Studying Matter

Our science research has shifted from a study of islands, rocks, and the Earth to a study of the structure and properties of matter. Matter is the "stuff" that everything is made of, and second graders spend a lot of time testing out different materials to determine their properties. In the future, we will be applying our understanding of various properties to design a couple of inventions. For now, however, we will be working on designing experiments to test a few different materials.

Our initial experiment compared water and a wooden block. These two different materials underwent the same tests. Scientists always need to make sure they are doing fair tests - comparing results of the same experiment with only one variable changed. 

We put a block and water through a funnel. We put each into a cup. We put a foam block on top of each one. Finally, we put our fingers on top of each material. Mr. MacLellan tested them with two other experiments, as well. He poured each material onto his hand. He hit each material with a hammer. We made sure we were always doing a fair test by making sure that the test happened exactly the same way with each new material.

Materials we want to test in the future include:

Banana

Metal

Obsidian

The earth

Air

Curvy metal

Smoke

Ice

Water

Ink

A pin

Wood

A basketball

A racket

Mac and cheese

Hair

Pizza

Rubber

A can

Slime

A hard covered book

A bean bag

A light bulb

A rock

Cardboard

A crayon

Plastic

We might now test all of those, and we might test others that aren't on this list!

We also came up with a list of ways to test materials:

Hammer

Try to break with our hands

Put ice on it

Put into a tank of water

Try to cut it

Put mentos on it

We will definitely conduct some of these tests, conduct some that aren't on this list, and not conduct some from here. We are very excited for this unit!