In this activity, students develop a concept map to summarise current ideas about states of matter.
Most students are familiar with three states of matter – solid, liquid and gas. This activity introduces them to two new states – plasma and Bose-Einstein condensates.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
- identify key ideas about states of matter from a written article
- display the ideas in a concept map
- identify and discuss similarities and differences between concept maps
- recognise that concept maps are a useful method to communicate scientific knowledge.
- appreciate that science knowledge about states of matter has changed over time.
Download the Word file (see below) for:
- introduction/background notes
- what you need
- what to do
- discussion questions
- sample concept map.
Nature of science
Science knowledge about states of matter has changed over time. Current ideas have built upon earlier work carried out by scientists.