Matter Lab Grades 6 to 8
Turn the kitchen table into a chemistry bench: atoms, states of matter, density, mixtures, reactions and a design project, with Rocket, Raven and Nova.
Free, start to finish. No card. Every week opens without signing in.
- Grade
- Grades 6 to 8
- Length
- 12 weeks
- Pace
- 6 short lessons a week, about 20 minutes each
- Price
- Free, every week
About this course
Matter Lab Grades 6 to 8 is a 12-week chemistry course for middle schoolers that uses only kitchen materials. Students set up the Bench at home and keep a Bench Log. Week by week they learn what matter and atoms are and how to read the periodic table, how particles behave in solids, liquids and gases, how heat changes state, why things float or sink, how mixtures and solutions work, how atoms join into molecules, how to tell a physical change from a chemical change, why mass is conserved in a sealed bag, how a red cabbage indicator sorts acids from bases, why some reactions warm up and others cool down, and how natural resources become new materials. The course ends with a design project built, tested and improved at the Bench. Short daily lessons with checked answers, a hands-on Bench Lab each week and a Saturday Bench Day for the family. 100% free, start to finish.
Kids will
- Explain what matter and atoms are and use the periodic table as the list of elements
- Use the particle model to explain solids, liquids and gases and how adding or removing heat changes state
- Measure and compare density, and separate mixtures and solutions with kitchen tools
- Build models of molecules and tell a physical change from a chemical change by the properties before and after
- Show that mass is conserved in a chemical reaction and sort kitchen liquids as acids or bases with an indicator
- Explain where synthetic materials come from and design, test and improve a device at the Bench
The 12 weeks
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Week 1
Everything Is Made of Something
Matter, mass, atoms and the big list of elements
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Week 2
Solid, Liquid, Gas
The three states of matter and the particles behind them
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Week 3
Heat, Temperature and Changing State
Faster particles, flowing heat and the points where matter changes
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Week 4
Density: Why Things Float
Mass packed into a space
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Week 5
Mixtures and Solutions
Together, but still themselves
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Week 6
Atoms Team Up: Molecules
The recipe for a substance
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Week 7
Physical Change or Chemical Change?
Same stuff in a new form, or something new?
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Week 8
Nothing Lost: Conservation of Mass
Atoms regroup, and the scale does not change
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Week 9
Acids, Bases and a Cabbage Indicator
Sorting kitchen liquids with a purple juice and the pH scale
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Week 10
Reactions Give or Take Energy
Some changes warm their surroundings, and some cool them
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Week 11
From Nature to New Materials
Paper from wood, plastic from oil, glass from sand, steel from iron ore
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Week 12
Design at the Bench
Criteria, constraints, build, test, improve, report
Try Week 1 today.
Open the course, pick Day 1 and go. Make a free parent account when you want progress saved for each kid.