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Physical Science Kit Resources Vancouver School District
Students will already have had experiences with properties of solids and liquids in the first grade Solids and Liquids kit. The second grade Changes kit is very important for building the foundation for further experiences in the upper elementary grades. In third grade, students study in depth the properties of rocks and minerals. This means it is important for those standards in third grade so it is very important to build that foundation in second grade. Your students experiences with mixtures, evaporation, dissolving, chemical reactions; in fact, every part of the Changes kit, lays a rich and meaningful foundation for the study of matter and Food Chemistry in 4th grade. It would be great to match up a second and 4th grade class to share journals and experiments with each other. Students experiencing investigations through Changes will have a rich foundation for later study of physical science including Soils in second grade, and Food Chemistry in fourth grade. Changes will also help build a foundation for properties of matter in third grade, an area of study which is addressed through the kit rocks and minerals. By observing various properties associated to Changes, you'll
help students begin to understand the diversity of physical and
chemical properties in nature. With the activities in Changes,
you'll encourage your students to observe and detail This is a very exciting unit for young students because they have a chance to observe, touch, hold, and compare changes for a number of experiences as they · Plan an conduct scientific investigations on change
of state. Through their long-term observations, students will learn that changes are constantly occurring in nature. By closely examining a variety of techniques, students see observable differences within the same mixtures. And due to the selection of the lessons in this unit, your students will see the many of the investigative tools that are used by a scientist. Extensive use of Venn diagrams helps students organize their observations and draw conclusions about their observations in general. Essential Lessons: ALL LESSONS 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14 In doing each of the essential lessons, all content and performance
standards will be met for the Washington State EALR's and Benchmarks.
The lessons can be done in clusters or combined grouping. To
ease Kit usage the following lessons should be done in the above
sequence. The instructional approach to enhance student inquiry
and discovery is to combine the lessons in clusters (2, 3) ,
(7, 8) , (12, 13,) , (15, 16, ) and then culminate the unit with
final project assessment (which can actually be one of the later
lessons.) The grayed lessons should be done if time is available.
This will assure that you will be able to accommodate all EALR
and WASL requirements. If time is not available the grayed lessons
could be eliminated, but this means that you will need to assure
that the remaining lessons are done in breadth and depth.
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In Changes, students expand their
understanding of solids, liquids, and gases by exploring changes
in state. They investigate freezing, melting, evaporation, and
condensation of water. In a sequence of lessons, students produce
a mixture of two solids and a mixture of solids with liquids
and observe the results. They work through several methods to
separate mixtures: sieving, filtration, evaporation, and chromatography.
The students set up races that involve sugar dissolving in water
and observe the effects of particle size and water temperature
on the rate at which the sugar dissolves. They also observe crystals
formed as a result of evaporation. Students observe some changes
that occur immediately and some that occur over time, and they
begin to recognize the characteristics of chemical reactions.
They investigate rusting, and they observe and collect the gas
formed by mixing an effervescent tablet in water. Students have
several opportunities to practice their new skills in lessons
in which they devise ways of separating a mystery mixture and
plan and carry out investigations that involve other changes.
They investigate examples of change in the world around them.
They examine what occurs when solids and liquids are mixed or
change state. They discover how water freezes, melts, evaporates
and condenses. They describe some of the changes that take place
when substances are combined or separated.