Properties resources

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

Students classify six common substances as either a solid, liquid, or a gas. Students then group these substances into elements, mixtures, or compounds.

Task: Describe changes to iron as it is heated or cooled. Assessment focus: changes to metals as they are heated and cooled.

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

Students write down three reasons why aluminium could be a good material for house frames instead of wood.

Students explain why metal is used to make cutlery, and describe a disadvantage of plastic cutlery.

Students list four properties of copper metal and state if each property is physical or chemical. Students then explain how copper sulfate solution can be separated.

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

Task: Answer questions about a key for metals: Assessment focus: recognising the purpose of a specific key.

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: Students read a pH scale to determine how it shows the increasing strength of an acid and a base solution and decide from different pH products what the effect would be on an acidic soil. Assessment focus: interpreting a pH scale.

Students use a table of some substances and their pHs to answer four questions.

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

Task: Using the given pH, classify 10 common substances as acidic, basic, or neutral. Assessment focus: knowledge of the pH scale