Chemical vs. Physical Changes and Intro to Phase Diagrams Lesson
Start of Class:
The class will NOT start off with a bell ringer, but instead, it will start off with a series of chemical and physical properties demos. The instructor in the front of the room will do an informal assessment where the students are required to determine whether or not that specific demo is a chemical or physical change. The following ideas for demos were brainstormed, and can be performed. The answers are on the following website:
- Dissolve sugar into water
- Dissolve salt in water
- Burn a piece of paper
- Melt wax
- Light a candle
- Add food coloring to water
- Crumpling up a piece of paper
- Breaking a glass beaker
- Baking soda and vinegar
- (Other fun demos to be determined): It also depends on the resources available
- Ideas were taking from this website, and it could be turned into a lab-demo instead of an actual lab.
Lesson Instruction:
The next majority of the lab is going to be a lot of content knowledge and definitions. Unfortunately, these are days that are sometimes needed, but it will be organized into a Prezi/Powerpoint (for ease) with fun pictures, corresponding demos for some of the changes, and maybe even small interactice demos with the class. The teacher can integrate students into this activity by having them perform some of them because it will get them engaged and excited about the lesson. The students should be introduced to the following terms: chemical and physical properties, critical point, critical temperature, phase diagrams, temperature and pressure, super critical point, etc. These terms will be based off of what is presented in the book. As the students are writing things down, it is possible to walk around the classrom and facilitate note taking. Walking around the room will promote the students to take their notes, but it will also give you an opportunity to walk around the room. During this time, try to scaffold by asking students first what they think, instead of just feeding them answers. This will help the students try to rationalize the answers for themselves.
The next part of the class will be a group worksheet, where they are given a blank phase diagram, and they are required to fill in the place where solid, liquid, and gas are supposed to be on a plot of temperature and pressure. A subsequent diagram and set of questions will be provided on a different worksheet. This will be facilitated by the teacher, so that each group won’t spoil where the solid, liquid, and gas should be. In order to move forward, the group needs to present the first completed phase diagram to the teacher to get the other worksheet. The following worksheet will look like this.
If a homework assignment is wanted, or if the students finish the worksheet early, corresponding questions in the book can be completed (this is to be determined by the book provided by the schools)
Assessments/Checks for Understanding:
The assessment of the lesson will come from grading the worksheet described above. There are right and wrong answers, and their learning can be assessed on whether or not their answers were right or wrong. The first demo was a good way of informal assessing if the students are understanding the difference between physical and chemical changes. When the students come up to check their phase diagrams, it is also testing them to see what they are learning.
Closure/Wrap-Up/Review:
The Wrap up will be a re-convergence of the class to focus for a brief recap of the answers to the phase diagram. This will be a good wrap up to get them to remember some relevant information, and some take aways from the class. They will also be required to turn in their worksheets to be graded.
The class will NOT start off with a bell ringer, but instead, it will start off with a series of chemical and physical properties demos. The instructor in the front of the room will do an informal assessment where the students are required to determine whether or not that specific demo is a chemical or physical change. The following ideas for demos were brainstormed, and can be performed. The answers are on the following website:
- Dissolve sugar into water
- Dissolve salt in water
- Burn a piece of paper
- Melt wax
- Light a candle
- Add food coloring to water
- Crumpling up a piece of paper
- Breaking a glass beaker
- Baking soda and vinegar
- (Other fun demos to be determined): It also depends on the resources available
- Ideas were taking from this website, and it could be turned into a lab-demo instead of an actual lab.
Lesson Instruction:
The next majority of the lab is going to be a lot of content knowledge and definitions. Unfortunately, these are days that are sometimes needed, but it will be organized into a Prezi/Powerpoint (for ease) with fun pictures, corresponding demos for some of the changes, and maybe even small interactice demos with the class. The teacher can integrate students into this activity by having them perform some of them because it will get them engaged and excited about the lesson. The students should be introduced to the following terms: chemical and physical properties, critical point, critical temperature, phase diagrams, temperature and pressure, super critical point, etc. These terms will be based off of what is presented in the book. As the students are writing things down, it is possible to walk around the classrom and facilitate note taking. Walking around the room will promote the students to take their notes, but it will also give you an opportunity to walk around the room. During this time, try to scaffold by asking students first what they think, instead of just feeding them answers. This will help the students try to rationalize the answers for themselves.
The next part of the class will be a group worksheet, where they are given a blank phase diagram, and they are required to fill in the place where solid, liquid, and gas are supposed to be on a plot of temperature and pressure. A subsequent diagram and set of questions will be provided on a different worksheet. This will be facilitated by the teacher, so that each group won’t spoil where the solid, liquid, and gas should be. In order to move forward, the group needs to present the first completed phase diagram to the teacher to get the other worksheet. The following worksheet will look like this.
If a homework assignment is wanted, or if the students finish the worksheet early, corresponding questions in the book can be completed (this is to be determined by the book provided by the schools)
Assessments/Checks for Understanding:
The assessment of the lesson will come from grading the worksheet described above. There are right and wrong answers, and their learning can be assessed on whether or not their answers were right or wrong. The first demo was a good way of informal assessing if the students are understanding the difference between physical and chemical changes. When the students come up to check their phase diagrams, it is also testing them to see what they are learning.
Closure/Wrap-Up/Review:
The Wrap up will be a re-convergence of the class to focus for a brief recap of the answers to the phase diagram. This will be a good wrap up to get them to remember some relevant information, and some take aways from the class. They will also be required to turn in their worksheets to be graded.