Properties resources

Students answer five questions about 'fair testing' for an outlined investigation.

Students outline four ways of improving a given plan for an investigation to make it a fair test.

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

Students are given information and a diagram about a drink bottle overflowing when it had been put into the freezer. Students are asked to explain why this happened and how they could prevent it.

Task: Predict, Observe, Explain, (POE) activity observing what happens to air in a balloon when it is heated. Assessment focus: behaviour of gases when heated and cooled.

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.

For this practical task students use their knowledge about the properties of gases to explain their observations when they blow up a balloon that is inside a bottle and a balloon that is not inside a bottle.

For this practical task students complete a table of observations on nine common materials. Students then use their results to group the materials according to similar properties.

This practical task requires students to carry out three tests to find out if each element is a metal or non-metal.

Students state whether each of nine common objects are transparent or opaque.

Students state whether each of nine common objects are either soft or do not bend easily.

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

Students outline a test they could do to show if a substance is a metal or not.

Students are given some solids and liquids for this practical task. They plan how they would find out which liquids are solvents for any given solid, carry out the task, and write a conclusion.

For this practical task students determine the viscosity of different household susbstances such as golden syrup, cooking oil, fruit juice etc. Students complete the experiment and construct a chart showing their results and observations.

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

Task: Process and interpret data in a table to identify the best paper to use for a game. Evaluate the reliability of the collected data. Assessment focus: using evidence to answer a question.

Task: Look at the arrangement of fibres for four different paper towels, arrange an appropriate sequence of instructions, carry out the instructions and then communicate the data in an appropriate graph that will help answer the question. Different elements of the nature of science are embedded throughout the tasks. Assessment focus: planning and carrying out a fair test, using evidence to answer a question.

Students are given a mind map showing some properties of carbon dioxide. Students identify each of these as either a physical or chemical property.

Students are asked to give a useful property for each of four materials used in different situations.

In this practical students are first required to identify as many uses of paper they can think of. Then, using samples of different paper types, they identify particular uses for that type of paper and reasons why the paper is used for this purpose.

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.