3rd Grade Speed Of Chemical Reactions Lesson Plan Example (Science)

Topic: speed of chemical reactions

Objectives & Outcomes

• students will be able to explain the factors that affect the speed of chemical reactions and can design a simple experiment to test the effect of these factors on the speed of a given chemical reaction.

Materials

• kitchen timer or stopwatch
• various household chemicals (e.g. baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide)
• beakers or jars
• measuring cups and spoons

Warm-up

• show students a video about the speed of chemical reactions and ask them to raise their hand whenever they notice a change in the chemical reaction (e.g. formation of a gas, changes in color, formation of a precipitate).
• discuss the factors that can affect the speed of a chemical reaction and have students brainstorm examples of each factor.

Direct Instruction

• review the list of factors that can affect the speed of a chemical reaction with the students and demonstrate how each factor can change the speed of a reaction.
• use a variety of materials and different types of reaction to demonstrate the differences in speed.
• use stopwatches to time the different reactions and calculate the average speed of each reaction.

Guided Practice

• have the students work in pairs to conduct their own experiments to test the effects of different factors on the speed of a chemical reaction.
• provide guidance and assistance as needed.

Independent Practice

• have the students use the data they collected during the experiment to create a graph showing the relationship between the speed of the reaction and each of the factors they tested.
• ask the students to draw conclusions about the effects of each factor on the speed of the reaction and to make predictions about the results of additional tests.

Closure

• review the key findings of the experiment.
• discuss the importance of understanding the effect of factor variables on the speed of chemical reactions.
• ask the students to share their predictions about the results of additional tests and explain why they made those predictions.

Assessment

• collect the data from the students and assess their understanding of the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable, as well as their ability to conduct a controlled experiment.
• evaluate the students' written reports on their independent variable and make any necessary edits.
• have the students present their results and discuss the findings with the class.