California Standards and MW/Flash-based models for 8th Grade Science
The list below is not a comprehensive list of standards, but a list of those standards for which we have some matching appropriate list of models. The models were originally designed for a high school audience, so they may require adaptation to middle school language and conceptual level.
The activities are drawn from three "technologies":
Current Molecular Workbench implementations (MW): These are fully functional now and could be easily wrapped or converted into a LOOPS activity environment.
Pedagogica 1.0 wrapped MW and Flash models (Ped1): These activities were developed a while ago using an older version of MW and sometimes include Flash components that are either played using a Java-based component or using an embedded Quicktime for Java component to play Flash. The full Java component was never ported to any of our modern systems, and Quicktime no longer supports playing flash, so if there is a Flash piece of these activities that you would like to use we either need to get the MozSwing component working to embed the Flash model in the Java activity frame, or pop-up a browser window to play the Flash media. In the case where the Flash is linked to a dynamic model, a separate browser window is not feasible. However, we might be able to convert some of these Flash-based "controllers" into animated gifs which could be played in current components. To pre-install all of the Ped 1.0 activities unzip and install this on the Desktop of a computer: PedInstallFull.zip (38 MB)
Forces
Standard 2.f - Students know the greater the mass of an object, the more force is needed to achieve the same rate of change in motion.
(MW): Newton's Laws at the Atomic Scale
An activity that looks at all of Newton's Laws, but uses atoms to demonstrate this motion. There is a Time of Flight mass spec simulation here that is pertinent.
(Ped1): Mass Spectroscopy
A more typical mass spec that relies on separation of different masses based on the affect of a magnetic field on the trajectory of moving charged masses.
(Ped1): Two Atoms in a Box
Primarily about energy conservation, but there is some reference to atoms of different mass colliding with each other.
(MW): How Does Mass Affect Molecular Motion?
A basic model showing a mixture of different masses interacting and colliding with each other.
(MW): Classical Mechanics Library
This is a collection of one-page demo models for simple motion and forces.
Structure of Matter
Standard 3.a - Students know the structure of the atom and know it is composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons.
(MW): Atomic Structure
This activity teaches about the nature of orbitals as probability maps, and allows students to construct different atoms.
(Ped1): Finding the Nucleus of an Atom
A short activity where they zoom into an atom which provides a scale that helps them understand how small the nucleus is.
Standard 3.b - Students know that compounds are formed by combining two or more different elements and that compounds have properties that are different from their constituent elements.
(MW): Chemical Bonds
The first part of this activity goes into the formation and description of a covalent bond. The latter part focuses on the types of bonds that can form based on the pairings of atoms with various electronegativities.
(MW): Chemical Reactions and Stoichiometry
This activity starts with the basics of what a reaction is, then goes into factors that affect reaction rates, and then types of reactions and the appropriate ratios of reactants.
Standard 3.c + d + e - (3c)Students know atoms and molecules form solids by building up repeating patterns, such as the crystal structure of NaCl or long-chain polymers. (3d)Students know the states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) depend on molecular motion. (3d)Students know that in solids the atoms are closely locked in position and can only vibrate; in liquids the atoms and molecules are more loosely connected and can collide with and move past one another; and in gases the atoms and molecules are free to move independently, colliding frequently.
(MW): Phase Change
This activity starts with a section on states of matter that would be relevant to this standard.
(Ped1): States of Matter
A different approach to states of matter that uses a macro-micro mode, using a Flash-based controller for the model.
(Ped1): Phase Change
Uses a macro-micro mode, using a Flash-based controller for the model, shows a test tube with water (or ice or steam) in it an controlled with Flash animation.
(MW): Polymerization
A more advanced treatment of polymerization, but "long-chain" polymers were mentioned in (3.c).
(Ped1): Salt
An activity that allows student to explore the formation of an ionic compound.
(MW): States of Matter Library
This is a collection of one-page demo models for exploring states of matter.
(MW): Intermolecular Attractions
An activity which helps provide some explanation for why things have various melting and boiling points in the first part.
Reactions
Standard 5.b - Students know the idea of atoms explains the conservation of matter: In chemical reactions the number of atoms stays the same no matter how they are arranged, so their total mass stays the same.
(MW): Chemical Reactions and Stoichiometry
This activity starts with the basics of what a reaction is, then goes into factors that affect reaction rates, and then types of reactions and the appropriate ratios of reactants.
Standard 5.c - Students know chemical reactions usually liberate heat or absorb heat.
(MW): Reaction Rates, Catalysis, and Energy
This activity is older than "Chemical Reactions and Stoichiometry" activity listed above. It includes some of the same info at the beginning of the activity, but adds energy later.
(MW): Potential Energy in Chemical Bond Formation
A more basic version of the above activity without potential energy diagrams.
Chemistry of Living Systems
Standard 6.a + b + c - (6a)Students know that carbon, because of its ability to combine in many ways with itself and other elements, has a central role in the chemistry of living organisms. (6b)Students know that living organisms are made of molecules consisting largely of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur. (6c)Students know that living organisms have many different kinds of molecules, including small ones, such as water and salt, and very large ones, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and DNA.
(MW): Lipids and Carbohydrates
Specifically focusses on a story where carbon backbone is the focus. Explores these two common biological molecule categories.
(MW): Proteins and Nucleic Acids
Covers the other two major categories of biological molecules.
(MW): Tree of Life
Covers all four categories: Lipids, Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Nucleic acids. This is an older activity that is more exploratory in structure, less a linear story. You start at the macro level and zoom down into the molecular level. Depending on what you zoom into, you reach one of the molecule types. This also has more of an emphasis on the types of elements found in biological molecules like that in (6b).
(MW): Diffusion, Osmosis, and Active Transport
This activity focuses more on the combinations and interactions of the four molecule categories and the small biologically important molecules like oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, and salt.
Periodic Table
Standard 7.b - Students know each element has a specific number of protons in the nucleus (the atomic number) and each isotope of the element has a different but specific number of neutrons in the nucleus.
(MW): Atomic Structure
This activity teaches about the nature of orbitals as probability maps, and allows students to construct different atoms.
Density and Buoyancy
Standard 8.a - Students know density is mass per unit volume.
(MW): Determining Density
A Flash-based model for exploring the role of mass and volume in the density of a gas.
Standard 8.c + d - (8c)Students know the buoyant force on an object in a fluid is an upward force equal to the weight of the fluid the object has displaced. (8d)Students know how to predict whether an object will float or sink.
(MW): Density and Buoyancy
An activity that includes the Flash model referred to in 8.a, but adds other dynamic models that include a mixture of liquids and solids as well as centrifugation.
Investigation and Experimetation
Standard 9.d + e + g - (9d)Recognize the slope of the linear graph as the constant in the relationship y = kx and apply this principle in interpreting graphs constructed from data. (9e)Apply simple mathematic relationships to determine a missing quantity in a mathematic expression, given the two remaining terms (including speed = distance/time, density = mass/volume, force = pressure _ area, volume = area _ height). (9g)Distinguish between linear and nonlinear relationships on a graph of data.
(MW): Gas Laws
Most of our activities are much more conceptually focussed, but this one covers some of the specific mathematical relationships mentioned in Standard 9. Students explore the inverse and directly proportional relationships between pressure, volume, temperature, and atom number in this activity.
