Phase change activities are some of the most engaging things you can do in the classroom. Phase changes is something you see in everyday life, and they are important for so many reasons including understanding matter, energy transfer, industrial processes, and more.
Phases changes are one of those topics that is a fundamental aspect of science education. Students are learning the basic concepts of matter and learning about its behavior. Not only that, but there are also so many life applications. For example, students can learn why ice melts, how temperature impacts different substances, and more.
To help your students learn about this foundational concept, I have some WOW Factor ideas that you can add to your lesson plan! First, I will share some WONDER strategies which are used to engage your students in the topic. The goal is to have them internally motivated to learn about it! Second, I will share an interactive phase change lesson that will help your students to dive a little deeper into the content without the overwhelm. Finally, I will share some WIDEN phase change activities to help your students learn even more about the topic!
Fun Phase Change Activities for Introduction – WONDER
I truly believe that if you spend some time on an engaging activity (doesn’t have to be long), there will be more of a buy-in from your students to learn more. Here are three different activities you can use to engage your students in the topic of phase changes. There are so many way to get students excited!
AI Story Time
If you are a creative storyteller, you may not need AI, but if you are like me and are missing that creative storytelling gene, technology works in our favor!
There is a great new tool called ChatGPT that allows you to talk to a computer in a conversational way. You can ask this AI all sorts of questions and come up with all kinds of things. Just one of the things it can do is write a story!
So, you can have AI write a story to read out loud to your class as a fun introduction to phase changes!
Depending on what kind of story you are looking for, you can ask this computer bot anything you wish. I decided on this search, and you might want too as well! Ask it to: “Write a funny story about phase changes for middle school students with a real-life example of phase changes.”
Once you do, it will write a story in just seconds. It’s amazing. If you want it to be funny, or have more than one example, or have it to be serious, or anything else, it can make those edits for you. You can have it write 5 stories if you wish and have funny phase changes story stations if you wish!
The possibilities are endless for using AI for your introductory phase change activities!
Phase Change PhET Simulation
I love using PhET simulations because they give a visual for students to understand some of the deeper concepts associated with topics. I love them because they are interactive and enhance students’ inquiry skills.
They have a phase change simulation as well!
There are so many things that students can explore! I like to tell students to pull it up and just have them to explore, especially if I’m using it as a WONDER strategy!
Here are some examples of guiding questions that you can give your students as they explore:
- What happens to the particles of each substance as it goes through a phase change? Look particularly and the arrangement and movement of these particles.
- How does the temperature impact phase change?
- How do the substances transition between liquids and solids? What about liquids and gases?
- Compare and contrast phase changes of different substances.
- How does this relate to real-life situations?
These are some guiding questions to get them started! Students can even draw an example of each phase change.
Dry Ice Demo
Dry ice is always a hit with students. There are many demos that you can do, but showing students the process of sublimation is always fascinating. At this age, they are familiar with things such as melting, freezing, and evaporation, but sublimation may be a new term. Why not introduce it before diving deeper into the lesson!
Try this “bubble tower” demo!
What will you need?
- dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide)
- container of warm water
- dish soap
- safety goggles and safety gloves
- a container
What will you need to do?:
- Put on your safety equipment to safely handle the dry ice. You don’t want to handle ice with your bare hands!
- Take a small piece of dry ice and place it in warm water.
- Add just a few drops of the dish soap to the water and mix it gently.
- Observe the process of sublimation!
- You can dip a bubble wand or draw into the solution and blow bubbles into the fog.
During this demo, you can discuss the process of sublimation (solid to gas)!
Here’s a cute video of the demo!
Which of these WONDER strategies do you plan to add to your phase change lesson plan?
Phase Changes Interactive Lesson
No matter which WONDER strategy you choose to do, after, your students should be at least a little, if not very, intrigued about phase changes! So now, they are ready to dive deeper into the content.
I LOVE interactive lessons as a way to deliver content. They can be used for direct instruction, whether writing notes or using guided notes, for independent learning in flipped classrooms, and so much more. They fit with almost any classroom style.
Interactive lessons are a special kind of lesson because they help bring the WOW Factor to your classroom and help students store the information into their long-term memory.
Why does phase change occur? Can a phase change produce new compounds? When does phase change occur? What are the different processes in phase change?
This is a great phase changes interactive activity!
In this phase changes interactive lesson, students will be able to answer all of these questions and more!
Students will learn about the states of matter, including plasma, how heat and temperature impact phase changes, phase change examples, melting, freezing, vaporization, condensation, sublimation, deposition, and so much more!
Inside of the lesson are phase change activities that students can participate in so that they are able to process the information they are learning. These include drag-and-drop activities, a Venn diagram, videos, an anticipation guide, and more!
Be sure to add this to you list of phase change activities. Do you already have a lesson? This makes a great review as well.
Phase Change Activities to WIDEN Knowledge
I love WIDEN activities! Why? Because it takes students to another level beyond what they “have” to learn. It also gives them a new perspective on what they have learned in the content. Many times, WIDEN activities are the things in school that students will always remember! Here are three different activities that you can try with you students to expand upon their phase change knowledge. There are some cool phase change experiments.
Make Ice Cream in a Bag!
This is always a hit, and you can really do it with any grade level. I like to be totally extra with it too. After the ice cream is complete, you can have toppings such as sprinkles, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream to go with it. You can even have some Coca-Cola to make a float. There’s a lot of phase change conversations to have with that.
What do you need?:
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- small sealable plastic bags
- large sealable plastic bags
- ice cubes
- rock salt
- vanilla extract
- heavy whipping cream
- sugar
- any spoons, bowls, or ice cream supplies you may need!
You can have students work individually or in partners. I wouldn’t suggest groups just because you want each student to have enough ice cream to eat!
For each student or partner group, here are the instructions:
- Put ½ cup of cream, ½ teaspoon of vanilla, and 1 tablespoon of sugar into a small plastic bag. Then seal the bag.
- Put 4 cups of ice and ½ cup of salt into a large plastic bag. (The salt helps the ice cream freeze faster!)
- Put the small bag with the mixture inside of the big bag of ice, and seal it up!
- Get a towel, pick the bag up, and shake the bag until it becomes more solid! It may take about 5-10 minutes!
Here is a great video with instructions and visuals. It’s also a great one to show your students too! This is definitely one of my favorite phase change activities. Anything with food is a plus!
Melting Ice Experiment
Another experiment to observe phase changes is the melting ice experiment. You might think that watching ice melt is boring, but it’s actually very engaging, and in this lab, students can really see what happens with the temperature when ice melts.
What you’ll need:
- Ice cubes
- Container or tray for the ice cubes
- Timer
- Thermometer
I’d suggest putting students in groups. Here are the procedures:
- Place ice cubes in the container, start the timer, and go ahead and take the temperature of the ice and surrounding environment to get the initial readings. Record the data.
- Observe the ice cubes.
- Every 5 minutes, take the temperature of the ice and surrounding environment. Record the data.
- Do this every 5 minutes for as long as you can or until the ice cubes melt completely.
- If time allows, graph your data!
If you want to take it even further, you can have each group use different types of containers to see how this impacts the experiment!
Play with Oobleck
Students have learned about solids, liquids, gases, and plasma, but what about non-Newtonian fluid?
Oobleck is something fun to explore. It can behave as both a solid and a liquid.
Just mix 2 cups of cornstarch with 1 cup of water, and let students explore. They can create a solid ball and then watch it liquify through their fingers.
You can even have them research this substance further and share their findings with the class. How does this substance go from a “solid” to a “liquid”? How is this phase change process different from other substances?
It’s so hard to choose between all of these phase change activities! Enjoy!
Bonus: Thermal Energy and Particle Motion Experiments
Looking for some more hands-on experiments that dive into how the particles move in matter when the amount of thermal energy changes, including when there is a phase change?
These experiments are SO easy to set up and get students thinking.
This resource includes FOUR investigations where students can can a deeper understanding how changes in thermal energy impact particle motion.
You can find this in the Bright in the Middle Shop or on TPT.
Help your students master science content!
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