Notes on the animation.
The set of questions reinforces the points on substance and
state, and also the specific point made in the language alert.
It is a relatively quick activity which would work well as
a class voting activity or asking individual students to choose
an answer.
Language alert
 |
In everyday language
we often use phrases like ‘Oxygen is a gas’.
We should say, ‘Oxygen is in the gas state
at room temperature’. |
|
Solid, liquid and
gas are not three separate types of
substance, they are the three states
a sample of any substance could be in. |
|
The state of a substance
depends on its temperature and on the melting point
and boiling point of the substance. |
Beware of using phrases which may cause some students to think
that solids, liquids and gases are themselves different types
of substance.
For example,
‘Oxygen is in the gas state at room temperature’
is a better statement than ‘Oxygen is a gas’
because it tells you the substance, the state and the temperature.
Similarly, ‘These substances are in the solid state
at room temperature’ is correct, whereas ‘These
substances are solids’ is misleading and could reinforce
a student’s misunderstanding of substance and state.
The 'Features
of Students' Understanding' section of the Teachers’
Guide considers this issue in more detail.
|
