Second Grade Chemistry

Getting Started

Kids love mixing up chemicals and watching reactions ooze, bubble and fizz! The study of chemistry is particularly exciting because of all the nifty experiments we can see and do. 

 When you read a lesson in a typical textbook about chemistry, the concepts are somewhat foreign but they totally come to life as an experiment or demonstration. Students will gain skills at following detailed directions for labs as well as building a strong foundation of important scientific vocabulary. They will be asked to reflect on what they have learned and experimented with, then challenged to take that learning to the next level.

Here are the scientific concepts:

• Structure of atoms and molecules
• Crystals are organized grouping of atoms or molecules that form specific patterns
• Physical verses chemical change
• Indicators of a chemical change
• Molecules join together to form polymers
• There are four states of matter we'll be dealing with: solids, liquids, gases, and plasma, and they exist depending on the temperature
• Sublimation is the process by which a solid goes directly to a gas
• Evaporation goes from a liquid to a gas.
• Condensation of molecules goes from a gas to a liquid
• Freezing goes from a liquid to a solid state
• Density is a measure of how tightly packed the molecules are
• Different factors affect density
• Matter can be described by its observable properties.
• Heating or cooling a substance may cause changes that can be observed. Sometimes these changes are reversible, and sometimes they are not.

By the end of the labs in this unit, students will be able to:

• Observe matter in different states (solid liquid, gas or plasma) depending on temperature.
• Understand how to determine if something is undergoing a chemical or physical change
• Design and build an experiment to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.
• Measure and estimate the weight, length and volume of objects
• Formulate and justify predictions based on cause-and-effect relationships
• Conduct multiple trials to test a prediction and draw conclusions about the relationships between predictions and results
• Follow a set of written instructions for a scientific investigation