Grade Levels: 6-8, 9-12

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Compounds and Mixtures Lesson Plan.

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Compounds and Mixtures, and supports the standard of analyzing the properties of substances. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students:

  • What do you think happens when you mix sugar and water?
  • What other examples of mixtures can you identify from real life?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

  • Read the description on the Compounds and Mixtures topic page.
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
  • Have students read one of the Related Reading articles. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Students take the Compounds and Mixtures Quiz, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about compounds and mixtures while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie: Produce a tutorial about compounds and mixtures that answers these questions: How are compounds made? How does this compare to making a mixture?
  • Make-a-Map: Create a concept map identifying examples of mixtures, and describing how they might become separated. 
  • Creative Coding: Code a learning game challenging players to sort compounds and mixtures by attributes, such as heterogeneous or homogeneous.

More to Explore 

Matter and Chemistry Unit: Continue to build understanding around matter and its interactions by exploring more BrainPOP topics.

Simulation: Concentration: ​​This game challenges players to experiment with saturation and concentration by adding a solute and adjusting water amounts.

Teacher Support Resources:

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments