For this practical task students plan and carry out a fair test to determine which of four different cups will keep water the hottest over 10 minutes. Students are also required to graph their results and write a conclusion.
Task: Match everyday terms about properties with their meanings. Use their understanding about properties of paper and their uses to justify appropriate questions to investigate. Assessment focus: asking questions about paper properties.
Task: Students fill in a chart to select the best material for making 6 objects, and give reasons for their answers. Assessment focus: properties of materials related to use.
Students read some information about testing the absorbency of different papers. They outline two features that need to be kept the same if the tests were to be fair.
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.
This practical task has two parts. The first part of this practical requires students to observe the effects of different indicators on different substances. Students use these results to identify if some other substances are acid, alkali, or neutral.
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 first plan how they could find out which liquid flows the best. Then they carry out their plan, record their results, and write a conclusion.