Learning about Matter: Snow Science

Students are learning about matter. They studied about the ways that particles are different in liquids, solids, and gas. They created a mixture that resulted in a chemical reaction that blew up a balloon. Then they filled balloons with water and food coloring and buried the balloons in the snow. Now they are wondering what happened to their balloons?

Tomorrow they'll have some time to predict what will happen to their orbs We'll look at the temperature chart to the right and students will draw and write about their predictions. Later students will practice using the balances to measure the mass of many objects we'll be using during our matter study.

On Thursday morning we'll have a snow science day. Students will dress in their snow clothes, and we'll go outside and have an ice orb hunt. Once students find their orbs, I'll give them some time to play with them and build in the snow. After that I'll ask the students to fill cups and buckets with snow. When we return to class, they'll find the mass of that cup of snow, and then later when the snow melts they'll find the mass of the water in the cup. We'll discuss conservation of mass in matter.

Later students will build filters to purify that water that remains in the buckets. Following that we'll look at the differences between mixtures and solutions as well as physical changes and chemical changes. The students love using all the science instruments and exploring these concepts which is great motivation for the teaching and learning to come.