Material World resources

Answer questions about rubbish picked up on a beach, and suggest reasons why plastic is the most common rubbish.

Students complete a table for six common objects by stating the material used to make each object and a useful property of that material.

For this practical students use provided definitions to classify 12 objects as either transparent, translucent, or opaque.

Task: Create, use and identify ‘rules’ based on observable and/or measurable physical properties of common plastics. Assessment focus: classifying & identifying.

Students are asked to identify a solid, liquid, and a gas. They are also asked to write down two things that are generally true for each of these three states of matter.

Students outline four tests they could do to find out if a newly described substance is a metal.

Students use a table about properties of different materials to answer questions about this, and to group the materials listed into two groups.

Students use a list that has some properties of glass to help them answer four questions about glass use.

Task: Describe and compare some physical properties of plastic objects and identify the properties scientists might use for classifying materials. Assessment focus: classifying using physical properties.

Students answer three questions about information found on a bottle of bleach.

Task: Watch a video of two sofas burning, record the results, and use the evidence to make inferences about fire retardants. Assessment focus: using observations to provide evidence.

Students are given the definitions for permanent and temporary change. The students then give two examples from the kitchen of each type of change.

In this task, students look for patterns in electron arrangement in the periodic table. They use their ideas to place missing elements in the table, answer some questions about the patterns, and use the patterns to predict the properties of some elements.

For this practical students observe some activities which illustrate melting and dissolving. They write sentences about what they observe and then write what they think melting and dissolving mean.

Students are given a partially completed table which details materials which are used as either conductors or insulators of heat. Students complete the table by indicating whether the materials conduct or insulate heat or give an example of its use.