Title: Metals and non‑metals

Supplementary material for use in lessons in the group of natural sciences (nature, biology, chemistry, geography, physics), additional classes, science clubs. It can serve as a resource for expanding knowledge, preparing students for science competitions.

Lesson plan elaborated by: Zyta Sendecka

Target Group

Pupils of the 7th grade of primary school (chemistry).

Core Curriculum

7th grade of primary school– chemistry

I. Substances and their properties. Student:

8) classifies elements into metals and non‑metals; differentiates metals from non‑metals based on their properties.

The general aim of education

Students divide substances into good and poor conductors of heat .

Criteria for success

• you recognize experimentally which substances are good and poor conductors;

• discuss the properties of metals;

• show in your immediate surroundings items made from metals.

Key Competences

• Communication in the mother tongue;

• Communication in foreign languages;

• Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology;

• Digital competence;

• Learning to learn;

• Social and civic competences.

Methods/forms of work

Talk, work with the text, workshop method, direct observation.

Group work, individual work and work in pairs.

Teaching aids

• abstract;

• interactive or traditional board;

• tablets/computers;

• glasses or jars;

• hot water;

• electronic thermometer;

• plastic spoon;

• wooden spoon;

• metal spoon;

• pieces of butter.

Lesson phases

Introduction

1. The teacher, referring to the previous lesson, asks volunteers to explain the concept of substance properties on selected examples.

2. The teacher gives the subject and the purpose of the lesson in a language that the student understands as well as the criteria for success.

Realization

1. Pupils discuss safety principles that should be followed when conducting experiments.

2. The teacher introduces the film showing an experiment to investigate the thermal conductivity of metals, wood and plastic. He instructs the pupils to set a research question and a hypothesis together. Students write them in the form provided in the abstract. The lecturer displays the film.

3. Students perform the experiment in accordance with the guidelines contained in the film and record their observations. The teacher assesses the accuracy of the observations

4. The teacher instructs students to read the content of the abstract and the photographs posted in „Gallery 1”, and then independently perform the interactive exercise.

5. Students indicate metal objects in the classroom and explain their use.

Summary

1. The teacher asks students to finish the sentence: „During today's lesson, I have learned ...”.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Metals and non‑metals

You surely hear the term „metal” everyday. Metals are for example, iron, aluminum, copper or gold. Chemically pure metals are simple substances made up of single elements. In addition to metals, other simple substances (elements) with different properties are also known, called non‑metals. These include, gases in the air: oxygen and nitrogen. Carbon and sulfur are also non‑metals.

How to recognize if a substance is a metal or a non‑metal? You have certainly noticed that objects made of different substances heat up at different rates. Iron and aluminum heat up quickly and conduct heat well – we say that they are good conductors of heat.

Metals are solids (with the exception of liquid mercury used, in some thermometers); they have a silver or silver‑gray colour. Only copper is red and golden yellow with it’s characteristic shade. Metals also conduct electricity well. An important feature of metals is that they are also ductile,I.e they can be stretched and are malleable – their shape is easily changed during forging.

In addition to metals, other substances with different properties, called non‑metals, are also known. These include, for example, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and sulfur. They are usually poor conductors of heat and electricity.

• Substances can be separated due to their characteristics, like; brittleness, elasticity and plasticity.

• Brittle substances are those that when subjected to pressure can burst (break).

• Plastic substances change shape under pressure but do not return to their previous form.

• Elastic substances change shape under pressure and can return to their previous form.

• Knowledge of a substance properties is used in the manufacture of objects used by us in everyday life.

• Among the substances, metals can be distinguished. They are characterized by such properties as: good thermal and electrical conductivity, ductility and malleability and metallic gloss.