ScienceMatter & MaterialsAges 11–12

How Materials Change State

Explain melting, freezing, boiling, condensing, and sublimation using the particle model, interpreting heating and cooling curves to identify melting and boiling points

Lesson

Set out your lesson

Practise the bounded task in How Materials Change State; see exact limits before inferring broader coverage.

Before teaching

Use this short check, then start teaching.

Activity

Can read temperature and time; this is a supplied-data lesson, with no heating or boiling activity.

Policy

Exact directed source edges retained; earlier authorship is not learner attainment.

Printer, credit, and teaching notes

Exact directed source edges retained; earlier authorship is not learner attainment.

Materials

These supplied stage cards
Scrap paper and pencil; oral/pointing response where appropriate

Sequence

Read readiness and decide on support without treating prerequisite authoring as learner readiness.
Open Show first and explain its model.
Use Guided Try with support and its separate adult key.
Close Show and guided keys before Try, unless this Try is explicitly supported.
Reflect on an actual attempt, including help used.

No Printer

Use the supplied screen cards; copying the exact task to paper is optional, not required.

Privacy

Use only invented scenarios and optional anonymous local notes. Do not request names, photos, family finances, medical data, accounts or uploads. Stop uncomfortable physical activity.

Use the complete materials on screen or print only the current sheet. Keep adult guidance out of learner view.

Next: Show

Share teaching feedback

Continue learning

Share and support

Family records and proof options

Keep a record of your learning

Save photos, notes, and attendance. Export a proof packet for compliance or portfolio reviews.

View learner plans ($12/mo per learner) See sample family archive

Learning resources

Extra practice links — they do not replace Gakuva’s teaching approach.

PhET Interactive Simulations · Practice link — not the full lesson

States of Matter: Basics

Open practice(new tab)

Before you open · source notes

States of Matter: Basics supports hands-on exploration for How Materials Change State. Not every lab worksheet.

Free interactive page, no sign-in required for the tested path.

Before you open

Ask the learner what they changed in the sim or page and what they observed.

Opening this link does not save learning or assess mastery.

Source, access and review notes

Public PhET Interactive Simulations page. An anonymous GET on 2026-11-12 returned HTTP 200 with no login or payment prompt for this URL. Opening the link does not save practice or assess mastery. An adult should preview and guide the learner.

PhET Interactive Simulations. “States of Matter: Basics.” External page; Gakuva does not copy, host, embed, or redistribute materials.

Unknown — link only

Check understanding

Describes what happens to particles during each change of state
Reads a heating/cooling curve and identifies the melting point and boiling point from the flat regions
Explains why temperature stays constant during a change of state
Distinguishes between evaporation (from surface, any temperature) and boiling (throughout liquid, at boiling point)

“If your child was heating a block of ice in a pan and drew a graph of temperature over time, could they explain why the line goes flat at certain points — and what's happening to the particles when it does?”

Curriculum record

Type: Conceptual
Subject: Science
Domain: Matter & Materials
Age range: Ages 11–12

Standards

uk-nc-2013:KS3.Sci.Chem.PNM.2uk-nc-2013:KS3.Sci.Chem.PNM.4

Curriculum