Summary

In this lab, students will collect and analyze ordinary, everyday items in order to learn more about physical properties. Students will record data about each item, and then classify their items according to their properties.

Grade Level

Elementary School

NGSS Alignment

This lab will help prepare your students to meet the performance expectations in the following standards:

• 5-PS1-3: Make observations and measurements to identify materials based on their properties.
• Scientific and Engineering Practices:
  • Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Objectives

By the end of this lab, students should be able to

• Identify properties of matter such as, physical states, magnetism, mass, texture, color, etc.
• Classify objects based on similarity of physical properties.

Chemistry Topics

This lab supports students’ understanding of

• Physical Properties
• Matter
• Observations

Time

Teacher Preparation: 15 minutes
Lesson:  1 hour

Materials

• Triple Beam Balances or Electronic Balances
• Magnets
• Magnifying glasses
• Bowls of water
• Everyday Items (note: items will vary; they will be collected by students)

Teacher Notes

• You may want to start this lab by having several students take turns describing an item, without identifying it. The teacher could supply the examples to use, or students good generate them (as long as they are appropriate!)
• For example, a student is tasked with describing a tennis ball, he or she might say, “It’s round, fuzzy, neon yellow, it bounces, and used in a sport and is hit with a racquet.”
• This description is full of great physical property examples, and having students participate in this guessing game a few times might help them think of the many different physical properties.
  
• Teachers may have students bring items from home (must be appropriate), or use items found in a student’s desk/locker/cubby. Alternatively, you could go outside, or elsewhere in the school to collect items.
  • I instruct each child/group to collect 5 specimens that they find interesting. This may include rocks, leaves, soil, paper, pencils, books, toys, food…
• This lab can be completed independently or with partners/very small groups.
• I suggest that teachers set-up stations or designated areas to make magnets, balances, and several bowls of water available to students as they collect data about their samples. It helps to have multiple of each station/area available.   
• Bring the samples to the classroom and follow the procedure on the student handout in order to determine their physical properties. Examples include: color, shape, mass, size, buoyancy, magnetic, texture, state of matter, etc.
• After students have identified physical properties, they will be instructed to sort their samples into groups based on similar properties. For example that may group things together that are magnetic, vs those that are not. The items could be grouped based on their state of matter, etc. there are many ways to group the items, as long as an identical physical property is shared by the items in the group.
• An Answer Key document is available for teacher reference.