It all MATTERs to me!

      Things are heating up in the Science Lab, literally!  Our 5th graders are almost done reviewing physical properties of matter and will be moving on to Force & Motion next.  We did some fun and engaging lab lessons on matter, and on physical and chemical changes.  Parents you should ask them about it!  One lab lesson we did was to use an ice cube to actually see the 3 stages of matter (Solid, Liquid, and Gas) and watch it transform before our very own eyes.  Students also knew if the transformation was a chemical change, which occurs when a substance combines with another to form a new substance i.e. a nail rusting or a physical change which affects the form of a chemical substance, but not its chemical composition i.e. breaking a pencil in half.   Here is a great Video that explains the differences between the two. 
      Other characteristics of matter we studied were Density, Mass, and Volume.  Students start learning about physical properties of matter as early as Kindergarten so these concepts are not new to most students.  In 5th grade we go into more details on how to measure and classify these properties.  I provided a new link resource to the blog dedicated to physical properties for our students and some useful STAAR resources for our 5^th graders.