Who's got gas?!

I felt a little inspired by a few ideas FLOATING around in my head this week, so I decided to try my hand at lesson planning. This lesson is designed potentially for grades 4-5. 

I would love feed back, ideas, and comments! 

This will also be posted in the What's up in the classroom page for parents and students to reference!

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Floats and Flubs

Gas..some have it, some don’t!

Goal:

For students to understand the following concepts of matter, with emphasis in this lesson on gasses!

• The 3 different states of matter and varying characteristics
• Characteristics of gasses (how do we classify it as a gas?)
• The varying weight of gasses
• The capability or incapability to contain a gas
• Characteristics of specific gasses (O2 and He, others may be plausible as well)

Step 1: Classroom Set up

The opening idea: What draws students in!

Each student will have a balloon on a string on their desk as they enter the classroom. Some balloons will be filled with air, some full of helium and some varying in fullness of helium so that some balloons will float high, some not float at all and others will be in between.

All balloons will be tied to an object of varying weight/design (a feather, a rock, a pencil, a person, a desk, a post-it...etc)

Students will write 3-5 facts (or a paragraph, depending on level of class) of observations in their journals about THEIR balloon.

Step 2: A little “POP” culture (<---pop! I’m so whity ;-))

Show a short clip from the movie UP, with he house floating high above the world below. Ask students to vote silently in their journals if they think this is somehow possible, or if it could ever POSSIBLY work.

Step 3: Unify observations through discussion!

Make a large class list of observations of the different balloons. Ask questions like :

• “What is this balloon doing?”...Floating? Why?
• Why is this one not floating?
• What is making each one act that way?
• Is there something inside the balloons?
• Are all balloons filled with the same things?
• What will happen if I untie this floating balloon from this rock?
• Why is this feather not holding down this balloon like the rock?
• What will happen if I push this pin into this balloon?
• POP! What happened to what was inside the balloon?
• ...and so on!!

Step 3: How do we catch a gas?

After students have come to a few conclusions about the gasses inside of the balloons ask them to find (at home or around the classroom) a container. Encourage them all to be different. Practice filling the various containers with air from our lungs, or helium from a tank. Discuss (<--aka ASK QUESTONS) about the varying outcomes and resonsons some catainers hold gasses and oters don’t, and why some containers float and some don’t!

Step 4:Keep it! Retain it! Learn it!

Have students pop or deflate their balloon and tape in inside if their journal as a visual and tangible reminder of the lesson. Have them write about the observations they discovered today. If they need prompts you can write a few questions on the board for them to answer. What do we know about the weight of air vs the weight of helium? Are all gasses the same weight? How do we classify something as a gas(this one may have varying answers, and that’s OK) Can we contain a gas? (etc.)

Have them vote again on the movie question, is it possible with a really really BIG balloon? (a blimp? a hot air balloon)

"Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we much do."

(Goethe)

-Mrs. K