To pique students’ curiosity and anchor the learning for the unit in the visible and concrete, students start with an experience of observing and analyzing a bath bomb as it fizzes and eventually disappears in the water. Their observations and questions about what is going on drive learning that digs into a series of related phenomena as students iterate and improve their models depicting what happens during chemical reactions. By the end of the unit, students have a firm grasp on how to model simple molecules, know what to look for to determine if chemical reactions have occurred, and apply their knowledge to chemical reactions to show how mass is conserved when atoms are rearranged.

How do you know if a chemical equation is balanced? What can you change to balance an equation? Play a game to test your ideas!

Using gumdrops and toothpicks, students conduct a large-group, interactive ozone depletion model. Students explore the dynamic and competing upper atmospheric roles of the protective ozone layer, the sun's UV radiation and harmful human-made CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons).

ESCOLAR aims to offer ALL elementary and middle-school students the opportunity to learn science within an engaging online environment.

In this unit designed for an integrated middle school science classroom, students investigate why athletes ice injuries. This leads students to wonder why actual bags of ice are used instead of the instant ice packs found in first aid kits. Students then investigate the chemical reaction occurring within an instant ice pack and work to develop a better design.

Anchoring Phenomenon: First aid care for musculoskeletal injuries using bags of ice instead of instant ice packs containing an endothermic chemical reaction.

NGSS PEs Addressed: MS-PS1-1; MS-PS1-2; MS-PS1-5; MS-PS1-6; MS-PS3-3; MS-LS1-8; MS-ETS1-1

Cover Image Source: https://www.stack.com/a/cryotherapy

Students will refresh their skills with finding valence electrons and creating dot diagrams.  They will then use those skills to become valence electrons and build human dot diagrams to model ionic bonds occurring.  During this stage, they will discuss what they see occurring and what appears to be common among ionic bonds.  Key points include metals losing electrons, nonmetals gaining electrons, and electromagnetic force.  They will then practice forming ionic bonds when given two elements that would bond.  The activity will end with a short video reviewing the basics of covalent and ionic bonds and a discussion to compare and contrast the two types of bonds.  This lesson also offers a challenge of allowing students to form ionic bonds with other students in a varient on the childhood game Tag, but Bonding Tag is an extension not posted in this lesson.

This resource is a phenomenon-based adaption to the Smithsonian's STCMS Matter and Its Interactions kit. The anchoring phenomenon event features a railroad tanker that collapses due to the phase changes of water that was used to clean it. Students will investigate what causes phase changes, energy transfer, thermal energy, the law of conservation of mass, and atoms and molecules throughout the three week unit.

Create your own sandwich and then see how many sandwiches you can make with different amounts of ingredients. Do the same with chemical reactions. See how many products you can make with different amounts of reactants. Play a game to test your understanding of reactants, products and leftovers. Can you get a perfect score on each level?