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Matter - Properties, States, Density, Interactions, and Nuclear Concepts

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

Properties of Matter

  1. Color, texture, and other properties are not relative to the matter. They are different things. Color is like paint, not a property of the matter itself.
  2. Matter is always small
  3. Particles are side by side or there are air particles.
  4. There is air between air molecules.
  5. Energy, heat and/or sound are forms of matter.
  6. Matter is not conserved, it disappears or appears during processes such as dissolving, burning, evaporation, boiling, rotting, respiration, rusting, condensation, and growth of plants.
  7. Scientific Concepts
  8. Weight is another name for gravitational force.
  9. Weight is the force exerted by an object against a support and is equal to the force exerted by the support on the object.
  10. Weightlessness is never absolute, there is always some, maybe very small weight.
  11. Gravitational force and weight being the same, decrease with increasing distance from the Earth?
  12. Misconceptions
  13. Weightlessness is a result of being in space.
  14. Weightlessness only happens in a space vehicle.
  15. Weightlessness happens with the absence of air.
  16. Weightlessness happens when an object leaves Earth.
  17. Emptiness or nothingness creates weightlessness.
  18. Free fall near Earth does not have weightlessness.
  19. There is an additional force involved with free fall.

States of Matter: solid, liquid, and gas

  1. Different states are different kinds of matter. Ice, water, water gas are all different substances.
  2. Materials can only have properties of one state of matter
  3. Food is a solid, toys are, window, something that is hard, it doesn't break, wood, you can feel it, you can look at it.
  4. Particles of solids have no motion

Solid

  1. Solids are never hollow, have no holes,
  2. Solids are heavy, hard, hard to carry,

Liquid

  1. Liquid is something you can drink, sugar is liquid you can drink, fruit is liquid because it is juicy,
  2. Ice is a liquid, an igloo is liquid
  3. A liquid is flat, runny
  4. You can feel it, you can push it
  5. A liquid is gas (gasoline)
  6. Liquids are not matter because we drink them
  7. Liquids are things you drink
  8. Liquids spill and run all over
  9. Liquids can be compressed (liquids in a plastic bottle).
  10. Liquids have water in them
  11. The thicker the liquid the heavier, more dense it is
  12. Only water can melt, boil, freeze

Gas

  1. Gases are not matter because they are invisible
  2. Gases have no mass
  3. Gases float
  4. Smoke is a gas
  5. When things burn they all turn into a gas or all turns into smoke.
  6. Most gases are poisonous
  7. Air and oxygen are the same thing
  8. Helium and hot are the same thing
  9. Gases are invisible
  10. Gas is a fart.
  11. Gas is gasoline, natural gas, propane
  12. Gas is black
  13. Gas is flat
  14. Gas is a structure - tent, building
  15. Air is not a gas.
  16. Air particles float.
  17. Air particles are not moving when there is no wind.
  18. Air has no mass, it is light because we can not see it, air does not take up space.
  19. Air had no mass or negative weight.
  20. Air is not affected by gravity.
  21. Helium has negative weight.
  22. Air is about the size of dust particles in air.

Density

  1. Heavy objects always sink and light objects always float.
  2. Weight determines if an object will sink or float.
  3. A larger heavier object will not float as well as a smaller lighter object of the same material.
  4. The amount of water will cause objects to float or sink better.
  5. There must be more water for larger objects to float. Weight of the water must be more than the weight of the object.
  6. Objects with holes will always sink.
  7. Objects with air float.
  8. Objects float on top of the liquid.
  9. Fish don’t float unless they are dead.
  10. Objects sink because there is more water than oil. If there were more oil, the oil would be on the bottom.
  11. Water is on the bottom, because it was poured in first.
  12. Density is the thickness of something
  13. Oil is always on top because it repels water, corn syrup has some oil in it and it would be between oil and water, anything mixed with oil separates
  14. The more air pockets in something the more it will float. Wax, ice, has lots of air pockets in it and floats.
  15. Liquids are liquids and will all mix together

Matter and interactions of matter

 

Mixtures and solutions

  1. Sugar, salt, kool-aid… in water it disappears. It gets smaller and smaller until it is gone (molecules or atoms shrink or disappear). The dissolved substance doesn't take up any space.
  2. Taste or color don't have substance (not associated with particles or atoms).
  3. It melts, turns into a liquid.
  4. Powders put in water will sink or float.
  5. It goes from water to another kind of liquid
  6. If you add more and more half will turn to water and half will not
  7. When you put jello, kool-aid into water it evaporates in a puff
  8. When you put jello, kool-aid, rocks, into water it turns a darker color
  9. The powder changes chemically and you can never change it back
  10. If you keep adding more a chemical reaction will happen
  11. The water is absorbing the powder

Surface tension

  1. Drop of liquid on a penny: - The number of drops that fit will depend on how flat the penny is (the size of the penny).
  2. One drop will cover the entire penny.
  3. Depends on the size of the ridge on the penny.
  4. Depends on how far you drop the drops onto the penny.
  5. Clear liquids will be the same opaque liquids will hold more because they are thicker.
  6. Thick liquids will fit more than thin liquids because they are thicker and will stay on and build up. (stickier?).
  7. The water drops form together and build up.
  8. The temperature will make a difference. Hotter water will be less than cold because the particles move faster.
  9. Pennies dropped into a jar full of water: shape of the glass distorts your view so you can put more in than you think. The lip of the glass lets the water go above the rim. The pennies are smaller than you think.

Air and air pressure

  1. Air = wind and is made my trees, blowing, fans, …made when it is captured, balloons, bags
  2. Air in only found in sky
  3. Bubbles in boiling water is made of air.
  4. Air does not have any weight.
  5. There are two types of air pressure: high and low
  6. When air is heated it expands and causes high pressure
  7. When air is cooled it contracts and causes low pressure
  8. Egg in a bottle: Heat brought oils, water out of egg and it slid into the bottle.
    Heat melted some of the egg so it got smaller and fell into the bottle
    The fire sucked the egg into the bottle.
    You can just blow the balloon up or push it in with a pencil
    Put balloon over bottle fill with water and the water will push it in. Then let the water evaporate and it will stay in.

Aerodynamics

  1. Paper planes students didn't have concept of gravity as pulling plane down. Also The higher up an object is in the air the more air is pushing down on it.
    Hard throwing causes the plane to go less or spiral to the ground and crash.
    Nose has to be pointed. Makes it go farther and guides it better.
    The larger the surface area of the wings the more the air could lift the plane.

Nuclear

  1. Nuclear energy is a different kind of energy. Has something to do with mass.

Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Concepts

Properties of Matter

  1. Objects have many observable properties, including color, texture, size, weight, shape, temperature, and the ability to interact with other objects.
  2. Objects are described and identified by their properties.
  3. Objects can be separated or sorted into groups of objects or materials by their properties.
  4. Properties can be observed better with scientific tools, such as hand lenses to see small objects, using similar objects as measuring devices, and body parts to sense temperature.
  5. Heating or cooling can change some common materials, such as water.

States of Matter

  1. Matter takes up space.
  2. Materials exist in different states- solid, liquid, and gas.
  3. Different states have different properties.
  4. Solids maintain there shape. However, they can be in all sizes and shapes.
  5. They maintain their shapes as they are moved (rotated, poured...)
  6. Solids can support denser materials on their surfaces.
  7. Solids can be separated by screens.
  8. Some solids change when mixed with water (dissolve) others form a layer below or above the surface.

Liquids

  1. Liquids pour and flow.
  2. When liquids are put in a container they will take the shape of their container from the bottom up with the surface parallel to the surface of the Earth.
  3. Liquids can have properties of transparent, translucent, opaque, viscous, free flowing, foamy.

Gas

  1. Gases will spread throughout its container or dissipate and flow from an opening in the container.
  2. Gases are matter. (Take up space and have mass)

Density of Matter

  1. Some materials float and others sink.

Matter and Interactions of Matter

  1. Objects can be identified by the materials from which they are made.
  2. Objects may be made of one or more materials (paper, cloth, wood, clay, and metal).
  3. Interactions can change some materials properties.
  4. Not all materials change in the same way when interacting with other objects.

Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Concepts

Properties of Matter

  1. Objects have many observable properties, including color, texture, size, shape, mass, volume, temperature, and the ability to interact with other objects.
  2. Properties can be measured with scientific tools and compared to a standard unit (linear, time, temperature, mass, and volume)

States of Matter

  1. Heating and cooling changes the properties of some materials.
  2. Water expands when it freezes and contracts when it melts. As a result ice floats. Cold water sinks to the bottom of warmer water.
  3. Many changes of matter occur faster when heated.

Density of Matter

  1. Objects float or sink in relation to their mass, shape, and size.
  2. Density isn't the same as mass.
  3. Density isn't the same as volume.
  4. Density isn't the same as size.
  5. Equal volumes of different substances usually have different masses.

Matter and Interactions of Matter

  1. A substance has properties, such as density, a boiling point, and solubility, that are independent of the amount of the sample.
  2. A mixture of substances often can be separated into the original substances using one or more of the characteristic properties.
  3. The mass of a system is equal to the sum of its subsystems.
  4. Materials are composed of particles that are too small to see without magnification.
  5. Many changes of matter occur faster when heated.

Mixtures and solutions

  1. Mixture, Solution, dissolving, solvent, solute

Surface tension

  1. Surface tension is caused by a strong attraction of the particules. It is formed when the particles pull together.

Air and air pressure

  1. Egg in a bottle: Fire in bottle, then put Egg on top of bottle activity heat expanded air egg sealed bottle air cooled contracted air pressure outside pushed egg into bottle
    Blow up a balloon in bottle

Aerodynamics

  1. Planes float on air because of their wings.

Literate (11+)

Concepts

Properties of Matter

  1. Objects have many observable properties, including color, texture, size, shape, mass, volume, density, temperature, chemical, energy, and the ability to interact with other objects.
  2. Properties can be measured with scientific tools and compared to a standard unit (linear, time, temperature, mass, volume, and density)

States of Matter

  1. Exchange of thermal energy causes the change of the state of matter.
  2. Solids are closely locked in position and can only vibrate.
  3. Liquids are more loosely connected and slide past each other and some gain energy and escape as a gas.
  4. Gases have more energy of motion and are free of one another except for collisions.
  5. Matter is in continual motion and as it gains heat energy it usually expands and as it looses energy it usually contracts.
  6. When matter changes state there is a significant exchange of latent heat and volume change.

Density of Matter

  1. Objects float or sink relative to their density and capacity.
  2. Density is equal to mass divided by volume. The ratio of mass to volume.
  3. Water has a density of 1 g/ml or 1 g/cc.
  4. Any density greater than 1 will sink in pure water.
  5. Any density less than 1 will float in pure water.
  6. Objects will sink or float depending on the relationship of the gravitational pull on the object and the upward force of the liquid it displaces.
  7. Density of an object in relationship to the density of the liquid that it is placed in will determine how it will sink or float.
  8. Buoyancy is the upward force of a liquid on an object placed in it.
  9. Gravity is the attraction of two objects.
  10. Force is a push or pull.
  11. Density is mass per volume
  12. Mass is the amount of matter in an object.
  13. Volume is the amount of space an object occupies.

Matter and Interactions of Matter

  1. Substances react chemically with other substances to form new substances (compounds) with different properties.
  2. In chemical reactions, the total mass is conserved.
  3. Substances often are placed in categories or groups if they react in similar ways; metals are an example of such a group.
  4. All matter is made from atoms that are alike and different and combine to compose all substances.
  5. Chemical elements do not break down during normal laboratory reactions involving such treatments as heating, exposure to electric current, or reaction with acids.
  6. There are more than 100 know elements that combine in a multitude of ways to produce compounds, which account for the living and nonliving substances.

Matter and Nuclear Reactions

  1. In most nuclear reactions, energy is transferred into or out of a system.
  2. Heat, light, mechanical motion, or electricity might all be involved in such transfers.

 

Dr. Robert Sweetland's notes
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