Year 7 Science

Materials and their properties

Guidance for Teachers and Parents.

Lesson 3 - Choosing the Right Material

National Curriculum: Programmes of Study for Sc3

Relating scientific knowledge and understanding to familiar phenomena and to things that are used everyday.

Key Elements

(a) That the use of an object exploits at least one of its properties.

(b) The properties of various materials can be compared experimentally in order to determine the best.

Objectives

Pupils should:

(a) Understand the meaning of strength, flexibility, hardness, solubility.

(b) Understand the relationship between the use of a material and its properties.

Outcomes

Pupils are be able to:

(a) Determine which properties of a material are most useful in the end product.

(b) Interpret data in order to determine which material is the best for a specific purpose.

Notes

The context is important as working with material samples may not necessarily relate these with an end product. This may also help with further understanding by students of the term property.

Solubility is introduced here as a property. This may require further explanation. Many students confuse dissolving and melting. 'Weak' will challenge some pupils, as they will find it difficult to consider that some objects exploit this property.

Activity 3 is a standard experiment and can be extended to include other materials. Here it is used as a data interpretation exercise and further explores students' investigation skills. The use of a spreadsheet program can be used for the graphical work. The questions in this activity use the context of insulating a jacket. This could be further extended by looking at natural vs synthetic materials.

Extension Work

Some work on insulation. Trapped air improves insulation.

Return to Science Active