Week 15 Blog post

                                             What did you learn this week? 

    No matter how substances react during a chemical reaction, there is as much matter before the reaction is the same as there is afterward. To explain this phenomenon to a 5th grader, we weighed the baking soda, vinegar, and the bottle. After we had weighed the ingredients separately, we combined vinegar and baking soda in the bottle. After 30 seconds, we weighed the baking soda, vinegar, and the bottle. We saw that even though they mixed together to create a chemical reaction, the weights were still the same, because of the conservation of matter. 

How can you apply what you've learned to your teaching in the future? 

In the future, I can conduct this experiment with my students. We can use scales, a cup, baking soda, and vinegar. We can weigh the ingredients separately and then conduct the experiment on the scale. The students can make predictions about whether they believe the weight on the scale will increase, decrease, or stay the same. Students can construct an argument with the evidence from the experiment on whether or not a chemical reaction causes a change in the weight of the substance. Students can visually see that mixing ingredients together does not change the weight of the new substance because when different molecules collide with each other, and create a new molecule. Even though they created a new molecule, they did not create or destroy the atoms. 

                                            What questions do you still have? 

How do you explain to a 5th-grade student that when you mix two substances together, the atoms combine to create a new molecule, but the weight does not change? In my mind, I think the weight would change, so how do you explain this phenomenon to a 5th grader? When you think of combining two things together, you would think that it would be heavier. I think this subject is a little hard to explain to a fifth grader.