Melting, Freezing & Boiling

Objectives

To experience matter in three states: solid, liquid and gas.

Resources

Today's Lesson

Main Activity

Ensuring that safety precautions have been taken, demonstrate for your child boiling a kettle and holding a shiny surface in the steam. (Be careful of the steam, it can burn you.) Observe what happens. Put the liquid you collect in the freezer. What do you think will happen?

A mirror, plate or glass bowl will work as a shiny board, if you do not have access to anything else.

When looking at the spout of the kettle, you will notice a small gap between the spout and the steam. That gap is, in fact, the water vapour gas. It has no colour or smell, so we cannot see anything. The steam you see against the shiny surface is the gas that has condensed in the cool air to create water again. Do not allow your child to hold the shiny board in the steam jet, as the gas between the spout and the steam is actually hotter than the boiling water inside the kettle.

Then ask your child to write up the experiment and to draw a labelled diagram. They will need to write down what happens to steam when its cooled and what happens to liquid when its cooled.

Note: whenever an experiment involves heat or any potentially dangerous instruments, the adult must be the person who conducts the experiment, in order to ensure that safety rules are applied at all times. Appropriate measures should also be taken to avoid burns.

Assignment

Please ask your child to complete Assignment 5.

Citations

[1] supersimple.com