MS-PS-1.4: Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in particle…

Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move Grade 6 · partly supports this outcome

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.

• Why do bike tires go soft in winter? 45–60 min

  Students stretch a balloon over a bottle, move it between warm and ice water, and find out what happens to air particles when they cool down. Then they explain a cyclist's 'flat' tire on the first cold morning.

• Why does food colouring spread faster in hot water? 45–60 min

  Two cups, two drops, one race. Students drop food colouring into warm and ice-cold water at the same moment, then explain what the moving colour tells us about particles they can't see.

• How does a thermometer know? 50–60 min

  Teams build a working thermometer from a bottle of coloured water and a clear straw, then calibrate it against a real thermometer. At the end, they explain how any liquid thermometer 'knows' the temperature.

Printable practice for MS-PS-1.4

• Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move workbook included with the unit

  4 readings, 3 English-support pages, 3 practice pages, 1 word wall, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

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