Matter and materials
Solids, liquids and gases, properties of materials, mixtures and reactions.
Lessons
Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move
Why tires go soft in winter, why sidewalks have gaps, and how a thermometer knows. Five lessons on what heating and cooling do to the particles in everything around us.
Solids, Liquids and Gases
Where does a puddle go? Why does ice float? A first look at the tiny particles that explain the stuff around us.
Kitchen Chemistry
Fizzing, curdling and colour changes with things from the grocery store. Students gather evidence of new substances, weigh a reaction in a sealed bottle, and turn red cabbage into an acid detector.
Winter Science: Ice, Snow and Staying Warm
Why roads get salted, which mitten really works, how a seal stays warm in icy water, and why a mouse is cosier under the snow than on top of it. Four hands-on lessons on ice, heat and insulation.
Test It, Choose It: Materials
What is a spoon made of, and why isn't it made of paper? Children sort objects by material, test which materials keep the rain out and which keep the sun off, and choose the right material for a job. Kitchen, stationery and recycling-bin materials, no weather needed.
Keep It Cool: Ice, Insulation and Staying Comfortable
Why salt makes ice melt faster, which wrap keeps a drink coldest, how a seal and a fennec fox each keep their body temperature steady, and how to build a cool box that beats the heat. Four hands-on lessons that start from a freezer and work in any climate.
Clean Water Challenge: Mixtures, Dissolving and Separating
Where does the salt go when it disappears in water? Can a filter make muddy water safe to drink? How do you get fresh water out of salt water? Three hands-on lessons on dissolving, separating mixtures and the solar still, with nothing tasted and nothing boiled by children.
Online practice
- Flat or solid shapes Foundation
- Count the faces of solid shapes Foundation
- What a shelter does Foundation
- Design a shelter Foundation
- Animal shelters Foundation
- Sort resources Foundation
- Where food comes from Foundation
- Water we use Foundation
- Save water Foundation
- Recycle or trash Foundation
- Use less Foundation
- Soil and rock Foundation
- Rock properties Foundation
- Sand and gravel Foundation
- Choose a material Foundation
- Describe a material Foundation
- Solids, liquids and gases Year 2
- Solid or liquid Year 2
- Describe materials Year 2
- Cut and bend Year 2
- Test a material Year 2
- Reuse and reshape Year 2
- Best material for a job Year 2
- Heating and melting Year 2
Free tools
Periodic Table Explorer
All 118 elements, coloured by family. Click one for its atomic number, mass, state, discovery and an everyday use, or highlight metals, gases and more.
States of Matter
Heat and cool a box of particles and watch them pack into a solid, slide as a liquid and fly apart as a gas, with a live thermometer.
pH Scale Explorer
Test household liquids on a pH scale with a cabbage-juice indicator colour, from lemon juice to bleach, and mix acids and bases to see neutralisation.