Magical Mysteries of Chemistry

Nancy Kuzniar, Eighth Grade, Francis Bradley Middle School

Final Unit (PDF)

Implementing Common Core Standards (PDF)

This unit will focus on the 8th grade general science chemistry unit. The purpose of this unit is to grasp my students’ attention and make them eager science learners. Sir William Lawrence Briggs said, “The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about things.” Technology has changed education and how we educate must change with it. The understanding of the basics of chemistry at the 8th grade level is critical for students who will take higher level chemistry courses. The unit will enable students to Classify matter as elements, compounds or mixtures. To compare physical changes such as size, shape and state to chemical changes that are a result of chemical reactions that include changes in temperature, color, formation of gas or precipitate, and to explain how the idea of atoms and a balanced chemical equation support the law of conservation of mass. This unit helps put science within the actual grasp of all students.