Chemistry Unit- Day 1 and 2

Day 1:

This was a quick lesson since we had our co-op classes in the morning and had a vet appointment in the afternoon. But we started with discussing matter. What it was and the 3 major forms it takes. We gathered some items and I had them sort them into solids or liquid, or both.... venn diagram-style using yarn circles. Once they were sorted we added the 3rd circle for gas. I had them look over each item to see if any of them had gas in them. They did immediately see the air bubble in a couple of the liquids and the air inside the dogs squeaky toy.

We also talked about the properties of solids, liquids and gases. And since I put up a posted of the periodic table of elements we had a short talk about that, atoms and molecules.


Day 2:

We started off reviewing the definition of matter again. Then we tested to see if certain object did indeed take up space and have mass. So using our scale and balance they tested for awhile. Then I asked them about gases. If it weighed anything. Cale said no. Rylan remembered we had done this particular experiment before and said yes. So we took 2 balloons on either side of the balance. They were equal. Then Rylan blew up one balloon. And they guess if one side would be heavier now. Then it was easy to see that the gas inside the balloon 1. took up space since it was visually larger than the deflated one and 2. it had mass since it was heavier blown up

Next we talked about the behavior of the molecules in solids, liquids and gases. We started off with a demonstration using marbles in a box. To demonstrate solids, the box was filled completely so that they could barely move. This shows that the molecules move slow and are packed closer together. Which is why solids are hard and don't form to the shape of the container they are in. For liquids we removed some marbles so that they could roll around a bit and move faster. We removed even more to show that the gas molecules can move very fast.

Once that was done we talked about the 3 forms of water and how the molecules would be moving in there. How the colder water gets, the closer to being ice (solid) the slower the molecules will be moving. And the hotter water gets, the closer to steam (gas) the faster the molecules will be moving. We filled 1 tube with cold water and 1 with hot. They gave their guess as to which tube would mix the color quicker- the cold or hot. (Pictured above) The cold wasn't too much slower, but it took longer to get a uniform color than the warm water.

From here they wanted to try really cold and boiling water. So we filled 1 tube and stuck it in an ice bucket and boiled some water in the microwave for the second. This time the results were much more dramatic. The boiling water mixed almost instantly. The colder water started off pretty well but stalled once the dye hit the bottom where the water was even colder.

Rylan wanted to go even further, so we placed the dye on ice...to see how quick it would mix

At first they thought it was going quicker than expected

Only to realize the ice wasn't mixing, the dye was just mixing with the water as it melted....

and they went back to their original guess- that it wouldn't mix completely until the ice melted.