Physical vs Chemical Changes Story

April 22, 2021January 7, 2025

Are you teaching/reviewing the difference between physical vs chemical changes? NOVA has a lovely activity to give students much-needed practice with this topic. I used this story activity with students when I taught chemistry several years ago.

physical vs chemical changes story NOVA — Image Source: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/activities/pdf/3402_julian_04.pdf

Students are given a story to read. They must identify all the changes that occur in the story and classify each as a physical change or a chemical change. The instructions ask students to use red/blue. I just had them make a key so they could use the highlighter colors of their choice.

Sarah Carter

Sarah Carter teaches high school math in her hometown of Coweta, Oklahoma. She currently teaches AP Precalculus, AP Calculus AB, and Statistics. She is passionate about sharing creative and hands-on teaching ideas with math teachers around the world through her blog, Math = Love.