Intermediate
60 mins
Teacher/Student led
+100 XP
Teacher-led from the board — pupils need no device

Heating and Cooling: Reversible or Not?

Students explore heating ice and chocolate to observe melting and predict if changes can be reversed. They watch a demonstration of toasting bread and classify changes as reversible or irreversible with reasons.

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    Group discussion
    Investigation
    Demonstration

    1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

    The two materials the class will warm today, shown plainly and closeYour teacher is holding up an ice cube and a square of chocolate. What do you think will happen if we warm them gently? And once they have changed, can we ever get them back the way they were?

    2 - Reversible or Irreversible? ~7 mins

    Today's words

    Reversible: a change you can undo so the original material comes back. Irreversible: a change you cannot undo because a new material has been made. Melting: a solid turning into a liquid when it is heated.

    Watch the ice melting in the dish at the front. Which do you think melting ice is: reversible or irreversible?

    3 - What Do You Predict? ~5 mins

    We will warm ice and chocolate in a gentle warm-water bath. Before anything goes in the water, open your Investigation Journal page. Write one prediction for ice and one for chocolate: will each melt, and can we get the solid back again? Talk with your group, then be ready to share one prediction.

    4 - Melting Ice and Chocolate ~15 mins

    Apparatus set up: both dishes standing in the warm-water trayWork through the stages on the card below with your group. Hands off the ice, the chocolate and the melt liquid, and no tasting.

    Write what you see on your Investigation Journal page as you go: which melts first, and whether each is solid or liquid, clear or brown, soft or runny.

    5 - Toasting Bread ~7 mins

    The toaster demonstration apparatus before it is switched onBefore the toaster starts, write one prediction on your Investigation Journal page: what will happen to the bread, and could we ever turn it back into soft white bread? Then watch the demonstration carefully.

    Pupil practice · Investigation Journal
    Module 2 · Materials: Change, Chemistry and an Extended Fair-test Project
    Lesson 10 · Heating and Cooling: Reversible or Not?
    Download Investigation Journal sheet (PDF)
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