A note about labs, demos and related activities

Students tend to be more successful when they are made to predict the outcomes of labs, demos and related activities. Moreover, these can be made more engaging as well by doing so.

The PEOE strategy is worth applying when possible to empower students during these labs, demos and activities. Click here to see more about the PEOE strategy. 

Lastly, below is a PDF of a recent Workshop in which the audience was made to follow the PEOE strategy during demos to experience its effects.

Powerful Demos - HS.pdf

Mass and Volume - lab

For the teacher:

Of the 6 objects, at least 2 must have the same mass with different volumes and 2 must have the same volume but different masses. 

By asking the students to "rank the objects from biggest to smallest" the students will need to define what is meant by "big" and "small" at some point. This can be done before or after the class has had a chance to manipulate the objects and notice that some objects that look the same don't feel the same...

You may want to prepare some graphic organizers - including tables to be filled in - to help focus the students on the important information they should be gathering.

Although calculating density is not in the cycle 1 curriculum, you could have the students predict which object will float and which will sink before having them investigate what mass and volume may have to do with floating.

Have students use a Frayer Model to define terms such as mass and volume.

Use this PhET sim to have students reflect on mass, volume and density

Integrated Instructions - Mass, Volume, Density

The learning goals:

Materials:

Possible procedures:

Temperature - demos

For the teacher:

Before addressing the topic of "states of matter" with students, these demos on the effects of heat on particles and pressure can help make otherwise abstract concepts more tangible.

In the future, students will be able to recall these demos and use them to explain the effects of heat on particles.

Before doing the "balloon in a freezer" demo, have your students predict what may happen to an inflated balloon if it is left in a freezer for more than an hour. Have them also try to explain their thinking.

Before doing the "wiggle pressure" demo, have students predict how many collisions one wiggle ball will have with the long side and with the short side. Have them also predict what will happen to the "floating" divider.

Help students relate the results of these demos to heat, temperature and average kinetic energy of particles as well as to collisions and pressure.

Materials - balloon in a freezer:

The learning goals:

Materials - "wiggle pressure":

States of Matter - Lab

For the teacher:

Have students use what they learned in the temperature demos to help explain what is happening in this lab. You can also pair this lab with the PhET sim on states of matter (click here).

When doing this lab, give students an empty graph with time on the x-axis and temperature on the y-axis and have them predict and sketch what they think the graph will look like. Then have them explain what they're thinking.

Help students by preparing a partially completed table for students to fill in the missing information - namely the temp at 30 second intervals.

Here are some questions to get your students thinking after the graphs are drawn:

This lab can be challenging for students who haven't mastered reading and interpreting data in graphical form. You may need to practice reading data from a graph with you class before launching into this lab. The Gapminder website has some nice tools to practice just that.

Another challenging aspect of this lab is that collecting this data may feel like watching paint dry... If you have access to a raspberry Pi (or some Micro:Bits) and sensors, you may be able to reclaim the class by having the machine do the boring parts - you may even do the previous demos while waiting for the computers to collect and graph the data for you. Click here to see how you might set up this lab to do itself.

The learning goals:

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Possible procedure:

Acids and Bases - Lab

For the teacher:

Have students predict which common substances they think are acids and which they think are bases.

Have students discover that mixing acids and bases together can cause the solution to become neutral. Then, have them neutralize a "chemical spill" by testing its pH and mixing it with its appropriate counterpart.

If you have students smelling or tasting, remind them that they should not put unknown chemicals in their bodies as they can be very harmful.

A good PhET sim to go along with his lab is this one linked here. I recommend using it after the lab to solidify or further practice these concepts.


The learning goals:

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Integrated Instructions - Acidity Alkalinity Lab

Separation Techniques - Lab

For the teacher:

This lab reinvests the concept of states of matter as well as homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures.

Have students sketch and explain the steps to separate the salt from the salt rock in the correct order.

Consider using the image below to contextualize this lab (click here for more). 

This context can also allow you to have a conversation about error and using multiple data points. For example, you can prepare beakers of salt water for each team with different amounts of salt and water in each. Then, have the students separate the salt from the water and mass the amount. Some students will have more than the amount "claimed" by Montreal and other will have less. Have the students discuss why the samples may vary and how to check the claim the city is making. (Salt may not be properly dispersed by the city. If it were evenly spread out, the city's claim may be correct. Averaging out all the samples may be a good way to address the differences from each sample and check the validity of the claim).

The learning goals:

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Possible procedure:

**Be careful as there may be popping from the evaporating dish** 

Separation Technique

Separation Techniques - Demo

For the teacher:

There is potential here for a good lab exam. See the video below for such and idea.

Separation Technique

The learning goals:

Materials:

Possible procedures:

NEVER distill the distillation flask to dryness as there is a risk of explosion and fire.


Ink Chromatography - Lab

For the teacher:

This is another separation technique. This one happens to fit in well with the sample lesson plan in the second unit of the Sec 1 Curriculum map on changes in matter (click here to see). 

Can this lab be connected to gel electrophoresis and DNA matching technology? Students can be asked wich 2 inks are the "parents" of a third ink by looking for ingredients separated from their mixtures. Have students predict which colours are the "parents" for a third colour made from their mixing.

Have students reflect on how the size of a molecule may play a role as well as the role of Gravity.

Have students think about how chromatography may be useful for identifying other substances besides markers.

The learning goals:

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Taxonomy - Activity

For the teacher:

A large part of science includes labeling and categorizing things. Even though sometimes things don't fit categories perfectly, this is important for organizing our knowledge and communicating it.

Consider giving students a tricky animal to classify, such as the platypus. Have them predict in which category it belongs.

Can you have your students make their own dichotomous key to classify household items? Can they make their own key to classify trees in the school's yard?

The learning goals:

Materials:

Possible procedure:

Take one object at a time and using the dichotomous key, identify the silly scientific name for each.  

A sample of the Dichotomous key is shared below. See Andy's lab book for the full document (pg 27.)

Natural Selection - Activity

For the teacher:

In this activity, students will play a game where they pretend to be a population of crabs with different claw shapes and sizes. They need to collect as much food as possible with these claws.

This activity does a good job of showing how some adaptations are better suited for certain tasks but doesn't explain how better adapted genes are transmitted into the future. This can be a conversation before or after the activity.

Another way of demonstrating natural selection is with this PhET simulation (click here).

The learning goals:

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Possible procedure:

See Andy's booklet for full instructions and game rules (pg. 29).

Microslide Viewer; Plant and Animal Cells - Activity

For the teacher:

If possible have prepared 2 stations that students can visit. Each station will have animal and plant cells in the view respectively. Have students start by making a prediction about which cells they think belong to an animal and which they think belongs to a plant and explain why.

After they've made their predictions and attempted to explain what they think, have them "collect" samples of plant and animal cells. Students can then sketch and explain what they see in the microscopes - looking for similarities and differences.

Finally, have students revisit their original predictions and decide if they were correct followed by an explanation of why.

The learning goals:

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Possible procedure:

Microscope; Plant and Animal Cells - Activity

The learning goals:

Materials:

Evaporation Rate - Lab

For the teacher:

Have students predict which sponge will have the biggest change in mass and have them explain what physical processes may be responsible for this.

After collecting the data students should then check their predictions against reality.

Have students reflect on what are the biggest influences on evaporation rates.

Finally, have students point to real-life examples of this phenomenon.

The learning goals:

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Convection Currents - Demos

For the teacher:

It can be difficult for students to relate this demo to both the movement of magma and air as these two fluids do not resemble each other. Help students understand that both of these are fluids and therefore are capable of convection currents.

Have students predict the movement of the blue and red food colourings.

The learning goals:



Day and Night Cycles - Activity

For the teacher:

You can use a spinning office chair and phone camera to record the apparent motion of the room as you film in the rotating chair.

Have students predict what they will see in the recording.

Atoms, Molecules, Pure Substances and Mixtures - Demo and Activity

For the teacher:

The purpose of the demonstration is to give students a sense of what matter is made of and how these "building blocks" connect to form new substances. This is done using Bolts washers and nuts, but can also be done using LEGO blocks. The analogy is good to make atoms more tangible but fails to take into account the atomic or molecular motion and also not all atoms can "connect" to any other. Have students try to explain how this analogy is good but also where it fails.

If you use LEGOS, colour coding them will make seeing the differences between atoms, molecules, pure substances and mixtures easier. You could potentially (without immediately telling the students) build colourful models of substances students know (like water). This makes differentiating between atoms, molecules, pure substances and mixtures more concrete. Perhaps, students can be asked to predict what the contents of the plastic tray (the collection) will look like before assembling and collecting the parts.

A good visualization of the periodic table, the atoms within and the subatomic particles that, in turn, make them can be found on PhET:

The learning goals:

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Possible procedures:

Part A – Demonstration 

Part B – Student Inquiry Activity 

Part C – Student Discovery Activity 

For tables, see Andy's booklet

Physical and Chemical changes - Demos and Activity

For the teacher:

Because the difference between physical and chemical changes can occur at a microscopic level (new compounds are produced or not) and are often hard to see, I recommend doing some direct instruction first to make sure students know what to look for during the demos and labs. You may need to pick and choose carefully which demos and labs you do so as to not overwhelm your students with too much abstract information all at once.

Start by having students tell you what they know about chemical and physical changes so that you can build on their prior knowledge (student who know something will stay engaged if they can share and misconceptions worth addressing may show up).

While this activity has students recording observations of many changes, to avoid cognitively overloading students, I would select a few key examples - some chemical and some physical changes - and ask students to predict what they think will happen before and after the mixture is made. 

For example you can pair the following:

The learning goals:

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See Andy's booklets for tables

Changes in Matter - Lab

For the teacher:

The learning goals:

Materials:


Possible procedures:


Original labs courtesy of Andrée-Anne Côté (for sec 1 & 2)