Snowflakes and States of Matter
Learning objectives:
- to be able to identify the state of matter of different elements found in nature
- to be able to explain whether or not heat is applied or removed to cause a change in phase
Challenge: Classifying different states of water in nature.
What happened: During the unit Land, Sea and Sky, my Grade 3s had a lesson about states of matter. Most of them remembered what they had learnt the previous year and were able to list the three states, but when we looked through different landscape pictures, they had trouble classifying snow. Is it a liquid? Or is it a solid? During the discussion students flipped back and forth between liquid and solid.
This uncertainty could stem from the visuals often used in videos and texts. The definition of solids created by these visuals are often narrow and similar to this depiction of neon atoms in solid state:
The simulation provided by PHET shows a broader definition of solids that could help with this misconception.
Simulation link: https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/states-of-matter/latest/states-of-matter_en.html
The below table is modeled after Khan’s (2007) Three Levels of Teaching Strategies table. I changed the column titles for main teaching methods to student activities to match the lesson plan format my school uses.
