Built From Small Pieces
- Chemistry
- Ages 6–8 · Grades 1–2
- Hands-on experiment
What you’ll find out
- Many big things are made of small pieces joined together.
- The same pieces can be taken apart and built into something new.
- The pieces weigh the same whatever they are built into.
No sign-up and no real names. In the lesson you check your understanding as you read, run the experiment yourself, and practise until it sticks.
Take it apart
This toy house is built from ten small bricks. Take it apart and the house is gone, but you have a pile of ten bricks. Nothing disappeared. Lots of big things are made of smaller pieces joined together.
Build something new
Now build again with the same ten bricks, and make a boat. It looks brand new, but it is made of exactly the same pieces. Weigh the house, then weigh the boat: they weigh the same, because the pieces did not change.
Curriculum links: NGSS 2-PS1-3