Curated OER
Is the Coast Really Toast?: A Lesson About Volcanoes, Phase Changes, and the Art of Estimation
Clever! Use a clip from the 1997 film, Volcano, to get your chemistry class knee-deep in heat concepts related to lava. In the movie scene, lava flow is stopped in the nick of time. Your class must use calculations to determine if this...
Kenan Fellows
How Much Heat Can a Phase Change Produce?
Scholars learn about heat release in phase changes. They perform calculations as they compare and contrast a science fiction passage and a home heating application.
Curated OER
Regents High School Examination PHYSICAL SETTING CHEMISTRY 2007
The University of the State of New York has designed a series of exams to be given to high schoolers. This chemistry exam is one of the most comprehensive and well-written that you will ever find. It consists of 84 questions in a variety...
Curated OER
Regents High School Examination PHYSICAL SETTING CHEMISTRY 2006
The 2006 version of the Regents High School Exam is just as thorough as the rest of them! Assess chemistry learners on an entire year's curriculum when they take this thirteen page test.
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Nanotechnology Invention and Design: Phase Changes, Energy, and Crystals
What does it take to be considered a smart material? Learners investigate the properties of Nitinol, a smart material, through a hands-on lab activity. They examine the crystal lattice structure and the conditions required for Nitinol to...
Curated OER
The Chemistry of Refining Crude Oil
Consider our energy sources: wood, coal, oil, uranium. Learners compare the pollution to energy produced for each. They practice fractional distillation of an alcohol/water mixture to simulate the process of refining crude oil....
Curated OER
BioFuels: The Chemistry and Economics of Alternative Fuels
Junior chemists manufacture biodiesel in the lab. In this exercise, they check the purity of the biodiesel using thin layer chromatography. They also calculate its density and heat of combustion. They are sure to rise to the...
Curated OER
Ice Cream Lab
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Even high schoolers enjoy making ice cream. This laboratory exercise has them record the temperature changes throughout the process of liquid becoming solid, graph the results, and...
Beyond Benign
Essential Oil Extraction Using Liquid CO2
When life hands you lemons ... experiment on them! Green chemistry gurus compare extraction methods for essential oils through a lab activity. Lab groups use traditional distillation and liquid carbon dioxide extraction...
Curated OER
Cool Liquids
Chemistry neophytes use a temperature probe to assess the change as five different liquids evaporate. The implantation section suggests that they take readings every five seconds for a total of four minutes. They graph the data, look up...
Curated OER
Changing Sugar
In this chemical and physical change worksheet, students use a sugar cube and observe its physical properties both when it is whole and after it is crushed. They heat the sugar cube and record 5 properties of the matter while being...
Curated OER
Heating and Cooling Curves
High schoolers experiment with a pure substance and a phase change. In this heating and cooling curves lesson plan, students study the effects of heating and cooling a pure substance to observe a phase change. They determine both the...
Curated OER
Edible Transformations
Learners differentiate the different phases of matter. For this chemistry lesson, students conduct several hands-on exercises to discover how matter transforms when mixed together. They identify the different stages in the water cycle.
Curated OER
Stomach Chemistry
Fifth graders compare physical and chemical changes. They perform a simulation experiment/activity that replicates what happens in the stomach as food is digested by stomach acids.
Curated OER
What Changes Occur When Ice Melts?
Students explore the physical process of melting. They observe melting ice and answer questions related to energy transfer during phase changes.
Curated OER
Chemquest: Physical Changes or Chemical Reactions
Students explore physical and chemical changes. For this chemistry lesson plan, students will go outside to observe changes seen in nature. Students will then work in the lab to identify changes at different stations prior to doing a...
Curated OER
Ice Cream
Open this instructional activity by giving a brief history of ice cream. Using liquid nitrogen to lower the temperature, preteens make their own confection. The accompanying activity sheet queries learners about freezing point, the...
Virginia Department of Education
Thermochemistry: Heat and Chemical Changes
What makes particles attract? Here, learners engage in multiple activities that fully describe colligative properties and allow the ability to critically assess the importance of these properties in daily life. Young chemists...
Curated OER
The Chemistry of Ice Cream
Students investigate the effects of temperature change on phase changes. They explore the effects of changes in freezing point and incorporate the law of conservation of energy. They utilize these concepts to make ice cream.
Curated OER
Chemistry E3 Lesson Plan
Ninth graders perform a series of experiment to investigate heat transfer and phase changes. In this physical science instructional activity, 9th graders identify and calculate the different subatomic particles. They explain the...
Curated OER
Glass Transition in a Rubber Ball
Learners illustrate the changes in the properties of a material at its glass transition point. They gather data which they use to construct graphs regarding elastic modules versus absorption modulus, tangent delta, and the effect of...
Curated OER
Nothing New? A Physical Change
Fifth graders discuss the differences between chemical and physical changes. In groups, they complete experiments and discover how a physical chnage can be reversed. To end the lesson, they review the steps of the water cycle and...
Curated OER
Kitchen Chemistry
Fifth graders examine both physical and chemical changes, and how to identify the difference between the two. They observe the changes that occur in butter when it is exposed to heat and cold, heat energy. In their notebooks, they write...
Curated OER
11 - The Heat Is On
Students observe physical change of melting by observing substance in original state, melting substance, allowing substance to return to original temperature, determining if substance retained its original properties, and recording results.