Heating and Cooling Materials/teaching approach

In this inquiry-based lesson plan, students devise a ‘fair way’ to compare (mostly) physical changes in materials such as cheese and chocolate. They ask and answer questions about how to heat the materials and about using materials of the same size and shape. They also predict how substances may change and observe what actually happens. The purpose of the lesson is to both support year 2 work on changing materials and to develop students’ ideas about ‘fair tests’. The activity thus offers an opportunity to assess how well students plan a test and how well they observe change.