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Title: Molecules
Submitted: December 9th, 2004 @ 10:10 PM
Benchmark Standards: ART.1.D.EL.5

Grades:
3-5

Subjects:

Science
Dance
Music

Description:
Type of Lesson
Interdisciplinary
Age Group and Setting
Good for students, starting to learn about the different states of matter; upper elementary to lower middle school. It would be easiest to do in a classroom, or a room which has some open space.
Time Limit
10-20 minutes
Materials
Tape to put on the floor
“Sunrays”
“Snowflakes”
Music and a CD player
Michigan Theatre Standards and Benchmarks
ART.1.D.EL.5
Objectives
The student will learn how to move to music, and change their movement as the music changes. The student will also learn about the arrangement and movement of molecules in the three states of matter.
Description of Procedures
1. Talk to students about what a solid, liquid, and gas is.
2. Make a chart on the board, putting characteristics under each state of matter.
3. Talk about the molecules in each state
a. Solid= little motion (vibration), closely packed
b. Liquid= some motion (slip and slide), spread a little more apart
c. Gas= lots of motion ( rapid and random), very far apart
4. Explain that when a substance gets heated up, the molecules begin to move faster, and start to spread apart more.
5. After this, tell the students, they are going to become molecules in a solid state, but three people are needed for sunrays, and three people are needed for snowflakes. Tell them there will also be music playing and that when the music speeds up, that means they are getting heated up.
6. Remind the students there will be no hard pushing or shoving, and that they have to respect each other.
7. Have an area taped off on the floor, big enough for all the students to fit in, with room left over.
8. Have them start off in a solid, and then start the music. As the music gets faster, have the sunrays dance around “heating up” the solid. Keep the music going faster until they have made a gas, then slow the music down, and have the snowflakes dance around, indicate the “cooling down” of the gas, until it ends up back in the solid state. As the students reach each state, pause the music and ask them what state they are in and why.
Evaluation Technique
Student Based “Quiz”
1. What was your favorite part of the activity?
Molecules Cont.

2. How do molecules move when they are in a solid, liquid and gas?
3. What did you do when the music got slower, why?
4. What did you do when the music got faster, why?

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