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Here you'll find concepts, process skills, and online teaching activities for teaching chemistry at all grade bands.
The list below details the developmentally appropriate concepts and processes as well as sample online activities that support the learning of chemistry concepts at each grade band. All the content standards are driven by the development of a macroscopic to microscopic view of the content.
- Properties of objects and materials
- Objects have many observable properties that can be measured
- Objects are made of one or more materials
- Objects can be described by the properties of the materials
- Materials can exist in different states and can be changed from one state to another
- Experiment
- Observe
- Compare
- Classify
- Measure
- Gather and use data
- Communicate
Ice Cream
Grades: K-5
This ice cream-making activity is appropriate to the developmental level of students at this age. Students are asked to observe as a substance changes from liquid to solid (well, almost solid!). They are not asked to understand chemical reactions and energy transfer—these concepts are not introduced until the middle school level. However, in terms of process skills, students observe, compare, and communicate.
Ready, Set, Let's Dough
Grades: K-2
The goal of this activity is to help students understand that individual parts may have different properties than the combined substance containing those parts. Students observe, compare, and communicate as they mix and then reflect on the differences between the original ingredients and the "new" substance they have just made.
Melting and Freezing
Grades: K-2
This activity is the third in a three-part series that addresses a concept central to the understanding of the water cycle—that water is able to take many forms while remaining the same substance. This series of lessons is designed to prepare students to understand that most substances may exist as solids, liquids, or gases depending on the temperature, pressure, and nature of that substance. Students observe, measure, and describe water as it changes state.
Hot and Cold Colors
Grades: 3-5
In this experiment, students engage in an activity in which they observe that hotter conditions can speed up changes in materials. Students experiment, observe, compare, gather and use data, and communicate their results with the rest of the class and the teacher. They predict whether food coloring disperses more quickly in hot, cold, or room temperature water, and then they carry out a short activity to explore their predictions.
Salt: Up Close and Personal
Grades: 3-5
This activity gives students have the opportunity to observe and describe salt, focusing on the object's physical properties and essential elements. Students at this age can do this same exercise whenever a new object is introduced to prepare them for learning that all matter is made up of atoms. Students write detailed observations of their discoveries and analyze the collected data.
- Properties and changes in properties in matter
- A substance has characteristics properties, all of which are independent of the amount of the sample
- A mixture of substances often can be separated using one or more of the characteristic properties
- Substances react chemically in characteristic ways with other substances to form new substances
- Chemical elements do not break down during normal laboratory reactions
- There are more than 100 known elements that combine in a multitude of ways
- Experiment
- Observe
- Compare
- Classify
- Measure
- Predict
- Gather, analyze, and interpret data
- Think critically
- Communicate
Tasty Phase Change - The Ice Cream Lab
Grades: 5-8
In this activity, students investigate the effects of temperature change on phase changes; investigate the effects of changes in freezing point; and apply these concepts in making ice cream. The making of ice cream shows a physical change in matter, as emphasized in the NSES at this level. Students observe how adding solute (ice cream salt) to a solvent (ice) changes the physical properties of that solvent. In this case, the freezing point of the ice is lowered allowing for the milk to turn into ice cream. Students observe, measure, gather and interpret data, and think critically during this activity.
Light Stick Chemistry
Grades: 6-8
Students observe the effect of temperature on reactions by submersing chemiluminescent sticks into different temperatures of water and observing the different amounts of light produced.
It's a Crash Test, Dummy
Grades: 6-8
This lesson begins with an exploration of how air bags in cars were developed to solve a very practical problem: saving lives in automobile accidents. Students do a chemistry lab in which they mix baking soda and vinegar in a plastic bag, with the goal of determining the correct ratio of acid and base that leaves no appreciable amount of either reactant behind, yet fully inflates the bag. The inflated bag is analogous to the air bags in cars. Then students perform a crash test with a raw egg. This activity includes all the process skills appropriate for this grade band.
Iron in Cereal
Grades: 6-8
Originally from the Whelmers web site, this activity demonstrates that iron is mixed into cereal batter along with many other additives and can be separated from the cereal by using a magnet. As an extension to this activity asks students to investigate cereals with high iron content and compare the claims of cereal makers. This activity supports the standards that a substance has characteristic properties and that chemical elements do not break down during normal laboratory reactions. Many of the process skills for this level are incorporated into this activity.
Household Chemistry
Grades: 6-8
In this activity, students identify some everyday substances as being acidic, basic, or neutral. This reinforces the concept that substances have characteristic properties, all of which are independent of the amount of the sample. Students can extend this activity to use the juices of certain plants, such as red cabbage, as a pH indicator.
- Structure of atoms
- Structure and properties of matter
- Chemical reactions
- Conservation of energy and increase in disorder
- Interactions of energy and matter
- Make and use models
- Experiment
- Observe
- Compare
- Classify
- Measure
- Predict
- Gather, analyze, and interpret data
- Reason
- Think critically
- Communicate
Renters Beware
Grades: 10-12
This is one of five units for middle and high school students. A makeshift chemistry laboratory, strange vials of liquid, and a money-hungry landlord all combine to create this puzzle. To solve the mystery, students first use a flame test to determine the contents of the vials, then a Kastle-Meyer test and fingerprint matching to find the owner of the lab and uncover the plot. Registration is required to download the 37-page teacher's guide.
The Chemistry of Hair Care
Grades: 9-12
This lesson asks students one central question: How does understanding the chemistry of hair care, including the role of pH, help in the development of better hair-care products? To find the answer, students do hands-on activities with shampoo and hair samples, as well as read an online article about the pH of hair care products. Students communicate what they have learned by creating an advertisement for a shampoo. The focus of the advertisement should be on the science of the shampoo: What about the chemistry of the shampoo makes it good?
A Date With Chemistry: Researching the Elements and Their Potential Compounds
Grades: 9-12
In this activity, students research certain elements and then analyze their potential bonds with other elements in a "dating game" where the dating pool is comprised of the elements featured on the Periodic Table. Students synthesize their understanding of chemical bonding by drawing compounds of combined elements or by describing different potential compounds for certain elements. The process skills practiced here are gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data; reasoning; thinking critically; and communicating.
Inter-State Matters: Exploring Phase Transitions of Gases, Liquids and Solids
Grades: 9-12
In this lesson, students explore the six phase transitions between gases, liquids, and solids for a variety of elements. Each group of students focuses on a different element, investigating its physical properties during all of the six phase transitions. Groups then incorporate their research findings into science textbook 'mini-chapters' or special sections about their elements to be used in a future class to teach their classmates about their elements.
Lab Analysis of Orbitz Soft Drink
Grades: 9-12
This activity leads students to produce the visible matrix material in Orbitz. Students go one step further by taking measurements, calculating the amount of fibrous material present in the drink, and determining the percentage composition (by mass) of the drink.
Kimberly S. Lightle is ENC's associate director for Instructional Resources and director of the Learning Matrix and FEDRL, two of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) initiatives at ENC. She is a former high school chemistry teacher. Email: .
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National Research Council. (1996). National Science Education Standards. Washington. DC: National Academy Press. (This book is available free online: books.nap.edu/books//html/index.html)
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