Physical & Chemical Changes | Science Resources

A Picture is Worth a thousand words... so it should tell you if a physical or chemical reaction has occurred

Quick Description

Students learn about physical and chemical changes that occur. In worksheets, students have to state if a physical or chemical change has occurred for everyday situations. In this activity, students will take and collect images and state whether a physical or chemical change has occurred.

Part 1

Let's learn about physical and chemical properties first!

Physical Properties of a compound may be characteristics such as its appearance, which includes:

Colour
Hardness
State
Texture

Chemical Properties of a compound describes its behavior:

What the compound does when it changes into a new compound
Reacts with another compound

Part 2

Now to learn about physical and chemical changes!

Physical Change is the change of matter that occurs without changing the chemical composition of matter, basically the change in the appearance of matter. This is a reversible change.

Chemical Change is the change of the chemical composition of matter, so basically a new product. This is an irreversible change.

Part 3

Now that you understand the difference between physical and chemical changes take pictures or go through old pictures, you need to select at least 6. You will state if a physical or chemical change has occurred for each picture. You can share them on any social media platform or even create an album on Canva.com. You can show a before & after picture (this will only count as one picture). Use the hashtag #Science10PhysORChem

Some Examples

Here are a few examples (Please choose different examples for your six)

Gasoline combustion in an engine is an example of a Chemical Change

Lumberjacks sawing a tree is an example of a Physical Change