Description

The Mixtures and Solutions Module has four investigations that engage students with the phenomena of matter and its interactions in our everyday life—mixtures, solutions, solubility, concentration, and chemical reactions. Three anchor phenomena drive the investigations.

• Anchor phenomenon 1—change in pond water/impact of salt on pond life
• Anchor phenomenon 2—identifying unknown substances
• Anchor phenomenon 3—baking soda interactions

Students construct models about matter made of particles too small to be seen and develop the understanding that matter is conserved when it changes state (from solid to liquid), when it dissolves in another substance, and when it is part of a chemical reaction. Students have experiences with mixtures, solutions of different concentrations, and reactions forming new substances. They also engage in engineering experiences using the properties of materials to design useful products. Learning about the properties and behaviors of substances and systems of substances develops their understanding about how things go together and how they can be taken apart. This gives them the opportunity to use and develop models that explain phenomena too small to see directly. Students gain experiences that will contribute to the understanding of the crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; systems and system models; and energy and matter.