Summary
Did you know that if you break down a grain of salt, its ingredients are toxic and explosive? Almost everything around us is a combination of different ingredients. Mixtures are combinations of more than one different substance. They come in two types: homogenous and heterogenous mixtures. Heterogenous mixtures, like a fruit salad, are much easier to un-mix, since you can pick out the different parts. On the other hand, homogenous mixtures, like orange juice, are so thoroughly blended that you can no longer see individual substances. If you were to take one part of a mixture and break it down until it's as tiny as possible, then you'd have an atom. Those are the basic building blocks of elements, which come in over a hundred types. When two or more types of elements chemically bond together, they form a compound. Chemical changes like this create new substances, both in nature and in the lab. Press “play” to learn more about the building blocks of, well, everything!
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
A few questions to talk through after watching Compounds and Mixtures:
- What is one new thing you learned about compounds and mixtures?
- Can you explain it to a partner in your own words?
- Where might you see this in the real world?
- What is one question you still have?
Quick work-a-long
Try it:
- Write one sentence explaining compounds and mixtures.
- Draw or give one example of your own.