SNC1W Unit 3: The Nature of Matter

What is everything made of? Students classify matter, measure density, look for evidence of chemical change with baking soda, vinegar and steel wool, trace how evidence changed models of the atom, draw Bohr-Rutherford diagrams and find the patterns of the periodic table by testing elements and coding a data set of the first 20 elements. They build molecule models, test household products with red cabbage indicator, model ocean acidification, follow an aluminum can from bauxite to recycling and explore new chemistry in the skilled trades. Every lab uses cheap, household-safe materials.

Assessment of learning: a Product Life Cycle Assessment and redesign pitch with a rubric, plus a unit test with an answer key.

Lessons

1. Sorting Matter
2. Density Lab
3. Physical or Chemical Change?
4. Models of the Atom
5. Inside the Atom
6. The Periodic Table
7. Patterns in the Table
8. Element Families
9. Compounds and Formulas
10. Chemistry Under the Sink
11. Matter in Ecosystems
12. Life Cycle of a Product
13. Emerging Chemical Technologies
14. Chemists Who Changed the World
15. Summative Workshop

What you get

• A teacher lesson plan for every lesson: curriculum expectations, learning goals and success criteria, a timed sequence, differentiation, safety notes, look-fors and answer keys
• Detailed slideshows (15 to 17 slides per lesson) with speaker notes on every slide: what to say, what to ask, what to look for and how long to spend, plus warm-ups, worked examples, model answers and answer-key slides
• Student handouts, lab sheets and exit tickets
• Editable Word and PowerPoint files, plus PDFs
• A unit overview, the summative task and rubric, and a unit test with an answer key

Built for the 2022 Ontario Grade 9 Science curriculum (SNC1W, de-streamed), and easy to adapt for any Grade 9 science class.