Science Projects for First Grade: The Three Forms of Matter

You will need to gather the following items for your project on matter:

1. Ice cubes
2. Pot
3. Glass
4. Stove
5. Freezer
6. Water
7. Notebook
8. Pencil

Follow the steps below to complete the project on matter:

1. Give the students a lesson on the three forms of matter. The three forms of matter are Solid, Liquid, and Gas. Define the form and ask the students to give you examples of each form. For example, rock, desk, or paper are examples of solids. Apple juice, water, and soda are examples of liquids. Finally, oxygen, or carbon dioxide are examples of gas.
2. Tell the students that they will perform an experiment to observe the three forms of matter. The best medium is water as it can be transformed into all three forms of matter.
3. Have the students make predictions in their notebooks. Have them predict what will happen to water when it is heated. Then have them predict what will happen to the water when it is cooled. They can check if their predictions are correct at the end of the experiment.
4. Discuss temperature with students and its affects on matter. Let them know that temperature plays a role in changing matter from one form to another.
5. Choose a student volunteer to get a glass of water from the sink. Have them pour the water into an ice cube tray.
6. Ask the student what form the water is in right now. They should respond, liquid.
7. Place the water into the kitchen's freezer. While it is freezing, move the class to the kitchen's stove.
8. Choose another student volunteer to get a glass of water and pour it into a pot.
9. Bring the water to a boil. Make sure to do this part yourself and that the students are at a distance from the boiling water.
10. Ask the students what they see rising above the pot. They should say, "steam". Ask them what form of matter steam is. They should respond with, gas.
11. Let the students know that if they allowed the pot of water to continue boiling it would eventually empty all of its contents, as the water would have evaporated into a gas. Ask them what made the liquid change into a gas. They will answer, hot temperatures or heat.
12. Go back to the freezer to get the frozen ice cubes. Ask the students what form of matter the water is in now. They will say solid. Ask them what caused the water to change into a solid from a liquid. They will say, cold temperatures.
13. Finally, ask them how they can get the solid water to change back into a liquid form.
14. Have them document their learning in their notebooks and check to see if their predictions were correct.