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Grade 5 Science · World 7: Change Lab · Level 51
Physical or Chemical?
Decide from evidence, including tricky cases.
Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.
What children learn in Level 51
- Physical change: the same material in a new form. Chemical change: a new substance.
- A burned sheet of paper can't turn back into paper. Melted ice can freeze again. Many chemical changes are hard to undo.
- Be careful! Signs are evidence, not proof. Boiling water makes bubbles, but they're water vapor, so that's a physical change.
- Good scientists look for more than one sign, then ask: is there a new substance?
Georgia Standards of Excellence in Science:
- S5P1.a — Plan and carry out investigations of physical changes by manipulating, separating and mixing dry and liquid materials.
- S5P1.c — Plan and carry out an investigation to determine if a chemical change occurred based on observable evidence (color, gas, temperature change, odor, new substance produced).