Physical and Chemical Change

Item description

This unit includes 6 activities designed to build conceptual understanding of physical and chemical changes. Detailed teacher directions and interactive student pages are included. These highly engaging activities are easy to implement with minimal materials.

Specifically, this unit addresses the following Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for 5th Grade:

5-PS1-2. Measure and graph quantities to provide evidence that regardless of the type of change that occurs when heating, cooling, or mixing substances, the total weight of matter is conserved. [

5-PS1-4. Conduct an investigation to determine whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances.

Activities Included:

Activity 1: White Powder Investigation This first activity allows students to investigate how a substance can change in size and shape, but retain it’s properties.

Activity 2: Physical Change Foldable This foldable summarizes the different types of changes that do not change the chemical make up of something. Categories help students solidify this concept.

Activity 3: Film Canister Rockets In this highly engaging activity, students create a simple chemical reaction inside a film canister rocket and watch as it blasts off. The idea of variables is introduced as students experiment to make their rocket go the highest.

Activity 4: Chemistry in a Bag This exciting and efficient experiment lets students investigate common indicators of chemical change such as heat change, color change, and gas production. All this in the confines of a Ziploc bag!

Activity 5: What Happens to the Mass?: Students experiment with chemical changes and discover that the mass remains in tact even after a chemical change.

Activity 6: Pop it Up! Students continue their investigation into the conservation of mass.

Teacher pages to support each activity/lesson and an assessment and key are also included.