What is physical science and why does it Matter?

What is physical science and why does it Matter?

Recently, I had read chapters 16, 17, and 18 in our Learning to Teach Science: a discovery approach, by   Donald DeRosa and Joesph Abruscato. These chapters went into detail about the world of physical science. Physical science covers the areas of chemistry, physics, and engineering. Chemistry explores the would of chemical reactions, atoms, and molecules. Physics explores the laws of motion, the forces of matter, and the behavior of energy. Engineering uses the theories and knowledge of both chemistry and physics to invent new things to improve people’s lives. At the basis of all physical sciences is matter. Matter makes up everything in the universe and it can never be created or destroyed, only change forms.  Matter can be found in three states, solid, liquid, or gas. All three forms matter have volume and density. Liquids and solids have a defined volume and liquids take the volume of the container it is in. All forms of matter can change through physical or chemical changes. Physical changes can go from solid to liquid, to gas, and back without changing the composition of the material. For example, if water freezes or evaporates, it is still made up of the elements H2O. Chemical changes occur when the composition of the material changes. For example, during photosynthesis, a plant takes in sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water and changes it into oxygen and glucose, which it uses for food. The oxygen and water physically combine to form two completely different chemical compounds. Chemical changes also occur when something is burned. The marshmallow starts out as sugar and when it is burned, water vapor is released and the marshmallow turns black. Unlike a physical change, a chemical change cannot be reversed.

Atoms are another crucial element in the world of physical science. Atoms are the smallest individual piece that any element can be broken into. Atoms are composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Each type of atom has a different number of each of these components which dictates what element the atom forms. For example, a hydrogen contains one proton where oxygen contains eight protons. This number cannot be changed, or the element itself would change. Elements that are the same can have variation, however, depending on how many neutrons the element has. These variations are called isotope.
All of these basic concepts are important for Engineers to understand. Making things like rocket ships, atomic bombs, or any inventions like cars that need fuel to run have chemical changes occurring in them. If an engineer does not understand which elements react with which other elements to get the desired reaction, then something can go catastrophically wrong.
When teaching physical science, I would implement experiments to show the students how changing the physical form of water does not change the water into another substance. I would also like to use slinkys to demonstrate how waves move. When it comes to elements, I would have the student each pick an element on the periodic table and create a collaborative VoiceThread in which the students share the components of the element to showcase what makes them the element that they are. The physical sciences were the hardest sciences for me as I got into high school and college. It will be very important for me to familiarize myself with the content before teaching it to my students. Teaching someone else helps the person learn the material more completely themselves, so I am sure I will become an expert by the time I teach. A jigsaw activity would also be a very useful tool to help the students learn about the different elements and forms of matter because of the same concept. It turns out physical science Matters a lot!