Matter and Its Interactions

  This article shows how formative assessment probes can be embedded into a sequence of  5E Instructional Model lessons for grade 5 students focusing on the conservation of matter. In the lessons, students make their thinking visibl ...

"Nails in a Jar" is a formative assessment from Page Keeley's Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volume 4. Studens are asked whether the mass of a sealed jar of wet nails would change as the nails rusted. The probe elic ...

Students investigate and describe multiple indicators of both physical and chemical changes over a 10 day unit. The learning opportunities students were provided specifically addressed misconceptions about the reversibility of changes and the co ...

In this probe, teachers are trying to elicit student ideas about conservation of matter in a closed system. Students read through the scenario and then choose the statement that best describes the matter in the jar and explain their thinkin ...

Students are presented with 4 possibilities about what happens to the weight of a cookie when it is broken. They are asked to choose one and then explain their thinking. The intent of this formative assessment probe is to determine student ...

Students will investigate the physical change that occurs as milk is turned into butter.

This is a file of a unit plan on Chemistry and Matter for the 5th grade

Snap Blocks

Back and Forth

This resource is for teachers who want to help their students learn about the small particle model of matter—that is, the idea that (1) all matter is made of particles that are too small to see, even with a microscope; (2) there is empty space betwee...