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The series of questions presented in this activity will help you find out your ideas or your students’ ideas about matter. As highlighted in this video series, when we articulate our misconceptions, we are taking the first step to rectifying them.
Surveying is one of many educational strategies that teachers can use to elicit ideas. Even a brief survey, such as the one presented next, can provide a learning opportunity for students and teachers alike. Students can reveal their misconceptions for the first time as well as open their minds to accepting scientific points of view. Teachers can form a basis for making instructional decisions, whether to validate students’ correct yet unsure ideas, confront student misconceptions, reinforce ideas that are forming, or complement ideas that are accurate but only partial explanations.
The answer is B: evaporation. Evaporation involves only one substance, and the particles of the substance are the same whether in liquid or gas phase. All other processes result in the creation of different particles from those initially present.
The answer is C: compound is to molecule. An element is a pure substance with the fundamental particle being called an atom. Similarly, a compound is a pure substance with the fundamental particle being called a molecule. Both a mixture and a solution are not pure substances because they are made of at least two different kinds of particles.
The answer is D: the same as before. Any chemical change is still subject to the law of conservation of matter. Particles may be torn apart and rearranged, but no atoms are created or destroyed, so the mass is conserved.
The correct answer is A: a gas being produced and escaping into the air. Because this system is not “closed” (i.e., all parts are captured and measured), the escaping gas floats away into the air and is no longer registered on the scale.
The answer is C: achieved by passing an electric current through it, splitting the molecules apart. Because hydrogen and oxygen are different substances from water, this process is not a physical change. In the video for this session, we saw an electric current used to rearrange the molecules of water into new molecules of hydrogen and oxygen.