Investigate and compare how materials behave when scratched, heated, squeezed, pulled, or tested with electricity and magnets.
🧲
Use evidence from physical property tests to identify materials and choose the right material for a job.
🚢
Explain how buoyancy allows a cargo ship to float and how adding cargo affects it.
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
Names the three outcomes up front: investigating how materials behave, using evidence to identify or choose a material, and applying buoyancy in the Cargo Ship challenge.
No goal carries a standard code. The property-testing goals build on Grade 5 property identification, and the buoyancy goal only supports 6.MS-PS1-7(MA) without the particle model, so no Grade 6 performance expectation is claimed here.
Cognitive science
Advance organizer: students see the target before the content.
Goal setting primes attention for the test-then-apply arc.
Bloom's / DOK
Understand to Analyze
DOK 1 to 2 (compare properties, then apply them to identify a material and load a ship)
Accessibility considerations
Three icon-led cards, large targets, low text load.
Plain "be able to" wording.
Standard codes shown but not required reading.
Engage · Phenomenon
Why That Material?
Every object is made from a material chosen for a reason. Select each card.
🔌
The Wire
Electrical wires are copper on the inside and plastic on the outside.
Why use two different materials?
🍳
The Pan
A cooking pan is metal, but its handle is often wood or plastic.
Why not make the whole pan from metal?
🚢
The Ship
A steel cargo ship carries thousands of tons of cargo across the ocean.
How much can it carry before it sinks?
Your Mission
What makes a material the right choice?
Test seven physical properties. Then use what you learn to load a cargo ship and identify a mystery cube.
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
Opens with familiar objects whose materials were chosen for their physical properties.
Each question is answered later by an investigation: the wire by the circuit and wire tests, the pan by the heat test, the ship by the Cargo Ship challenge.
Cognitive science
Curiosity gap: a short question creates a need-to-know before the investigations.
The temperature at which a solid becomes a liquid.
Example: Ice melts at 0°C
Electricity & Magnetism
Electrical Conductivity
How easily electric current flows through a material.
Example: Copper wire
Magnetism
Whether a material is attracted to a magnet.
Example: Iron or steel
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
Previews the eight properties students test next, grouped by what acts on the material: force, heat, or electricity and magnets.
The Remember line separates the three look-alike force words.
Cognitive science
Grouping and side-by-side comparison of related terms
One short definition and one familiar example per word
Bloom's / DOK
Remember to Understand
DOK 1
Accessibility considerations
All definitions visible at once; nothing to open or remember
Groups stack to one column on phones
Plain cards: no emojis or bolding inside definitions
Explore · Property Tests
Test the Properties
Seven quick tests. Choose a material, run the test, and watch what happens.
Investigation · Hardness
Can You Scratch It?
Choose a material and a tool. Test whether the tool leaves a scratch.
Material to test
Scratch-testing tool
Investigation · Electrical Conductivity
Will the Bulb Light Up?
Choose a material to complete the circuit.
Material
Pick a material, then press Test Circuit.
Model: a small classroom battery. Very high voltage or wet wood can let some insulators carry current.
Investigation · Thermal Conductivity
Which Material Transfers Heat Fastest?
Heat one end of a material. Watch what happens at the other end.
Material
Every rod is the same size, starts at room temperature, and gets the same heat. This is a model, not a measurement.
Heating time0 s
Far endCool
Experiment Results
CopperNot tested
SteelNot tested
GlassNot tested
WoodNot tested
Investigation · Magnetism
Will It Stick?
Choose a material. Move the magnet close and see what happens.
Model: ordinary steel, like a steel nail. Some stainless steels are only weakly attracted.
Material
Investigation · Melting Point
When Will It Melt?
Choose a substance. Increase the temperature until it melts.
Melting changes a substance's state, not what the substance is. Model values: oil and wax are mixtures, so they melt over a small range.
IceNot tested
Coconut oilNot tested
Paraffin waxNot tested
BismuthNot tested
GoldNot tested
Substance
Temperature-10°C
StateSolid
Step
Investigation · Malleability
Flatten or Break?
Choose a material. Apply force and watch what happens.
Model: small samples at room temperature. This shows how materials behave, not how strong they are.
Material
Investigation · Ductility
Can You Make a Wire?
Choose a material. Pull it through the machine to see if it forms a wire.
Bend = flexible · Flatten = malleable · Pull into a wire = ductile. Model: room-temperature samples. (Hot, softened glass can be pulled into thin fibers.)
Material
📚 Instructional Design
Why these investigations exist
Students test seven properties from the family cards (hardness, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, magnetism, melting point, malleability, ductility) before using some of the same tests on the Mystery Cube.
Each uses its own visual mechanism: a scratch mark, a glowing bulb, a heat front with a thermometer, a magnet pull, a melting sample, a press, and a wire-drawing die.
No prediction is required before testing. Each Discovery line appears only after the student has gathered the evidence for it.
Ordered comparison, not hardness numbers: wax < fingernail < copper coin, acrylic, and soft aluminum (close in hardness) < steel nail and glass (close in hardness). A tool scratches only a clearly softer sample; close pairs give no clear scratch.
Real alloys and plastics vary; a hard aluminum alloy or a different plastic can change the result.
Circuit and heat models
Circuit: a low-voltage classroom battery and bulb. Copper and aluminum conduct; plastic, rubber, and dry wood act as insulators here. Moisture or very high voltage can change that.
Heat: identical rods, the same heat, and an ordering taken from real thermal conductivities (copper far above steel, steel far above glass and wood). Times are illustrative, not measured.
Magnet, melting, press, and wire models
Magnet: iron and ordinary (carbon) steel are attracted; aluminum, copper, and plastic are not. Some stainless steels (austenitic grades) are only weakly attracted, so the model names ordinary steel.
Melting: ice starts at -10°C, coconut oil at 10°C, wax, bismuth, and gold at room temperature (20°C). Students choose +5°C or +100°C steps (metals default to +100°C). Pure ice melts at 0°C, pure bismuth at 271.4°C, pure gold at 1,064.2°C. Coconut oil (a fat mixture, about 23 to 26°C) and paraffin wax (a mixture; grades range roughly 46 to 68°C) are shown at about 25°C and 55°C.
Melting simplification: the step that reaches or passes the melting point is reported as melting at the melting point, even when the displayed temperature has gone past it; the next step finishes the change. In reality, a pure substance stays at its melting point while it melts, and mixtures melt across a range.
Press: aluminum and copper flatten (malleable); glass and chalk crack (brittle). Ordinary room-temperature samples under slow squeezing; not a strength test. Malleability is flattening under squeezing force, not bending (flexibility) or drawing into wire (ductility). The sample responds only when the press reaches it.
Wire drawing: a pointed rod is pulled through a narrowing die. Copper, aluminum, and gold draw into wire (gold is the most ductile metal); glass and chalk snap at room temperature. Glass softened by heat can be drawn into fibers, which the caption notes.
Accessibility considerations
Every choice is a labeled button with aria-pressed; results are announced in text, not only by color or glow.
Motion is short and switches off with reduced-motion settings.
Challenge · Buoyancy
Cargo Ship Challenge
Water pushes up on anything placed in it. That upward push is called buoyancy. A steel ship can float because its hollow shape allows it to displace enough water to support its weight.
Investigation
Load the Cargo Ship
Part of the hull below the waterline
Cargo Challenge
How much cargo can you load before the ship sinks?
Predict: What happens when you add cargo?
Ship mass
Water displaced
Status
Takeaway: A floating ship pushes aside water that weighs the same as the ship. When the ship becomes too heavy, it sinks.
Cargo Challenge · Check your answer
The empty ship has a mass of 200 g. What is the maximum cargo mass it can carry without sinking?
Why does it float?
A ship floats because of buoyancy, the upward force of water.
Displacement: A ship pushes water out of the way as it sinks lower.
Balance: A floating ship displaces water that weighs the same as the ship.
Sinking: If the ship becomes too heavy to displace enough water, it sinks.
The ship's wide, hollow hull helps it displace enough water to float.
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
Students discover that a floating ship pushes aside its own mass in water, and that more cargo means a deeper ship and more displaced water.
Shows a coherent limit: past 600 g this hull cannot push aside enough water, so it floods and sinks.
The hollow-hull line and the intro's displacement sentence answer the hook's ship question; density itself is taught in Measuring Matter.
Cognitive science
The ship is visible and usable at once; the optional prediction is checked after the first cargo change and never gates the experiment.
Immediate cause and effect: the hull drops a fixed step per crate while the waterline stays still.
The challenge asks students to find the limit by experimenting, not by reading.
Bloom's / DOK
Apply to Analyze
DOK 2 (relate mass to displaced water and predict a floating limit)
Accessibility considerations
Large add, remove, and reset buttons; no dragging.
Every measurement and the ship's status are written as text and announced politely.
The drawing's description updates with each change.
Challenge · Evidence
Mystery Cube Challenge
Investigation
Identify the Mystery Cube
A small cube came from the supply closet with its label missing. The chart says it is iron, aluminum, hard plastic, or pine wood. Run physical tests to find out which.
Step 1 · Predict
🔎
Will one test be enough to identify the cube?
Step 2 · Investigate
Reference chart
Material
Attracted to a magnet?Magnet?
Conducts electricity?Conducts?
In waterWater
IronPossible
Yes
Yes
Sinks
AluminumPossible
No
Yes
Sinks
Hard plasticPossible
No
No
Sinks
Pine woodPossible
No
No
Floats
Mystery cube
?
?
?
About these tests
Magnet test: hold a bar magnet against the cube. Circuit test: touch the cube to a battery, wires, and a bulb. Water test: set the cube in a tub of water.
None of the tests changes what the cube is made of.
This hard plastic is denser than water, so it sinks. Some other plastics float.
Step 3 · Identify
Which material is the mystery cube?
Step 4 · Explain · Not graded
Which two results were enough to identify the cube?
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
Applies the property tests as evidence: students identify an unknown material by combining results, never one test alone.
The water test stays as real but insufficient evidence: aluminum and hard plastic both sink, so it cannot finish the job.
Cognitive science
Predict, investigate, explain, with elimination made visible in the reference chart.
Misconception checking: one test (or appearance) is enough to identify a material.
Bloom's / DOK
Apply to Analyze
DOK 2 to 3 (decide which evidence is sufficient to identify a material)
Accessibility considerations
Every result is written in the chart as text; ruled-out rows say so, not just strike through.
Each test result is announced politely without moving focus.
The prediction is a single button choice; nothing to type.
Evaluate · Quiz
Check Your Understanding
Ten questions covering everything you discovered. Answer every question, then submit.
Your score will not be sentYour score will be sent to your teacher
Before You Begin
This info is required to submit your quiz results to your teacher.
Please enter your name.
Please select your teacher.
Please select your block.
0 / 10 selected
🧠 Show Your Thinking
Scientists don't just know the answer. They explain their thinking.
Write your own explanation first. Then submit your work to compare your thinking with a model answer.
In one sentence, explain what a physical property is, and how a scientist could use physical properties to identify an unknown material without changing what it is.
One strong way to say it
A physical property is a characteristic you can observe or measure - like density, magnetism, hardness, melting point, or conductivity - without changing what the material is, so a scientist can identify an unknown material by measuring its combination of properties and matching that fingerprint to a known substance. If your sentence says physical properties can be measured without changing the material and used to identify it, you have it.
🔍 The Big Idea
Different materials have different physical properties. Scientists and engineers test those properties to identify materials and choose the best ones for a job.
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
Ten-question check mixing recall and applied reasoning across the lesson.
Practice mode self-checks; classroom mode reports to the teacher.
Cognitive science
Graded retrieval consolidates learning and reveals gaps.
Answer explanations turn each item into a feedback moment.
Bloom's / DOK
Understand to Apply
DOK 1 to 2 (define properties, then apply them to sink-float and sorting cases)
Accessibility considerations
Submit stays disabled until every item is answered.
Try Again allows a full retake in practice mode.
Answer positions and lengths varied to avoid guessing cues.
Go Further
More Learning
Put your observing eye to work. Test which household objects sink or float, build a property fingerprint a partner can use to identify a mystery object, or zoom in on the atoms and molecules that give materials their properties.
🔎
Extension
Mystery Material Challenge
Find five objects at home and predict whether each will sink or float, then test them in a bowl of water. Next, design a "mystery material" card: list four physical properties of a household object and see if a partner can guess what it is.