2 What Is Matter?

2What Is Matter?Lesson PlanNOTE TO TH E TEACH E RThe first half of this curriculum is devoted to matter. It covers whatmatter is (and isn’t), what some of the properties of matter are, how youcan change the phase of matter, and finally ends with atomic theory:that all of matter is made up of atoms. Once they have this, you candiscuss how the structure of atoms determines if atoms will participatein chemical reactions and join together to form molecules, which in turnform proteins and other macromolecules, which in turn form plants andanimals. Without chemical reactions, our whole world would just be asoup of lonely atoms.In this lesson, we focus on what matter is. Matter has a formal sciencedefinition as anything that has mass and takes up space (or hasvolume). This lesson covers matter, mass, and volume in some depth.You might also add that all of matter is made up of particles, but we’llalso get that in future lessons.If you have a scale in class, it’s worth having students measure the massof some objects. You can bring objects in or just have them measurethings in the classroom: Keys, phones, pens, chalk, books. This lessondoes not go into how to measure volume, but it would fit well with thislesson if you are interested in adding it.A big challenge of this lesson is that gas is matter, too. Most studentsdon’t recognize gas as matter. The final section is devoted to undoingthis misconception, but in my experience this is something that needs tobe reviewed many times over the course of the semester before studentsare convinced that gas has mass and volume and, thus, is matter.When we taught this lessonrecently, we used kitchenscales to weigh one-inchdensity cubes, which havethe same volume, but havedifferent mass becausethey are made of differentmaterials. The scale gavestudents a tangible way totalk about mass, which ismeasured in ounces or grams.Pocket kitchen scales are nowavailable for 10-20.OBJ ECTIVESStudents understand what is and is not matter.Students understand mass, volume, and how they are different.Students understand that gas is matter too.MATE R IALS Quiz, copies for all students Sorting cards, one pack for each pair of students Handout: Sentence StartersTHE CUNY HSE CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK SCIENCEUNIT 2: WHAT IS MATTER?39

un i t 2lesson Handout: Is it Matter?We used readings from theMcDougal Littell Sciencetextbook, Matter and Energy(2005) to review and extendthe concepts covered inclass. The American ChemicalSociety also has an extensivefree lesson set on matterthat includes readingsappropriate for pre-HSE andHSE classes . Reading: Matter has Mass and Volume 2 balloons of the same size Tape Yardstick or rulerLESSON STEPSGive the quiz.1Ask students to work on it by themselves, without consulting notes,for a few minutes. Remind them that this is excellent practice,asking their brains to try to remember what you talked about lasttime. After a few minutes, tell them that they can use their notes ortalk with a partner. Review the answers briefly.2Review the goals of the quizzes:a. Every time you try to access a memory, your brain gets the signalthat this is an important piece of information and it builds thatmemory stronger. Quizzing yourself is a great way to reinforcememories, which is why flashcards work.2aRecent research shows thatwe learn even, or maybeespecially, when we makemistakes. According toStanford professor, Jo Boaler,making mistakes actuallymakes neurons developand grows the brain. Thisinformation can be helpful aswe teach our students to bepersistent in facing challengesin learning. For more on thesubject, look for Boaler’sarticles on YouCubed.org.b. It gives everyone a chance to remember what you did last timeand ask questions about it.c. Because all the science lessons are connected, it sets the stage forthe next lesson.Introduce matter.3Write Matter, Energy, and Interactions on the board. Ask studentswhich word you focused on last time (Interactions). Today, we willfocus on MATTER.4Introduce two definitions of matter.a. The first definition is STUFF. Matter is stuff in the world.Include some examples like water, people, clothes, iPhones, grass,food, air.b. The second definition is the formal science definition. Matter isanything (or stuff) that has mass and takes up space.Review mass.540UNIT 2: WHAT IS MATTER?In order to understand this, we need to understand what mass andvolume is. Define mass.THE CUNY HSE CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK SCIENCE

un i t 2lessona. Mass is a measurement of how much something weighs. We usea scale to measure mass. We can measure mass in pounds orkilograms. (Example: He weighs 160 pounds.) I make a list ofwords on the board to associate with mass: Weight Heaviness Use a scale to measure it Pounds, ounces, gramsb. Ask students to vote on which of the above four words seemslike the best, most memorable definition for them. (This is notabout getting a consensus but about having students evaluateinformation and make a decision about what will help themremember the concept the best.)c. Distribute one pack of sorting cards to each pair of students.Ask them to sort the cards based on how much mass they thinkeach image has. Draw a continuum on the board and label it:less mass5aWe have found the distinctionbetween mass and weightunnecessary for HSE students.The formal definition of weightvs. mass won’t come up untilPhysics 101, but mass OFTENcomes up, so it is importantthat students can recognizemass as a measurement takenon a scale. In this curriculum,we treat mass and weightinterchangeably.more massWorking with a partner, students should place their cards inorder from less to more mass. Ask them to record the order ona piece of paper.d. Review as a class. Ask, Does anything have the exact same mass?Review volume.6Define volume.a. Volume is a measurement of how much space something takesup. We can’t use a scale to measure this. We need to use a tapemeasure. For example, you might have two different sized plates,one small and one large. These plates have different volumes.They take up different amounts of space. Here are two ways todefine volume. Ask students which one they like better: Size How big or small it isb. Ask students to make a second continuum, on a second piece ofpaper. This time, label it like this:less volumemore volumeStudents should use the same sorting cards, but now re-sort thembased on volume. This should give a different result. Ask them torecord the new order on a piece of paper.THE CUNY HSE CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK SCIENCEUNIT 2: WHAT IS MATTER?41

un i t 2lessonc. Review as a class. A few questions to ask: What changed positionwhen you organized by volume? Why? Does the empty or full Cokecan have more volume?7Ask students, What is the difference between mass and volume? Talkabout how they will remember the difference. Explain that thinkingabout HOW to remember something really does help you rememberit. For example, say that you think of mass as how HEAVYsomething is, and you think of volume as how much SPACE it takesup. You might draw a weight on the board, label it “100 pounds” andwrite Mass above it. For volume, you might draw a bus and a smallcar or bicycle, or a small and large suitcase.8Distribute the sentence starters and give students a choice to workon it with a partner or alone.10Students will often say thatair, helium and oxygen are notmatter. Though it is difficult toput a gas on a scale, there areother ways of demonstratingthat gases have mass andvolume. Heat, light, soundand electricity are all formsof energy and are not matter.They don’t have volume ormass. Energy is a propertyof matter, or something thatmatter has. One way to talkthrough this with students is togo back to the basic definitionof matter: Stuff that takes upspace and has weight. Doeslight take up space? Could youput it in a balloon? Fill a bowlwith it? Not exactly. Does ithave weight? Could you put iton a scale to weigh it?Is it matter?9Let’s come back to matter! If you erased the definition of matter,ask students, What is matter again? Ask students how they woulddecide if something is matter or not. (Get to the answer that theywould need to test if it had mass and volume. If it has both massand volume, it is matter.)10 Distribute IS IT MATTER? Students should work in groups of 2 or 3.Encourage them to make notes on the final question about how theydecided. Review as a class.Gas is matter too.11 It’s worth spending some time talking about gas. Many studentsdon’t recognize gas as a form of matter. Discuss how you mighttest is a gas has mass or volume. If time allows, ask students tobrainstorm ways to measure the mass and volume of a gas.12 One way to test if air has volume is to blow air into a balloon.Does that air take up space inside the balloon? Yes.13 In order to test if the air has mass, you might compare the weightof the filled balloon with the weight of an empty balloon. If youhave a sensitive scale in the classroom, you can weigh the emptyballoon and then weigh the full balloon (although it’s hard to keepthe balloon from rolling off of the scale). You could also bring abasketball and an air pump to class and compare the weight ingrams of an empty basketball and a full basketball. An emptybasketball may weigh about 576 grams and a full basketball shouldweigh about 5 more grams. These demonstrations show that airhas weight.42UNIT 2: WHAT IS MATTER?THE CUNY HSE CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK SCIENCE

un i t 2If you don’t have a scale, you can attach the full balloon to oneend of a meter stick and an empty balloon to the other end. Askstudents what would happen if you balance the stick on your finger(your finger is in the center of the meter stick) if the balloons weighthe same. Ask them what would happen if you balance it on yourfinger and they don’t weigh the same. Do it to show that the filledballoon weighs more than the empty balloon. You can pass it aroundthe class and have people try to balance it, so that they can see thatthe side with the full balloon always tips down.Summary14 Do the summary as a group. Write the following on the board andask the students to tell you what you learned about each concept intoday’s class.lesson13The full balloon is heavierbecause the air we breathe(mostly nitrogen and oxygen)has mass (weight) as wellas volume (what makes theballoon expand). A word ofwarning: Try this on your ownbefore class. Unforeseenvariables in how much tape isused or where the balloon isattached to the yardstick canthrow this off. You may alsowant to use larger balloonsthat can hold more air, in orderto have more obvious results.a. Matterb. Massc. Volumed. Gas15 (Make sure you have a coherent definition for matter, mass, andvolume. For gas, you should note that not everyone was sure thatgas was a form of matter, so you decided to test to see if air met thedefinition of having both mass and volume. You used a balloon tosee that air took up space, and then you compared the weight of afull and empty balloon to see that it has mass, so air has both massand volume and therefore must be matter.)16 Remind them that they will have a quiz on these topics at thebeginning of the next class.HOM EWOR KDistribute the reading. In our class, we used the reading, MATTER HASMASS AND VOLUME from Matter and Energy from McDougal Littell. Analternative might be an edited version of the first reading from the ACSMiddle School Chemistry curriculum: chapter1 student reading.pdf.Ask students to read and summarize the main ideas in one paragraphfor homework.VOCABULARYMatter Mass VolumeTHE CUNY HSE CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK SCIENCEUNIT 2: WHAT IS MATTER?43

un i t 2lesson / quiz 1Quiz 1: Interactions1What’s an interaction?2Give two examples of interactions.3Fill in the blank:The theme of our science study is Matter, , & Interactions.44UNIT 2: WHAT IS MATTER?THE CUNY HSE CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK SCIENCE