{"id":6949,"date":"2016-02-04T15:59:01","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T15:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"\/blogs\/?p=6949"},"modified":"2017-01-23T12:28:28","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T12:28:28","slug":"learning-states-matter-fun-interactive-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blogs\/learning-states-matter-fun-interactive-ideas.html","title":{"rendered":"Learning the States of Matter: Fun and Interactive Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ice. Water. Steam. Finding out that these are all the same substance is a \u201cWow!\u201d experience for kids. After the initial wonderment, they often ask: \u201cHow can they be the same thing?\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Learning that there are different <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/video\/states-of-matter.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">types of matter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> all around us is an important science lesson kids will repeatedly use throughout their lives. Making ice cubes and boiling water are routines almost everyone engages in without thinking about it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The world is abundant with <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/lifestyle.howstuffworks.com\/crafts\/other-arts-crafts\/science-projects-for-kids-states-of-matter.htm\">fun opportunities<\/a> to teach types of matter<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 called the states of matter \u2014 and the transitions between them. Here are a few ideas on how to get started with the basics.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>States of Matter:<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask your child to find as many solid objects as possible in one minute. Ask them how they know each one is a solid (it has a shape).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask your child to find as many liquids as possible in one minute. Ask them how they know each one is a liquid (it flows).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask your child to find as many gases as possible. If they are stymied, ask them to take a deep breath of air! Point out that air is a gas (it floats all around you and fills the room)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Solid \u2194 Liquid: <\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make ice cubes to show how water becomes ice when the temperature is below the freezing point. Then put the ice cubes in a glass of warm water to show how they melt.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When melting butter for popcorn, point out how the solid turns into a liquid. Ask why you have to heat butter for it to become liquid whereas water is liquid at room temperature. This is an opportunity to explain that substances have different freezing\/melting points.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Liquid \u2194 Gas:<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Heat water in a pan on the stove to make hot chocolate. Allow the water to reach the boiling point, and show your child the steam rising from the pan. If the child is older, help them to carefully peek into the pan to see how bubbles form as liquid turns into gas. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you live in a cold climate, ask your child to breathe on a cold mirror or window to fog it up. Ask the child where the water came from. The answer is that there is water vapor in their breath. It became a liquid when the cold glass reduced its temperature enough to condense.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These real-life experiences with the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/video\/states-of-matter.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">types of matter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are great but they have two drawbacks: they don\u2019t demonstrate what is happening on the molecular level, and the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chem4kids.com\/files\/matter_plasma.html\">fourth state of matter<\/a>, plasma,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 isn\u2019t available to interact with in our everyday lives. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To reveal the inside story and more about plasma, look for a states of matter video for your kids to watch. Most such videos include graphics that show how molecules behave in a solid, in a liquid, in a gas, and in plasma \u2014 as well as at the points at which they change states. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ice. Water. Steam. Finding out that these are all the same substance is a \u201cWow!\u201d experience for kids. After the initial wonderment, they often ask: \u201cHow can they be the same thing?\u201dLearning that there are different types of matter all around us is an important science lesson kids will repeatedly use throughout their lives. Making&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,103,110],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp.turtlediary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/sunset-1119119_640.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6949"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7026,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6949\/revisions\/7026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}