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Atom Models in the Sports Science Lab

Grade 7 physical science: use ball-and-rod models of water, CO₂, glucose and a salt crystal to compare molecules with extended structures.

Grade 7ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-PS1-1

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
11 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 7
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students use models to count and describe the atoms in simple molecules.
Students use a crystal model to explain how extended structures repeat and keep a fixed ratio of atoms.

How to use

Works well alongside a molecule model kit: have students build Model A and one corner of the salt cube before they start.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-PS1-1

Model the atoms in simple molecules and in extended structures such as crystals.

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Atom Models in the Sports Science Lab

Model the atoms in simple molecules and in extended structures such as crystals and metals.

Molecule models

Read the passage and study Table 1. Then answer the questions.

What Is Sports Gear Made Of?

1The sports science lab at Brookfield Junior High tests gear and drinks for the school's teams. This week, the lab's student assistants, Kenji, Lucía and Andre, looked at matter on a much smaller scale. Every substance in the lab, from the water in a squeeze bottle to the aluminum in a baseball bat, is made of atoms. To show how the atoms are arranged, the students built models from a kit of colored foam balls and short plastic connectors.

2Each color stands for one kind of atom: black for carbon (C), red for oxygen (O), white for hydrogen (H), purple for sodium (Na) and green for chlorine (Cl). Each connector stands for a bond that links two atoms. A chemical formula lists the kinds of atoms in a substance, and a small number after a symbol tells how many of that atom there are. For example, the formula for ammonia, NH₃, means one nitrogen atom joined to three hydrogen atoms.

3Some substances are made of molecules. A molecule is a small, separate group of atoms joined together. A sample of a substance such as water contains a huge number of identical molecules, each with the same atoms joined in the same way.

4Other substances form extended structures. Instead of small separate groups, the atoms are joined in a pattern that repeats in every direction for as far as the sample goes. A grain of table salt, sodium chloride, is a crystal in which sodium and chlorine atoms take turns in a cube-shaped pattern. A bigger grain is not a different kind of unit; it simply has more repeats of the same pattern. Metals, such as the aluminum in a bat, are extended structures too, and so are the sheets of linked carbon atoms in the carbon fiber used in many racket and bicycle frames.

5The students built the five molecule models in Table 1. Then they built a salt crystal model shaped like a cube: 4 balls long, 4 balls wide and 4 balls high, with purple and green balls taking turns along every row and column.