Rough Guide to Gas
The materials in this resource are aimed at teachers of 9-11 year olds. The activities build on units of work on rocks and soils, solids liquids and gases, and the properties and chances of materials. The activities are set in the context of natural gas, and how it is prepared for commercial and domestic markets. In the first activity the children create a display of the route natural gas follows from underground extraction and storage in a reservoir, to treatment for use in heating and electricity production. Subsequent activities focus on each part of this route, identifying the scientific features of the different phases.
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How do we get gas?
Science topic: States of matter
Type of enquiry: Problem solving
Keywords: Y5, states of matter, gas, present, secondary sources, research, reporting
Children create a wall display showing how natural gas is stored and piped to the mainland for domestic use. This activity sets the scene for all subsequent activities.
What is a gas?
Science topic: States of matter
Type of enquiry: Observing changes over time
Keywords: Y5, states of matter, solid, liquid, gas, pressure, investigation, observe, precise measurements
Identifying gases in everyday settings and the creation of canister rockets to understand how gas expands when it is produced.a
Reservoirs
Science topic: Materials
Type of enquiry: Comparative/fair tests
Keywords: Y5, materials, states of matter, change of state, solid, liquid, gas, absorbent, porous, reversible, non-reversible, dissolve, solution, soluble, insoluble, compare, fair test, precise measurements
Investigating the absorbency and the porous nature of different materials which could be used to store natural gas in the reservoir.
Pipeline shapes
Science topic: States of matter
Type of enquiry: Problem solving
Keywords: Y5, materials, states of matter, gas, pressure, STEM, problem solving
Investigating the effects of pressure on a range of pipe shapes.
Sinking pipelines
Science topic: Materials
Type of enquiry: Problem solving
Keywords: Y5, materials, states of matter, solid, liquid, gas, mass, volume, STEM
Exploration of materials which could be used to keep a pipe on the sea bed.
Separation
Science topic: Materials
Type of enquiry: Problem solving
Keywords: Y5, materials, states of matter, solid, liquid, gas, separate, filter, heat, evaporate, precise measurements
Using different techniques to separate solids, liquids and gases from each other.
Designing safety wear
Science topic: Materials
Type of enquiry: Problem solving
Keywords: Y5, materials, states of matter, gas, problem solving, STEM, data loggers, precise measurements
Investigating types of protective equipment, and collecting data using data loggers. Designing new equipment using appropriate materials. This is a standalone activity and could be carried out at any point in the sequence, or completely independently.
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Supported by Centrica Storage.