Substances and Chemical Reactions

Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Subject Area

Science

Grade(s)

5

Overview

In this lesson, students observe chemical reactions that produce obvious effects (as opposed to reactions in which the substances appear not to change at all). They begin by exploring a different substance every day for one week. They compare the substances and learn that substances can be solids, liquids, or gases. Next, through teacher demonstration (or direct, supervised student involvement), students watch what happens when sand and water are mixed together (no chemical reaction), and when several pairs of acids and bases are mixed together (a chemical reaction occurs). Students then get to build their own "film canister rockets," using baking soda and vinegar as rocket fuel. This lesson concludes with open-ended thinking when students are asked to determine where rust comes from.

Science (2015) Grade(s): 5

SC15.5.2

Investigate matter to provide mathematical evidence, including graphs, to show that regardless of the type of reaction (e.g., new substance forming due to dissolving or mixing) or change (e.g., phase change) that occurs when heating, cooling, or mixing substances, the total weight of the matter is conserved.

UP:SC15.5.2

Vocabulary

  • Quantitative measurements (mass, weight, standard unit)
  • Physical quantities (weight, time, temperature, volume)
  • Property changes
  • Matter
  • Reaction
  • Heating
  • Cooling
  • Mixing
  • Physical properties
  • Conservation of matter
  • Graphing

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The amount (weight) of matter is conserved when it changes form, even in transitions in which it seems to vanish.
  • No matter what reaction or change in properties occurs, the total weight of the substances does not change. (Boundary: Mass and weight are not distinguished at this grade level.)

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Measure and graph the given quantities using standard units, including: the weight of substances before they are heated, cooled, or mixed and the weight of substances, including any new substances produced by a reaction, after they are heated, cooled, or mixed.
  • Measure and/or calculate the difference between the total weight of the substances (using standard units) before and after they are heated, cooled, and/or mixed.
  • Describe the changes in properties they observe during and/or after heating, cooling, or mixing substances.
  • Use their measurements and calculations to describe that the total weights of the substances did not change, regardless of the reaction or changes in properties that were observed.
  • Use measurements and descriptions of weight, as well as the assumption of consistent patterns in natural systems, to describe evidence to address scientific questions about the conservation of the amount of matter, including the idea that the total weight of matter is conserved after heating, cooling, or mixing substances.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Standard units are used to measure and describe physical quantities such as weight and can be used to demonstrate the conservation of the total weight of matter.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking

Crosscutting Concepts

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity
Science (2015) Grade(s): 5

SC15.5.4

Investigate whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances (e.g., mixing of baking soda and vinegar resulting in the formation of a new substance, gas; mixing of sand and water resulting in no new substance being formed).

UP:SC15.5.4

Vocabulary

  • variables
  • states of matter
  • properties of matter
  • chemical change
  • physical change
  • evidence
  • temperature

Knowledge

Students know:
  • When two or more different substances are mixed, a new substance with different properties may be formed.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • From a given investigation plan, describe the phenomenon under investigation, including the mixing of two or more substances.
  • Identify the purpose of the investigation.
  • Describe the evidence from data that will be collected, including quantitative and qualitative properties of the substances to be mixed and the resulting substances.
  • Collaboratively plan an investigation and describe the data to be collected, including: how quantitative and qualitative properties of the two or more substances to be mixed will be determined and measured, number of trials for the investigation, how variables will be controlled to ensure a fair test.
  • Collect necessary data.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Cause and effect relationships are identified and used to explain changes like those that occur when two or more substances are mixed together.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Planning and Carrying out Investigations

Crosscutting Concepts

Cause and Effect

CR Resource Type

Lesson/Unit Plan

Resource Provider

PBS

License Type

CUSTOM
https://aptv.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.descwrld.lp_chemical/…

Custom License Type (URL)

https://aptv.pbslearningmedia.org/help/terms-of-use/

Comments or Notes

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Approved Date

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