Plan for task set up:

Contextual features:
There are natural mixtures and manmade mixtures. Ask the students, Why
do we have mixtures in our world? What are mixtures made of?
In their own words have the students create a definition of a mixture. They
may talk to their partner and discuss. Students will be asked to share their
definition.
Scaffolding questions:
Do you agree? Would anyone want to add anything to the
definition? Which is the best definition? How do we know
what a mixture is? Is a mixture a chemical reaction? Why or
why not?
If students say words out loud like substance or solution ask them what
they mean by that.
Create a classroom definition and write it on the board. Transition to the
activity with => Are there different types of mixtures? How so? Why should
we classify them?
Scientific Ideas/Learning Objective:
Well that is what you will be doing today. You will engage in the practices
scientist do to classify the natural world. What do you think I mean by
classify? Why do we have different names and labels for things? Today it
will be your job to explore different mixtures and classify them as best you
can.
Perhaps go over why scientists have classified 3 states of matter. This will
help students understand that we classify and group matter based on its
physical (and chemical) properties.
Expectations for exploration time:
You will have two tasks today. One will be in a pair of two, and the other in a
group of four. First I will split the class into two large groups. Count off the
students and assign a number (1 or 2). All the ones go to left side of the
room and all the twos go to the right. Draw an arrows on the board labeled
with the number. Pair up with someone with your number.

Ask one person from each pair to collect the materials from the back. As a
pair you are going to prepare four mixtures. Mix the substances in the
beakers given to you using the stirrer. You will have 10 minutes to mix the
substances and fill out your observations chart. I will give you a count down
so you know where you should be during the activity. (Have a teacher kit in
the front and show the students as you speak)
Once you are done preparing the mixtures, you can get started on
completely the questions on the back of the data sheet. This will help you
make better sense of your data. I will stop you at ten minutes and we will
move on to task #2.
When the ten minutes are up, no matter where you are; match up with a pair
of opposite number. Now your next task as a whole group (4) is to create a
model or diagram classifying the mixtures to the best you can. If you have
any questions ask! You will have 20 min (to 25min) to finish up the worksheet
and model. Our goal is to have one group present their diagram to the class.
Scaffolding questions:
How are you going to classify your mixtures? Which mixtures
acted the same? How did they act the same? Which mixtures were
different? How were they different?