How can we make something new that was not there before?
This unit develops science ideas around properties of substances, matter, and chemical reactions. Within this unit, students will use patterns in their data to describe what happens to substances at an molecular level. Overall, students wonder and explain what happens when a bath bomb is in water.
Fizzing sounds and sometimes soothing smells fill a classroom from a bubbling bath bomb. This interesting experience is how students start to wonder what is happening at the small molecular level. Eventually the bath bomb completely disappears, a familiar but unclear experience. Students start to draw models of what is happening to the bath bomb in water. Then as students investigate ingredients and collect evidence to refine and explain their models at the molecular and atomic levels.
In this unit, students draw from their understanding of mass and matter to determine if a new substance is made in a reaction.
Students will conduct multiple investigations as they examine different properties of ingredients. The bath bomb unit is a conceptual unit meant to develop and introduce chemistry foundational for middle school science learning.