What is Matter Made Of (Approaching MS)_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. You watch 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. A gold coin is a good example of an element. All the matter in the coin are made of gold 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. Water molecules are made of two types of atoms. The blue blocks are the hydrogen atoms. 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. She 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. What do you think this represents? That’s correct! Water vapor, which is the gaseous form of water.

When atoms join like this, they form compounds. Every compound is unique. Compounds also have a unique set of properties. This just means their properties are not the same as the atoms that make them up. The atoms they include have a specific ratio. The ratio of the atoms never changes. Think back to what you know about water molecules. Every molecule of water is the same. They have two hydrogen and one oxygen atom. If the ratio changed it would be a different substance. It would no longer be water. Are all substances that are compounds like water?