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High School Physical ScienceUnit 4SPS5.a–b

States of Matter

Solids, liquids, gases, and plasma — and the invisible particle dance behind all of them.

The puffed-up chip bag.

A hiker buys a sealed bag of chips in Atlanta (about 300 m above sea level) and drives up to a trailhead at 1,800 m. The bag is puffed up tight like a balloon. Meanwhile, a sealed water bottle left in a cold car overnight is crumpled and caved in. Same air inside each container the whole time. So what changed?

Start: What Do You Already Know? → Explore on your own ↓
7activities
14new words
3parts
∞replays — new every time
Open world

Explore

Jump in anywhere, in any order. Every activity reshuffles each time you play, so there's always something new. You earn kilopascals for every right answer.

Think about it

Big questions to wonder about

By the end of this unit, you'll be able to answer every one of these.

What could push a sealed chip bag outward from the inside if nothing was added?

Why does a sealed bottle cave inward on a cold night?

Why does the temperature of ice water stay stuck at 0 °C while it's being heated?

Why is plasma — not solid, liquid, or gas — the most common state of ordinary matter in the universe?

Vocabulary

Word Wall

The 14 words you'll own by the end of this unit. Tap any card to flip it. Words you collect in the activities get a ✓.

The road ahead

Unit Roadmap

Three parts, in the order we'll learn them.

1

Part 1: Kinetic Molecular Theory & the Four States

  • Particles are always moving
  • Solid, liquid, gas & plasma models
  • Plasma: the forgotten state
SPS5.a
2

Part 2: Phase Changes & Heating Curves

  • The six phase changes
  • Evaporation vs. boiling
  • Why the heating curve flatlines
SPS5.a
3

Part 3: Gas Laws: Pressure, Volume & Temperature

  • What gas pressure is
  • Boyle's law (P₁V₁ = P₂V₂)
  • Charles's law — in Kelvin
  • Gas density
SPS5.b
Where we're headed

Learning Targets & Success Criteria

Learning Targets

I am learning to…

  • Identify the similarities and differences between the particle arrangement and motion in solids, liquids, gases and plasma
  • Identify the relationships between temperature, pressure, volume and density of gases in closed systems
Success Criteria

I will be successful when I can…

  • Compare and contrast particle models and speeds of particle movement for the states of matter
  • Understand that temperature does not change during a change of phase
  • Perform an investigation to explain how changes in variables (temperature, pressure, volume, density) affect particle movement in gases
Georgia Standards of Excellence

Standards

SPS5

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to compare and contrast the phases of matter as they relate to atomic and molecular motion.

SPS5.a

Ask questions to compare and contrast models depicting the particle arrangement and motion in solids, liquids, gases, and plasmas.

SPS5.b

Plan and carry out investigations to identify the relationships among temperature, pressure, volume, and density of gases in closed systems.

Watch

One-minute videos

Quick previews from Simple Science Videos.

States of Matter

SPS5.a

Heating Curves

SPS5.a
More on Tobin Science

Keep going

Free activities for this unit that go deeper.

States of Matter practice