3.2.6-8.B: Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in the 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 3.2.6-8.B

These pages practise a closely related idea; the match to 3.2.6-8.B is partial.

• 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.

Need just this outcome? Build a custom pack from these pages, with its answer key, in about a minute. Custom packs come with All-access and school licences.