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.
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: Describe what happens to ice in a glass of water, giving reasons, and explain where water forming on the outside of the glass comes from. Assessment focus: changes of state.
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.
Students indicate for each of six different variables those that need to be kept the same for an investigation about dissolving different types of sugar.
This practical task requires students to sort some common items from hardest to softest. Students then explain a test that they used to help determine this.
Task: Measure 100mL of water into three different pieces of equipment. Weigh the result and calculate the precision of using that piece of equipment. Assessment focus: measuring and evaluating the accuracy of equipment.
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.
Task: Students place in order four beakers of copper sulphate solution from most to least concentrated. They then explain what would happen if two beakers were put together, and explain the term "concentration". Assessment focus: solutions.
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.
Task: Students play a tag game that simulates the relationships between elements within a waterway and discuss how different scenarios impact on the populations living there. Assessment focus: changes within a habitat affect everything living there.