Best of... Chemical Reactions

Our best of series, published each week, collates our favourite and most popular resources for a particular topic.

This week: Chemical Reactions for year 8, 9, and 10 students studying Chemical Sciences.

Australian Curriculum Codes: ACSSU225, ACSSU178, ACSSU187

Year 8: “Chemical change involves substances reacting to form new substances”

identifying the differences between chemical and physical changes
identifying evidence that a chemical change has taken place

Year 9: “Chemical reactions involve rearranging atoms to form new substances; during a chemical reaction mass is not created or destroyed”

identifying reactants and products in chemical reactions
considering the role of energy in chemical reactions

Year 10: “Different types of chemical reactions are used to produce a range of products and can occur at different rates”

investigating how chemistry can be used to produce a range of useful substances such as fuels, metals and pharmaceuticals
using word or symbol equations to represent chemical reactions
investigating the effect of a range of factors, such as temperature and catalysts, on the rate of chemical reactions

Senior Secondary Sciences:

Unit 1: Chemical fundamentals: structure, properties and reactions

This resource may also be useful for students in Senior Secondary looking to secure their basic knowledge and understanding before digging deeper.

Each article should take around 5 minutes to read and activities should take approximately 10 minutes to complete.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this activity:

All must: Describe what a chemical reaction is, giving a simple example (ACSSU225)

Most should: On a particle level, describe what happens during a chemical reaction and state the law of conservation of mass during chemical reactions (ACSSU178)

Some could: Explain how rates of reactions can change and give examples of how this can be done (ACSSU187)

Consider which of the above learning outcomes you should be aiming for throughout this activity.