Exploring the Atom lesson 1
By Kim Fleming
Standard 1: Students will understand the structure of matter
Objective 1:Describe the structure of matter in terms of atoms and molecules.
a. Recognize that atoms are too small to see.
Objectives:
 | The goal is to answer to the question "Is there a smallest piece of matter?" and if there is, what is it?. |
| Begin to use the scientific method as a way of exploring the world in which we live. By "scientific method" here I mean simply asking a question and then doing an experiment to find out the answer |
| Student will understand that an atom is the smallest piece of an element |
| Student will understand that atoms are too small to see |
Time:20 minutes
Materials:
| Play Dough (better yet, clay that doesn’t dry out |
| Plastic knives |
| Paper and pencil |
| Science Journals |
Lesson
· Split into groups of 3 or 4
· Each team gets a ball of clay. Tell them that each ball represents an element from the periodic table – one team may have Carbon, one may have iron, one might be lead, etc.
· The goal is to determine the smallest piece that can be obtained
· One person is to act as the splitter, the person on the left is to act as the scribe for the logbook and the other two people are asked to be observers.
· The splitter uses the knife to split the clay in half and puts one portion into the center of the table, and passes the knife and the rest of the clay to the person on his right.
· The scribe makes a tally mark to keeps track of how many times the element has been split. He then passes the paper to the person on his right
· Everyone observes what is happen is happening so they can share their observations and experiences about the experiment when it is finished
· Each group brings up their results (data) and with an overhead projector we can view the pieces – and see that they could be split futther if we weren’t limited by the width of the knife.
 | How big is the smallest piece (measure with a ruler)? |
| How does that size compare to the size of the plastic knife? |
| What would you need to do to split the clay element into smaller pieces? |
| What would be better to use as a splitter? |
| Scientists can use special instruments to break elements into the very smallest piece possible and still have it stay “clay” or as we like to think of it – Carbon, Iron, etc |
| This smallest piece is much too small to see – even with a super strong magnifying glass |
| This smallest piece is called an atom |
Journaling (review/summary)
| Draw a picture that will remind you about what you learned today |
| Write in words what you learned today. How would you explain it to a 3rd grader? |
| Always questions – what comes next? – what do you wonder about now? |
Looking Ahead
Questions??? That’s what scientist’s do – question everything! Then look for answers!!!
· Explain that it is a list of every single element that we know about into he whole universe
· Everything on earth can be broken down into these elements
· Question: I wonder how they know every element in the universe
· Question: Why is the table set up like it is?
· If everything can be broken down into atom size pieces – why isn’t there a water element, or an apple element, or a toy truck element?
· Is there anything smaller than an atom?
· If we had a sharp enough tool, could we split the atom in half?
Personal Teaching Reflection: Look for specific things that might improve the lesson. See if students seemed engaged. Look for personal interests to tie problems to real life.
| What worked? |
| What didn’t work? |
| What would improve this lesson? |