in mind that chemical properties are properties that we can potentially witness when we try to make a new substance.  In other words, they are not readily seen.  For example, we know the car is made of metal. We also know that the metal has the ability to rust over time when exposed to the right elements, but it is not something we will immediately see on the metal.  

Now let's look at how matter can change. Just like there are physical and chemical properties, they're also physical and chemical changes.  Physical changes do not change the chemical make up of matter.  They just change the appearance.  So if I have a paper and rip that paper in half, it is still just paper. Physical changes are reversible for the most part.

Chemical changes mean that a chemical reaction has occurred between substances resulting in a newly formed substance.  Remember the example of sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl)? Separately, Na is a soft, silvery metal and Cl is a yellow-greenish gas. Once combined they create sodium chloride (NaCl), which is commonly known as table salt. Chemical changes are irreversible. 

Check out Mr. Kent's Chemistry Page for more information on this topic.

Here is cartoon video from my Youtube channel on this topic.

Week 2: Describing Matter

Last week, we took an in-depth view on the different states of matter by making sense of how the particles move.  Now you know that identifying the state/phase of matter is one way to describe matter. During the earlier part of the week we will use what we have learned and apply these principles to various activities.  Mid-week we will move into matter properties.  Physical and chemical properties are other ways we can (just like chemists) describe matter.

To view the video that goes with this image click here.

Here are additional videos on our topic this week:
The Physical and Chemical Properties of Matter
Physical vs. Chemical Properties
Properties of Matter
Properties of Matter Rap