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Utah Science

Curriculum Consortium

Tyson Grover 

tgrover@dsdmail.net

Annette Nielson

afonnesbeck@dsdmail.net

Storyline Narrative 8.1.3

First the teacher will burn a piece of the paper in front of the students. This phenomenon will then help students generate a list of observations and form questions about how to know when a chemical reaction has occurred.  

 

Students will identify common chemical reactions that they are familiar with.  The teacher will fill in with a couple other reactions the students may not have mentioned.  Students will conduct an investigation and analyze the data to identify patterns in what changes during a chemical reaction.

 

Students are presented with situations where chemicals are mixed and some cause chemical reactions and others that do not cause a chemical reaction. Students will analyze and interpret the results based on the patterns they have identified previously to determine if they are a reaction or not.

 

Students will plan and conduct an investigation to test whether mentos and diet coke is actually a chemical reaction.They will analyze and interpret the data using the patterns they have identified in property changes.  

Then using their evidence they will make the argument as to whether the mentos and diet coke phenomena is a reaction or not.  

Episode 1

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Question

What happens to a piece of paper when you burn it? Is it a chemical reaction or not?

Snapshot

The teacher will burn a piece of the paper in front of the students. Students generate a list of observations and form questions.

Conceptual Understandings

That a chemical reaction is when a substance changes from one substance to another. The atoms rearrange into something new.

The paper’s arrangement of atoms changed.

It’s no longer paper.

A smoke was given off.

The mass of it changed

What are the patterns that identify a chemical reaction has occurred?

 

Conceptual Understandings

During chemical reaction the following occur:

A precipitate forms

Color Change

Energy given off (sound, light, heat)

Gas formation

Odor change

Using the patterns now established can students observe chemical reactions and none chemical reactions and determine which is which.

Snapshot

Students observe and conduct several chemical reactions in a rotation style lesson. Within each chemical reaction students identify the patterns that is demonstrated.

Students observe, analyze, and interpret what is happening in each example and what evidence is there to prove chemical reaction has taken place.  

Episode 2

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Question

What are the patterns evident in a chemical reaction?

 

Episode 3

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Question

Is it a chemical reaction happening?

Snapshot

Students observe several chemical reactions and non chemical reactions.  They analyze and interpret the patterns that are demonstrated and determine if it is a chemical reaction happening.

Conceptual Understandings

Using the patterns they now know how to identify if a chemical reaction is happening.

Using the patterns they now know how to identify if a chemical reaction is happening.

 
 

Episode 4

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Question

Is it a chemical reaction or not, and why?

Snapshot

Students will plan and conduct an investigation to test whether mentos and diet coke is actually a chemical reaction.They will analyze and interpret the data using the patterns they have identified in property changes.  

Then using their evidence they will make the argument as to whether the mentos and diet coke phenomena is a reaction or not.

Conceptual Understandings

Students determine which demonstrations are reactions and which are not.