Glenwood Landing students got a treat as a representative from the Science Museum of Long Island visited to explore different states of matter and their properties.
Students learned that the three states of matter include solids, liquids, and gases. They watched as water when it is in a solid state (an ice cube) can melt and turn into a liquid when it is heated.
The GWL students also learned that anything that takes up space is known as matter. They used various instruments including a volumetric flask, beaker, and
graduated cylinder to see how volume and mass help describe matter.
Additionally, they learned that the definition of mass is how much space something takes up. Students were placed into smaller groups and used the three instruments to see which one could hold the most liquid.
They were surprised that it wasn’t the tallest
of the instruments (the graduated cylinder).
In addition, the students talked about “The Water Cycle” and how clouds form when invisible water vapor in the air condenses into visible water droplets or ice crystals.
They learned that precipitation occurs when droplets fall from the clouds to the earth in the form of rain, snow, sleet, and hail as the weather gets cooler.
When precipitation falls from the sky and comes down to earth it can fill ponds, rivers, and streams.
Plus, it can be a source of water for plants, animals, and humans.
Lastly, they talked about how the water in the ocean can evaporate and rise into the atmosphere. The warmer the water, the more it evaporates.
Energy from the sun causes the water on the surface to evaporate into a gas where it rises into the atmosphere, where it is colder, and condenses into clouds completing the water cycle.
At the end of the lesson, students had the opportunity to touch Ooblek, a non-Newtonian fluid that has properties of both liquids and solids.
It is made from corn starch and water that thickens or solidifies when force is applied.
