Lessons and Activities

These activities provide students with firsthand experiences in chemical and physical properties of matter, changes in states of matter, and chemical reactions. In addition, interactive online experiences are found at the web sites Acids and Bases: Kitchen Chemistry, Strange Matter, and IPPEX Interactive: Matter. The last resource in this section provides hundreds of games based on chemistry topics.

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Re:Source Chemistry http://chemistry.org/education/resourcechem.html

Chemistry-related physical science activities and background information are adapted from the former NSF-funded teacher professional development project Operation Chemistry. Some activities are for teachers only, but most can be done in the classroom by students in grades 5-8. Topics are: The Language of Chemistry, Matter and Its Changes, Chemical Reactions, Acids & Bases, Environment, and Density. MSP full record

Science Experiments at Home http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/homeexpts/HOMEEXPTS.HTML

Professor Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, offers many fun and easy chemistry experiments at this web site. With a few household materials, students can learn about pressure, acids and bases, chemiluminescent chemical reactions, and more. The activities are filled with thought-provoking questions along with concise explanations about the topic presented. The web site provides links to activities dealing with topics in physics as well. MSP full record

The Accidental Scientist: The Science of Cooking http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/index.html

This web site examines the chemistry and biology of cooking. The site's sections highlight the science involved in cooking with or preparing each of these food items: eggs, pickles, candy, bread, seasoning, and meat. Each section offers recipes and instructions for activities that can be conducted at home or in the classroom. In addition, many of the sections provide readings and animated features. For example, the candy section includes an illustrated article about sugar, photo tours of two candy-making businesses, an interactive feature about the temperatures at which different candies are made, and recipes and activity instructions. The site also offers discussion boards, expert answers to cooking questions, and archived web casts about the science of specific foods and drinks. MSP full record

Mystery Mud: Exploring Changes in States of Matter http://www.teachersdomain.org/6-8/sci/phys/matter/mud/index.html

Join a group of middle-school students on a visit to a laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where they experiment with mystery mud and learn about the relationships among magnetism, particle motion, and changes in the state of matter. MSP full record

Acids and Bases: Kitchen Chemistry http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/phy03/sci/phys/matter/zkitchen/index.html

In this interactive activity from the ZOOM web site, you can search for chemistry clues and experiment with acids and bases in a virtual kitchen. MSP full record

Strange Matter http://www.strangematterexhibit.com/index.html

Are your students familiar with the development and uses of foams and plastics? What about buckyballs and magneto-rheological fluid? At this animated site, a companion to a traveling science center exhibition, students in grades 5-8 can explore materials science. Four sets of activities address, respectively, the structure, properties, processing, and performance of materials. Kids are the guides for these activities, which come equipped with sound effects, games, experiments, and video clips of scientists. In one activity set, called Transform Stuff, students explore how raw materials are converted into products. They load silicon, iron, or carbon into a virtual machine, select the processes to alter their starting material, and then learn about the new substance they have made. The site also supplies an overview of materials science, a teacher’s section with connections to national science standards, and annotated lists of related resources. MSP full record

IPPEX Interactive: Matter http://ippex.pppl.gov/interactive/matter/

This interactive science module introduces students to many of the basic properties of matter, including atoms, ions, elements, molecules, and density. Students will learn about sinking and floating and do a density lab where they will predict and test which objects sink and which float. Included is information about conversions and scientific notation. MSP full record

Chemistry Search of Shared Activities http://www.quia.com/shared/chem/

This site provides access to 478 chemistry-related games and quizzes that have been developed by K-12 teachers. Students can play matching, word, and concentration games to learn the names and formulas of binary ionic compounds, element symbols, common names of chemicals, and other basic chemistry concepts. The web site also offers quizzes about chemical bonds, a Jeopardy-like game, a Battleship game about balancing equations, and much more. While users can subscribe to customize the activities, hundreds of the activities are free. MSP full record

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Copyright June 2007 — The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.