Mrs. Wollenweber's Class

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Chemical and Physical Changes

Unit Description:

In this unit, students will use the skills and process of science to examine how matter undergoes chemical and physical changes.  Students will recognize that all matter is composed of substances with distinct chemical and physical properties.  These properties are changed or rearranged as matter undergoes chemical and physical changes.

By observing a number of these changes, students will be able to identify those characteristics that can be used to classify a change as either chemical or physical.  Through the use of common household materials, students will determine some important properties of solutions.  Students will classify liquids as acids, bases, or neutral solutions. Students will also analyze a variety of factors that are involved in the use of energy to cause changes in matter.

In addition, the instructional activities in this unit, or any science unit, provide a framework for a hands-on, active approach to learning in which students frequently work cooperatively with their classmates.  These experiences, preceded and followed by interaction with the teacher, allow students to maintain their innate curiosity of the natural world while constructing meaning of scientific phenomena.

Guiding Questions:

1.  What is matter and its physical properties?

2. What is a physical change?

3. What is the difference between an acid, base, and neutral solution?

4. How can we determine if a chemical change occurred?

5. Can different states of matter, when combined, produce a chemical change?

6. What are various types of chemical changes?

7. Does a physical change affect a chemical change?

8.  What substances can produce a gas?

Enduring Understandings:

1.  Matter is made up of smaller particles and has observable physical properties.

2. Matter undergoes chemical and physical change.

3. Scientist use investigations to observe and study chemical and physical changes.

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