Session Descriptions

Session 1. What Is Matter? Properties and Classification of Matter
Matter is all around us—it’s what we and everything else are made of. Yet how do we define matter? What are the properties of matter that set it apart from something that is definitely not matter, such as light? In this session, participants build a working definition of matter, distinguish among the different forms it can take, investigate the difference between “essential” and “accidental” properties of matter, and look at the role of classification in science.

Session 2. The Particle Nature of Matter: Solids, Liquids, and Gases
What simple idea links together all of chemistry and physics? How can a close study of the macroscopic differences among solids, liquids, and gases support a microscopic model of tiny, discrete, and constantly moving particles? In this session, participants learn how the “particle model” can be turned into a powerful tool for generating predictions about the behavior of matter under a wide range of conditions.

Session 3. Physical Changes and Conservation of Matter
What happens when sugar is dissolved in a glass of water or when a pot of water on the stove boils away? Do things ever really “disappear”? In everyday life, observations that things “disappear” or “appear” seem to contradict one of the fundamental laws of nature: matter can be neither created nor destroyed. In this session, participants learn how the principles of the particle model are consistent with conservation of matter.

Session 4. Chemical Changes and Conservation of Matter
How can the particle model account for what happens when two clear liquids are mixed together and they produce a milky-white solid? What happens when iron rusts? Where do the elements come from? In this session, participants extend the particle model by looking inside the particles, learn about some early chemical pioneers, and in the process discover how the law of conservation of matter applies even at the scale of atoms and molecules.

Session 5. Density and Pressure
What makes a block of wood rise to the surface of a bucket of water? Why do your ears pop when you swim deep underwater? In this session, participants examine density, an essential property of matter. They also look at how particles of matter are in constant motion, which leads to a deeper understanding of fluid pressure. Lastly, the concepts of pressure and density are investigated to explain the macroscopic phenomenon of rising and sinking.

Session 6. Rising and Sinking
Why does a hot air balloon rise into the sky? Why does ice rise in water, when a lump of solid wax will sink in a jar full of molten wax? In this session, participants generalize the model that has been developed about what rises and what sinks, using the idea of balance of forces.

Session 7. Heat and Temperature
What makes the liquid in a thermometer rise or fall in response to temperature? Which contains more heat—a boiling teakettle on the stove or a swimming pool of lukewarm water? In this session, participants focus on the difference between heat and temperature, and examine how both are defined in terms of particles. The particle model is then used to explain a number of everyday phenomena, from why things expand when they are heated to the role that temperature plays in changes of state.

Session 8. Extending the Particle Model of Matter
In this session, participants extend their understanding of the particle model to explain additional macroscopic phenomena, including the electrical properties of matter. Participants then review the progression of ideas covered in the course and anticipate future developments in the understanding of matter.