Unit 2: Particles and Characteristics of Matter

Test Tuesday October 18

Throughout the year in IPS you will be asked to visualize the particles that make up matter in order to explain a variety of things, from heat transfer to chemical reactions. The purpose of this unit is to help you build mental models in which you visualize the particles in a way that is consistent with evidence and observations. We will continue to refine our CLE skills in using lab data as a way to support our particle models.

Labs: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and Textbook: Section 2-2

Students should be able to:

States of Matter

  • List the 3 states of matter and for each describe things such as:
  • Is it compressible?
  • Does it have a fixed volume?
  • Does it maintain its shape or take on the shape of the containers it’s placed in?
  • Explain how observations of the states of matter tell you what the particles are like.
  • Are they spread apart or “as close as they can get”?
  • Are they in fixed positions or free to move to new positions?
  • Are the particles limited to movement within a fixed volume or free to move anywhere?
  • Do the particles have weak or strong attractions?
  • Correctly write “linking sentences” to explain how each observation leads to each inference about the particles.
  • Draw a particle model of each state of matter.
  • Describe what happens at the particle level during the following changes: melting, evaporation, freezing, condensation.
  • Compare and contrast the 3 states of matter.
  • Describe the 3 parts of the kinetic theory of matter.
  • Define the terms mass and volume; apply these terms to particle models of matter.

Particle Attractions

  • Describe many pieces of evidence that water particles are attracted to each other.
  • Correctly write “linking sentences” to explain how the observations “prove” the particle-to-particle attractions within water.
  • Describe evidence that water particles are attracted to other types of particles as well.
  • Describe evidence that alcohol and oil have different particle-to-particle

attractions than water.

Temperature and Particles

  • Identify how changing temperature changes a substance’s volume; describe evidence that volume is affected by changing temperature.
  • Describe how heat transfer affects the kinetic energy (KE) of particles.
  • Explain how the change in KE of particles affects the motion of the particles and the collisions between particles.
  • Explain at the particle level why the volume changes when temperature changes.
  • Identify what happens to density during the heating or cooling of a substance; explain why density changes when temperature changes.