Everything for the Matter test: study cards, the traps to dodge, a practice quiz at three levels — Foundation, On-Level, and Challenge — and a lab where you label particle pictures, sort solids, liquids and gases, graph a dissolving test, and prove that the salt never left. Work here, or print it and use a pencil — both count.
A cup of water on a scale, and a spoon of salt beside it. Weigh them together: 210 grams.
Dissolved is not gone — it is just too small to see. The scale proves it: salt water weighs the salt plus the water. If the scale ever reads LESS, something escaped as a gas.
Two things people get wrong
⚠️People often think…
A gas has no weight — air weighs nothing.
Weigh a flat basketball, then pump it up and weigh it again. It is heavier. Gases are matter, and matter has mass, even the kind you cannot see.
Gases have mass. Weigh the balloon.
⚠️People often think…
Big things are heavy and small things are light.
Size and mass are two different questions. A beach ball takes up more room than a brick and weighs far less. Mass is how MUCH matter, not how much room it takes.
Mass is how much matter, not how much room.
Particles, states, properties, changes
1Watch one
A log burns and the ash weighs much less. Was matter destroyed?
Ask what you can still see: ash. Much lighter than the log.
Ask what you cannot see: smoke and gases went up into the air.
Those gases have mass. They just left the scale.
Nothing was destroyed — it moved. Catch the gases and the weight matches. ✓
2Do one with me
Fill in what kind of change it was.
Salt dissolving in water is a change that is
Burning and rusting are changes that are
Ice, water and steam are all the same
💬One sentence, then you move on
How do you know the salt is still there after it dissolves?
3Try one
In which state are the particles packed tight and vibrating in place?
I want a hint first
A brick in a bowl is still brick-shaped. Water in a bowl is bowl-shaped.
Where this goes
Where this lives
Cooking, why a dented can gets thrown out, why a campfire leaves so little behind, why sugar in tea does not make the cup heavier than what you put in.
What this feeds
Next unit is ecosystems — matter moving through living things.
Name one change you could undo and one you could not.
One card at a time — tap “Show me” to check yourself, then Next. Start at Foundation; when those feel easy, climb.
Helpful Hints
🪜 From a particle to a burning log — the ladder
Matter is made of particles → packed tight (solid), sliding (liquid), flying apart (gas) → heat and cold move it between the three → properties tell substances apart → mixtures can be separated by those properties → physical changes keep the substance, chemical changes make a new one → and the weight before always equals the weight after.
Particles, states, properties, changes, weight.
🤝 The whole topic in one idea
Matter is never made or lost — only rearranged. Melt it, dissolve it, mix it, even burn it: the same particles are all still somewhere, and a good scale will find every one of them.
Rearranged, never gone.
⚠️ Traps the test loves
Dissolved is NOT gone. Salt water weighs the salt plus the water.
A gas has weight. Air in a balloon, fizz from a cup — it all counts on the scale.
Melting and dissolving are PHYSICAL. Burning, rusting and baking are CHEMICAL.
If the scale reads less, a gas escaped — matter wasn’t destroyed.
Steam is still water. Ice is still water. The particles never changed.
Big isn’t heavy. Mass is how much matter, not how much room.
Three boxes of dots — “which is the solid, liquid, gas?” (tight, sliding, spread).
Salt plus water on a scale — “what does it weigh after?” (add them).
A list of changes — “physical or chemical?” (same substance, or a new one?).
A mixture — “how would you separate it?” (find the property only one part has).
✅ Before the test, can you…
Describe the particles in a solid, a liquid and a gas?
Name five properties you could test?
Sort six changes into physical and chemical?
Explain why the weight stays the same when salt dissolves?
Separate iron, sand and salt in three steps?
Pick your level
Look back at anything you missed — the hint that appeared is exactly what to reread tonight.
How sure did you feel?
Lab
Work like a scientist: label the diagrams, turn the table into a graph, then write a claim with evidence and reasoning. Every lab checks itself on the spot, and hints are free.
Your practice never leaves this device. There is no account and no sign-in. Your work is saved in this browser only, and you can erase it whenever you want.
Your practice record — saved on this device
This is your record of the module on screen — it stays here and goes nowhere. Independent means you got it right on the first tap; supported means you got it after the explain-and-retry, or marked ‘I had it’ on a revealed answer. Both count, and neither is a grade. If your teacher asks, copy the row or show them this screen.
Date
—
Topic
—
Level
—
Independent
0 of 0
Supported
0 of 0
Hints used
0
Cards studied
0
Lab
—
Traps met
0
Explained in own words
0
Confidence
—
The answer key is for a teacher: it prints only from here, for the unit on screen. Print the study packet prints the study pages and a blank quiz — never the answers.