Watch the Bozeman Science video " Planning and Carrying out Investigations"

• Think about a question that you have about something in and around your home.

• If you can, focus on a question that relates to materials.

• How could you design an experiment that would answer that question?

• Just for fun - Try this game from Nova - What’s this stuff?

Last week, you looked at the life cycle of glass, plastic, and aluminum—three materials that can be used to make drink containers. When designing a product, materials engineers consider the properties of materials to determine which is best to use. These properties can be grouped into two categories—physical and chemical. A physical property is one that you can identify without seeing if the material reacts with another substance.

View this video

• Video - Properties of Matter

Then complete this student worksheet

• Physical Properties Activity Worksheet

Density is a physical property of matter. When you were exploring materials in your home, you may have noticed that some objects are heavy for their size and some objects feel lighter for their size. For example, a 2 foot cube of styrofoam would be easy to pick up, but a 2 foot cube of stone would be very hard to pick up. In the observing physical properties lesson that you just finished with household objects, you tested if they sank or floated when they were put into a bowl of water. Sinking and floating can be a way to determine relative density. If an object is denser than water it sinks, if it is less dense than water it floats. If it is the same density as water it is neutrally buoyant, which means that the object will stay where you place it in the water.

Play around with the object in this Density Simulation . What questions do you have about density that can be answered in this simulation?

• Density student worksheet

Chemical Properties - A chemical property describes how a material reacts with another substance, such as an acid or oxygen. Chemical reactions are also known as chemical changes. There are many different ways to spot a chemical change. Five different signs include odor, temperature change, precipitate formation, production of gas bubbles, and a color change.

View these videos:

• Video - Chemical Changes Crash Course for Kids -

• Video - 7 signs a chemical reaction is taking place

What observations can you make of chemical reactions that occur in your home? The easiest place to see a chemical reaction is in your kitchen when you or someone else is cooking.

• Watch this video that talks about the Chemical reactions that Make Pizza Taste so Good.

• Here is a video you can watch about a common chemical reaction with ingredients that are in most homes. Baking soda + vinegar + balloons

Inquiry - If it is OK with your mom or dad, try doing the experiment at the end of the video Baking soda + vinegar + balloons - “How does changing the ratio of vinegar and baking soda affect the chemical reaction?” Remember it is OK to use small amounts of baking soda and vinegar to do this experiment. Do not make a mess in your kitchen?

What did you learn these last two weeks about how scientists and you plan and carry out investigations?

Use this Graphic Organizer to help organize one experiment.