Flame testing: What would be considered safer for Year 8 students attempting flame testing of chemicals? Using a small quantity of solid chemical in a flame on a metal loop, or a chemical solution sprayed into the flame? Or would this be better carried out as a teacher demonstration?
This online resource investigates the concept of mixtures.
The resource contains resources and the step-by-step instructions for a hands-on activity that illustrates the differences between pure substances and mixtures.
This activity is a very simple way of introducing the differences between elements, compounds and mixtures, including homogenous and heterogenous mixtures.
Australian Curriculum v9 Codes: AC9S7U06 (Year 7), AC9S8U06 (Year 8)
This online resource supports Year 8 Earth and chemical sciences.
The teaching package provides hands-on activities with teacher support materials to support the Year 8 Earth and Chemical Sciences components of the Australian Curriculum.
The activities are organised into three topics:
Australian Curriculum v9 Codes: AC9S7U06 (Year 7), AC9S8U04 (Year 8)
This video examines the relative sizes of atoms, neutrons, protons and electrons.
The resource is a TED Ed video (5:27 min) which could be used as an introduction to a unit, or to consolidate understanding on subatomic particles.
It also examines the density of an atomic nucleus in terms of six million cars squashed into a 1-metre square box.
Australian Curriculum v9 Codes: AC9S7U05 (Year 7), AC9S8U06 (Year 8), AC9S9U06 (Year 9)
This online resource helps students determine if materials are compounds or elements.
The resource is a Scootle interactive where students ‘deconstruct’ different objects to determine if they are compounds or elements.
This is a short activity that would be useful in a flipped classroom or as part of a series of activities in a web quest.
Australian Curriculum v9 Codes: AC9S8U06 (Year 8)
This online resource helps consolidate student's understanding of atomic structure through a bingo-like game.
The game involves building atoms from their sub-atomic components, including filling in the electron shells.
They can play individually or against each other (on different computers) to construct specific atoms in order to be the first to reach BINGO!
The repetition of building the atoms' structure is designed to consolidate the student's understanding of the structure of an atom and the differences between the atoms of different elements.
