Heating Curve of Water

Have students say what the particles are doing at each part of the heating curve before labeling it. Save Physical Science Vocabulary for the end of a unit, since its terms reach past matter into forces, energy and waves.

Label the solid, melting, liquid, boiling and gas parts of a graph, then read water's melting point. The directions on the page read: Read the text. Write the bank word for each lettered part of the graph on its line. Then answer questions 1 to 3 using the graph and text. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 6th Grade matter, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with states and properties of matter. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

Adding thermal energy makes the particles move faster. When a solid is heated enough, its particles break out of their fixed positions and it melts into a liquid.

On the flat parts, the water is changing state. The added energy pulls the particles apart instead of speeding them up, so the temperature stays the same until the change is finished.

Compare the temperature with the melting and boiling points. Below the melting point the substance is a solid, between the two it is a liquid, and above the boiling point it is a gas.

Sublimation is a solid changing straight into a gas, as dry ice does. Deposition is the reverse, a gas turning straight into a solid, which is how frost forms on a cold window.