Name: __________________________________________________ Period: _____ Growth Goal: _____ Date:_________
Matter and Its Properties- Nonfiction Reading
Directions: In High School and beyond, you will need to be able to read textbooks in order to learn before you go to
class. The teachers will expect that you have done the reading, and you will not be able to do the classwork if you have
not read ahead of time. Reading nonfiction is a skill that is learned. The process will be the same every single time, but
the readings will get harder as the year goes on.
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Table Managers will read each section out loud and will guide the discussion to answer the CFU’s.
Skip the Stretch questions and only do those if you finish the reading early.
When answering questions, do not write the answer down until everyone agrees on an answer.
All answers need to be in complete sentences and include why you know that is the
answer.
Vocabulary:
Volume: The
amount of space
Look around you. You can see a variety of objects-books, desks, chairs, and perhaps trees or
an object occupies
buildings outside. All those things are made up of matter, but what exactly is matter? What
or takes up.
characteristics, or properties, make matter what it is? In this section, you will learn the answers to
Mass: The
these questions.
measure of the
amount of matter
Explaining what matter is involves finding properties that all matter has in common. That may
an object has.
seem hard, since matter takes on many different forms. As an example, let’s just take a look at one
Matter: Anything
object-a rock. The first thing you might notice is that the rock takes up space. In other words, it
that has mass and
has volume. Volume is the amount of space an object occupies. All matter has volume because all
takes up space.
matter takes up space. Another property of matter is mass. Some people confuse mass and
weight, but that is not accurate. Mass is actually the measure of the amount of matter, and is
taken in science using a triple beam balance or scale. Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space.
CFU: In the space below, draw a way to remember mass versus volume. (Hint: read the vocabulary box again!)
Stretch: Sometimes, an object can have a large volume but a small amount of mass. Think of an example of an object
like that are describe it below. Don’t forget to include how you know it has a large volume and a small amount of
mass!
Let’s look at an example. The chair you are sitting on takes up space. That
space is the volume of the chair. The chair also has a mass, which you could
measure with a scale. Since the chair takes up space and has mass, it is matter.
Matter can come in many forms. The building blocks of matter are atoms and
molecules, which we will be learning about this unit. An atom is the smallest
unit of an element that maintains the properties of that element. It is the
building block of everything in the universe. Atoms are so tiny that if you made
a tiny dot with the tip of a sharp pencil, that little dot would have about four
billion billion carbon atoms in it. An element, on the other hand, is a pure
substance that only has one type of atom. For example, a piece of pure gold
with no other metals mixed in is made up of all gold atoms. These atoms
combine into molecules, which can then form cells and everything around us!
For example, one atom of Oxygen and two atoms of Hydrogen come together
to form H2O, or a water molecule. When you put a whole bunch of water
molecules together, you eventually have enough to drink!
Name: __________________________________________________ Period: _____ Growth Goal: _____ Date:_________
Matter and Its Properties- Nonfiction Reading
CFU: In your own words, write the definition of an atom.
Stretch: A water molecule, H2O, has two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom. How many atoms of Carbon and
Oxygen would you expect CO2 to have?
Questions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences using academic language.
1.
Below each of the following words, draw a picture to help you remember the vocabulary word.
Volume
Mass
Matter
2. Look around the classroom and choose an object. Then, describe the properties of that object using the
vocabulary words volume, mass, and matter.
3. Gold is an element that is often used to make jewelry. Using the vocabulary words atom and element, describe
the composition (what it is made of) of the ring.
4. In the space below, draw a picture of the difference between an element and a compound.