Education Standards
Properties of Matter - Grade 2
Overview
Elementary school lessons utilize local phenomenon and are organized by grade level. By organizing instruction around local phenomenon, students are provided with a reason to learn shifting the focus from learning about a disconnected topic to figuring out why or how something happens. #Going 3D with GRC
Lesson - Plastic Matter
Student Science Performance
Phenomenon: Some types of plastics bend but don’t break, other types of plastics break.
Gather:
1. Students explore different properties to find patterns that can be used to classify various plastics.
2. Students develop questions for the causes (why) some plastics have different properties.
Class Discussion:
- Students identify different materials and properties to test. (color, texture, hardness, flexibility)
3. Students obtain information by reading about how matter can be classified by patterns of observable properties.
4. Students plan and carry out an investigation and use a model (chart) to determine different properties of plastics and establish patterns to classify the materials.
(Teacher Suggestions: The teacher uses an assortment of plastics for students to explore for different properties: straw, hose, water bottle, etc…, Solid materials can have different characteristics, though they may share the same properties. Students can find plastics to explore by cleaning up the environment. This is a good opportunity to help students understand the effects of single-use plastics and ways to decrease and reuse plastics to help the environment and prevent plastics from entering the ocean. Safety note: If you chose to have students bend hard plastics (e.g. ruler, straws, ) students should be wearing gloves and eye protection. Students can place the plastic ruler and other plastics in a kitchen towel or wear leather gloves to prevent any potential hand injury.)
Reason:
5. Students analyze data to determine patterns of different kinds of plastics based upon observable properties.
6. Students construct an explanation for how plastics have a different structure which causes it to have different properties.
Class Discussion:
- How are some plastics alike? How are some plastics different?
- What do you notice when you scratch the different types of plastic?
- Why do you think some plastics are more flexible than others?
- Are there other solids that have similar properties to these plastics?
- How does knowing about the properties of plastics affect us?
Communicate Reasoning:
7. Students describe how they classified different materials by patterns of observable properties.
(Teaching Suggestions: Students could describe their process in classifying-How did they determine texture, flexibility or hardness. Students will share the process with small groups and later share their data together as a whole group. Have students focus on the similarities and differences among the materials tested. Have them create adjectives to group objects by property.)
*See attached document below for full lesson.
Additional Lessons can be found at #Going 3D with GRC (Gathering, Reasoning and Communicating). Original authors were: Vera Alvarez, Dani Muramoto, Jenifer Evans, Shannon Ezawa, Kara Sakuda, Donald Russell, and Alyssa Iwanaga