Reactants and Products

Lab Brief #1

🎯 Your mission

Set it up. Test it. Be amazed.

⚡ The twist

Mixing two safe things doesn't always make a safe thing.

What you'll learn

In a chemical reaction, substances called reactants are transformed into new substances called products. The total mass stays the same because atoms are rearranged, not created or destroyed.

Key words

chemical reaction
When substances mix and change into new substances.
reactant
A substance that changes during a chemical reaction.
product
A new substance made when a chemical reaction happens.

Make a hypothesis first

Predict: will the mixture get hotter, colder, or stay the same?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

vinegar
baking soda

⚠️ Safety first

Wear eye protection, keep the substance off skin, and wash your hands when you finish.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Look at the vocabulary words and write a definition for each in your own words.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Mix baking soda and vinegar in a sealed bag. Weigh the bag before and after. Did the mass change? Explain why or why not using the law of conservation of mass.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Watch carefully for any changes and note the time.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Create a data table to organize your measurements.

Question 1 of 3

What type of substance speeds up a chemical reaction without being used up?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 3

What does conservation of mass mean?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 3 of 3

What makes a physical change different from a chemical change?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🌈 Every color you see is your brain inventing a translation of light frequencies.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 3 right.

Next: Temperature and Particle Motion All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: This is happening in your kitchen right now — every time food cooks.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Find one ingredient in a snack and look up what it does.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “What's something we cook that mixes things together this way?”

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