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Essential Science for Teachers: Physical Science
Extending the Particle Model of Matter Interactive Activity: 5-Question Survey
5-Question Survey: Reviewing the Previous Sessions
The series of questions presented in this activity will help you find out your ideas or your students’ ideas about matter. As highlighted in this video series, when we articulate our misconceptions, we are taking the first step to rectifying them.
Surveying is one of many educational strategies that teachers can use to elicit ideas. Even a brief survey, such as the one presented next, can provide a learning opportunity for students and teachers alike. Students can reveal their misconceptions for the first time as well as open their minds to accepting scientific points of view. Teachers can form a basis for making instructional decisions, whether to validate students’ correct yet unsure ideas, confront student misconceptions, reinforce ideas that are forming, or complement ideas that are accurate but only partial explanations.
Before you complete the survey, please identify who you are (pick just one):
Answer 1
The answer is B: The particles of sugar spread out in the water. Dissolving is a physical change, meaning that the particles are merely rearranged, and not changed into a new substance, or torn apart. The particles spread out into the water, but are not classified as a liquid because they are no longer directly touching each other.
Answer 2
The answer is D: True. Diamond and graphite look different only because their basic material is arranged differently. Both graphite and diamond are a form of the element carbon although their macroscopic properties are different due to the differing arrangement of particles. The forces between particles are the same, but the assembly of graphite and diamond from carbon takes place under different conditions of temperature and pressure, leading to different macroscopic properties.
Answer 3
The answer is D: all loaves but the top one are squished, the bottom loaf the most. Each loaf of bread feels the weight of all the loaves above it. The top loaf does not feel any force from above, the middle loaf bears the weight of two loaves and the bottom loaf bears the weight of four loaves. Thus, the “squished-ness” increases as you go to the bottom of the stack. You may recall from Session 5 that pressure in a liquid increases with depth: a liquid at a given depth feels the weight of all the particles of liquid above it.
Answer 4
The answer is C: Water vapor condenses from the air on the outside of the glass. Although some water does evaporate from the glass, the water vapor in the air is the only water that gets really close to the outside surface of the glass. The fast moving water molecules in the water vapor collide with the slower moving molecules of the surface of the glass and transfer some of their energy of motion. These now slowed-down water molecules stay behind, and the forces between them are strong enough to pull and hold them together. The macroscopic result is the condensation of water on the outside of the glass.
Answer 5
The answer is C: The test chamber will stay exactly the same weight. While the smoke is a new, irreversible product of the combustion of the wicks of the candles, because of the principle of conservation of matter, no mass is lost or gained in the chamber.
