Last month, my students were focusing on Physical and Chemical Properties and Changes. During this unit, students learned about reactants and products. During one lesson, students were attempting to discover how the amount of reactants affects the number of products. To do this, they combined baking soda and vinegar in different amounts to find the secret recipe so that the gas would not overflow the graduated cylinder. My students enjoyed completing this activity and really worked hard to find the secret recipe.
During this lesson, students also learned conservation of mass. To model this, students created chemical equations to show that the atoms in the reactants and the products stayed the same, just rearranged.
During the discussion, we related the idea of reactants and products to Ugg Boots and Jordans. In order for these shoes to be created they need a certain number of supplies (or reactants). Less supplies (or reactants) means less Ugg Boots or Jordans (products). Students began to use different examples as well to relate to the idea of more reactants means more products. And less reactants means less products.
Blair Stamper, LLC 