Nanotechnology

Structure-Property Relationships

Overview:

High school students will explore the structure and property changes of water through videos and classroom discussion. They will be introduced to atomic arrangement of solids by looking closely at carbon in different forms, such as graphite and diamond. They will view and manipulate online files of graphite and diamond structures to discover similarities and differences. An extension activity is research of buckyballs.

Content Objectives

1. Students will know that molecular arrangement determines physical characteristics.
2. Students will know that phases are physical properties.
3. Students will know why changing the structure of the molecule changes the properties of a substance.

Process Objectives

1. Students will be able to describe the molecular arrangement of various substances
2. Students will be able to explain the structural changes occurred by a water molecule during phase changes
3. Students will be able to label a diagram showing the phase changes of water.

Assessment Strategies

1. Completion of video review questions
2. Completion of the vocabulary worksheet
3. Construction of phase diagram and explanation
4. Informal evaluation of participation in group discussion

Materials

• Computers with internet access (either one for each pair of students or a projection system for the class) and/or access to dictionaries

• Video
Structure and Property Changes of Water (1 minute 5 seconds)
Atom Arrangements in Solids (1 minute 30 seconds)
• Worksheets
Part I Vocabulary
Part II Diagram of Phase Changes of Water

Procedures

Part 1: Properties of Materials
1. Students should view Structure and Property Changes of Water video (1 minute 5 seconds
2. Teacher and students should discuss how phase changes of water affect its physical and chemical properties (3 minutes).
3. Students should research and list the meanings of the following terms: condensation, deposition, evaporation, freeze, gas, liquid, melt, solid, and sublimation.
4. Students should complete Part I Vocabulary worksheet (2-5 minutes).
5. Teacher and students should review worksheet answers and talk about underlying concepts (5 minutes).

Part 2: Property Changes
1. Teacher and students should review how adding or removing energy affects water using the terms defined above (see Teacher Notes on Phase Changes of Water.) 10 minutes
2. Students should complete Part II Diagram of Phase Changes of Water worksheet (20 minutes).

Part 3: Graphite vs. Diamond

1. Students should view Atom Arrangements in Solids video (1 minute 30 seconds).
2. To view and manipulate the atomic structures of graphite and diamond, students should visit an alphabetical list of common molecules hosted by Reciprocal Net by copying and pasting the following url into their browser (3 minutes).

http://www.reciprocalnet.org/edumodules/commonmolecules/list.html

Students should then scroll down the list to find, open, and manipulate the graphite and diamond files, noticing how their structures are the same or different.

Reciprocal Net is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation as part of the National Science Digital Library project and is open for use to the general public including students, teachers, and researchers.

3. Teacher should lead a discussion asking the students questions about similarities and differences between diamond and graphite (3 minutes).

Part 4: Other Examples
1. Teacher should lead a discussion about other objects whose physical properties change as simple molecular-structure changes occur (ex: iron horseshoes vs. iron swords, tearing 1 sheet of paper vs. tearing a ream of paper, etc).