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Week 12 blog

 This week in lab we focused on the properties of matter. We were asked the question: what is the definition of property. In order for us to find a definition, we needed to experiment and use our senses to observe. The experiments we did:

  • Will it sink or float?
  • Will it have the same volume?
  • Will it have the same mass?
  • Will it conduct electricity?
  • Will it be attracted to a magnet?
These were some of our findings:
 We decided that the reason that these items sunk instead of floated was because the objects that sunk had more density than the other objects. 
  The reason for our findings on the same mass was that none of these were the same mass. Since these objects were full-sized compared to a size that was half, it is obvious that they would be different masses (weights). When an object is split in half, the mass changes, but the properties in it do not. 

Our final definition for properties was: 
PROPERTIES: Characteristics of substances that can be measured

Future teaching:
I love this activity! I have done this activity with my 3rd graders before when I was volunteering. The students found these activities so fun/engaging since they are hands-on and have multiple steps. The best thing about this activity is that it truly shows how properties are described/worked.



Comments

  1. Julia MikkelsenApril 12, 2023 at 12:40 PM

    Great post Amber! I love that you have done this experiment before! I am wondering if it was different for you to do now in the footsteps of the student instead of the teacher?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ali CraigApril 12, 2023 at 2:45 PM

    Hi Amber, this was a great post! I think it's great that you had experience using this activity with elementary students. Since you have done this multiple times now, as a student and a teacher, is there anything else you might add to this, such as adding time to hypothesize or a certain formative assessment to check the students understanding after?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Matt LorenzApril 13, 2023 at 7:25 AM

    Nice job on this blog post, Amber. That is cool that you have done this experiment with 3rd graders before. It is great to hear that the students found these experiments to be fun and engaging. I think this activity is so effective because of its hands on nature and variety of objects that are used so students can see many different property characteristics.

    ReplyDelete

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