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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Students are given an experimental setup of heating water with a burning peanut and are asked how they could change this in three ways to get a greater temperature increase. Students are also asked to give two important experimental conditions that should remain the same if the experiment was repeated.
This task requires students to determine the best way to dissolve Milo the quickest. Students are given the opportunity to determine this by trial and error, then they are asked to write up their result and 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.
This practical task has students investigate the surface area of three objects and whether this influences the rate of evaporation. Students fill in a table, and calculate the water loss and answer questions to show their understanding.