Everything is matter

· Matter is composed of ingredients called atoms

· Atoms are the fundamental unit of matter: can’t be broken up chemically

· Lone atoms are so small they can’t be seen with any optical microscope

· There are different types of atoms; we call them elements

· These Elements can be found organized on the Periodic Table

· Elements combine in different ways to make different molecules

· When a bunch of elements or molecules get together, we see it as matter

Properties of Matter

· Different elements can either mix together or stick together (mixture or compound)

· When they stick together they form a new material

For example: H20, CO2, NaCl (Salt)

H2O is different than a mixture of Hydrogen and Oxygen

· The properties of materials are determined by their elemental makeup

· Chemistry is the study of matter and how it can be changed by rearranging elements

Goal 1: Students will be introduced to the idea that matter is made of molecules and elements.

Goal 2: Students will believe that High School Chemistry is exciting and interesting.

Objectives: Students will view the Periodic Table as a list of ingredients that make up all known solids, liquids, and gasses

Students will recognize that these ingredients can be “mixed” together to form very different substances

Students will model simple chemical reactions

Materials:

Periodic Table

Large Lego blocks of various colors and shapes

Small legos of various shapes and sizes

Eyewitness Visual Dictionary of Chemistry (DK Pub ISBN 07894-0444-3)

Procedure:

Ask students if they know what matter is? Can they give examples? What about stuff that is not matter? (ideas, hunger, wishes, north)
Discuss the states of matter lesson. Does anyone remember the “scientific” name for water? (H2O) Write on white board. Does anyone know what that means? (2 Hydrogen and one Oxygen stuck together) Does anyone know any other “scientific” names for chemicals or substances? (Prompt: breathe out…. Carbon dioxide…guess name? CO2) (O2 is oxygen)
What do you call these groups of matter? (think back to the states of matter lesson again…what were you pretending to be?)(molecules) Does anyone know the name for a single part of the molecule—just one O or one C? (element)
Explain that scientists have tried to identify every element in the world because all of these elements form the ingredients for all matter that is currently known.
What would you do if you had lots of different kinds of elements that you had to study? Write several more element names on the board—N for nitrogen, S for sulfer…sometimes the name comes from a different language…AU is gold since gold in latin is aurum…also if you discover an element, you get to name it—someone wanted to name one einstenium and sometimes people will name them for the place where they were discovered like californium. Prompt— if you want to use these ingredients, what will make it easier? —how do you find ingredients in a supermarket? (they are arranged or organized)
Show Periodic Table. An interesting fact is that everything in the world is made from ingredients on the chart. Everything!!
How do you make different things from these ingredients? They have to be stuck together. Pick up a big green six-bump lego and two blue six-bump legos. Put them together so that the green hydrogen is connecting the two blue oxygens. This is a water molecule. Put together another water molecule and hold them together…if we continued to put these together we would eventually have a drop of water.
Let’s try oxygen—that’s easy—two blue six-bump legos stuck together. How about Carbon Dioxide—add a red lego to the O2. Put a bunch of different color and shape legos on the table. This is chemistry: you get to study it in high school and all it is is mixing and changing and separating matter. Of course, it is really cool because you get to use Bunsen burners and chemicals and test tubes. It is great fun and usually surprising. For example, the shapes and number of the elements are really important. Hold up an O2—what is this again? And why is this important? Well, if there are 3 Os (make an O3) it is called ozone and it is poisonous. Just that little change created a huge difference.
Notice that you can make chemicals that have really long names. Let’s make up a chemical that probably doesn’t exist C6H304(put on white board). Ok, now let’s mix it with C2SO2—(put a plus sign and than add this “fake Chemical”. Let’s actually see what it might look like with legos—make the two chemicals (or have them premade to save time) and then show that to add them, you could just stick them together or break them up and stick several pieces together. (Sometimes chemicals will make more than one chemical occur when they are mixed.)
Now have the class try it in groups of two. Here are some legos and here is the key on the whiteboard and here are some chemicals for you to add and subtract. Hold up your answer to the first one so we can all see what they look like.

Key

Oxygen= O= blue Hydrogen= H = Green

Carbon= C = Red Nitrogen= N = White

Sulfer= S = Yellow

First fake one:

COH2 + NS3 ?

Ok, here’s a real one

O2 + 2H2 ? (2 H2O ) (it turns into 2 water molecules)

(Fun fact: this is what happens when you burn Hydrogen—it makes water. Many people hope that we will someday have cars that run on Hydrogen—they would create water as their waste!!)

Have students notice that their results can be very different. The reality is that there is really only one correct answer, just like in math, and that they will learn how to get the correct answers in high school and it is fun!!

Try one more fake one and then let’s return the legos and review what elements and molecules are.

Activities: Discussion, Electron Sheet, Building molecules with legos