G5 What is Matter Made Of? – 02

Using the task sheet, your group gets straight to work on the assignment. Janie, your lab partner, starts to sort the blocks by color, and you watch intently as she joins all the blue Legos together. You grab the red blocks and start to join them together. Color after color, you make five columns, each of a different color. These five columns represent elements, which is a group of atoms, all of the same type.

An element is a pure substance because it contains only a single type of atom. For example, a gold coin is a good example of an element. All the matter in the coin are made of gold atoms, and gold is only one of many types of atoms. There are more than 90 different elements.

Next, you start making other substances with the atoms. The task card says to match two blue blocks with one red block. This combination will represent a water molecule, which are made of two types of atoms. The blue blocks are the hydrogen atoms, and the single red block represents an oxygen atom. When the two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom are combined, they make water. Janie places all the molecules so they are touching, and this explains that this is what solid water, or ice, would be like.

You reach over and move the molecules a little bit apart. Never wanting to be outdone, you explain this would be like liquid water. Janie smiles as she reaches for the blocks again. This time she moves the molecules even farther apart and asks, “What do you think this represents?” Just as you start to say the word, Janie says, “That’s correct! Water vapor, which is the gaseous form of water!”