Changes in Matter Activity: 8 Hands-On Stations for Teaching Physical and Chemical Changes (TEKS 7.6C)

Chris Kesler · 8 min read

Bring a single banana into class. Cut it in half on the front desk while everyone watches. Ask the class: physical or chemical change? Easy. Physical. Now leave the banana on the desk for three days. Same banana. Now it's brown, mushy, and smells like the inside of a trash can. Ask again: physical or chemical change? Now the room splits. Half the kids say physical because "it's the same banana." The other half say chemical because "it smells different now." Both groups are guessing.

The trick to physical vs. chemical changes isn't the rules. The trick is getting kids to actually test against the rules instead of going with their gut. Did the size, shape, or state change? Or did new substances form? Was there light, heat, sound, gas, color change, or a smell? You can teach those rules in five minutes. Getting them to apply the rules under pressure takes practice with real materials.

The Changes in Matter Station Lab for TEKS 7.6C is that practice. In one to two class periods, kids crush sugar cubes in plastic bags (and weigh before and after), watch ice cubes melt in beakers, and react baking soda with vinegar inside a balloon to inflate it. Three real reactions, three rule applications. By the end, they don't just know the definitions. They can pick up an apple that's started to rot and tell you exactly why it's a chemical change.

⏱ 1–2 class periods 📓 7th Grade Science 🧪 TEKS 7.6C 🎯 Built-in differentiation 💻 Print or Digital

8 hands-on stations for teaching physical and chemical changes

A station lab is a student-led activity where small groups rotate through 8 stations (plus a 9th challenge station for early finishers) at their own pace during one to two class periods. You walk around the room and check that the kid who's about to label "melting ice" as a chemical change can actually defend that answer with the rules.

The Changes in Matter Station Lab has four input stations (where students take in new info on the difference between physical and chemical changes, what stays the same and what's new) and four output stations (where they show what they learned). Here's what's at each one.

📷 Image slot 1 — add screenshot

📷 Image slot 2 — add screenshot

4 input stations: how students learn changes in matter

🎬 Watch It! —

A short YouTube video introduces physical and chemical changes. Three questions follow: why are melting ice, breaking glass, and chopping wood examples of physical changes; why are burning wood, fireworks exploding, and bread baking examples of chemical changes; and why can physical changes sometimes be undone or reversed? The reversibility question is the one that catches kids who think "chemical = bigger change" instead of focusing on whether new substances are formed.

📖 Read It! —

A one-page passage called "Physical and Chemical Changes in Matter" walks through the two categories using ripping paper, melting ice, burning wood, and digesting food as examples. Three multiple-choice questions follow plus five vocabulary words to define (matter, odor, physical change, chemical change, composition). The digestion example is the sneaky one. Most kids think eating is just physical, but the passage flags that the stomach breaks food into new, simpler substances. Comes in two reading levels (Dependent and Modified) plus a Spanish version.

🔬 Explore It! —

This is the heart of the lab. Three real activities. Activity 1: Put three sugar cubes in a sealed plastic bag, weigh them, then crush them with books and weigh again. The mass doesn't change... physical. Activity 2: Put three different sized ice cubes in each of three beakers, set a 10-minute timer, sketch what's left. Physical (state change). Activity 3: Put 30 g of baking soda in a balloon, stretch it over a bottle of 100 mL vinegar, lift the balloon so the soda falls in. The balloon inflates, gas is released, the bottle gets cold. Chemical. Three reactions, three different rule applications, all in one station rotation.

💻 Research It! —

Students examine 14 reference cards: definitions of physical and chemical changes, plus 10 image cards (a crushed soda can, a shattered green bottle, a rotting apple, a rusted-out car in the desert, burning logs, fresh bread baking, a melting ice cube, an egg cracking, a kid splitting wood with a saw, a paper shredder, a fried egg in a pan, fireworks). They pick three physical-change images and explain how they fit, then pick three chemical-change images and do the same. The rusted car catches the kid who thinks "if it's old it's chemical" without explaining why iron + oxygen = rust is a new substance.

📷 Featured station deep-dive — add screenshot of the Explore It! task card

4 output stations: how students show what they learned

📋 Organize It! —

A two-column card sort. Kids sort cards into Physical Change (composition is unchanged, does not form new substances, may change size/shape/state, plus a chopping vegetables image and a shattered terracotta pot) versus Chemical Change (composition is changed, forms new substances, produces light/heat/sound/color change/odor, plus an explosion image and a row of decomposing apples). Spot-check it as you walk by. The kid who put "changes in color" in the physical column probably needs a quick chat about why a fresh apple turning brown isn't just a color change... it's the apple being broken down by oxygen.

🎨 Illustrate It! —

Students sketch two transformations of the same wooden log. One sketch labeled "physical" (the log cut into smaller pieces, or split with an axe, or sanded smooth). One sketch labeled "chemical" (the log on fire with smoke and ash). Same starting matter, two completely different outcomes. The contrast locks in that physical changes preserve the original substance and chemical changes destroy it.

✍️ Write It! —

Three open-ended prompts: name the two main changes matter can go through and how they're different, explain why chemical changes can be permanent but physical changes can usually be reversed, and provide evidence that a decomposing apple is a chemical change (not physical). The third question is the killer. The kid who keeps thinking "new color = physical change to look" can't explain it. The kid who got it right says "the apple is being broken down into new substances by bacteria... that's why it smells different too."

📝 Assess It! —

Three multiple-choice questions plus a fill-in-the-paragraph that uses all five Read It! vocabulary words (matter, physical change, composition, chemical change, odor). The paragraph reads like a quick story about water and burning wood: "___ can go through two main types of changes... a physical change does NOT change the ___ of the matter... if you burn a piece of wood, new substances are formed... it produces a smell or ___." If you're grading the lab, this is the easiest station to grade.

Bonus Challenge It! station for early finishers

🏆 Challenge It! —

Four optional extensions: the Naked Egg Challenge (observe an egg that's been soaking in vinegar for several days; the shell dissolves, exposing the membrane), a Venn diagram comparing physical and chemical changes, a yeast + hydrogen peroxide reaction with a thermometer to test for heat, or a vocabulary crossword puzzle (paper or online) using at least 10 lesson terms. The naked egg one is the showstopper. Requires teacher approval before they start.

How this fits into a complete physical and chemical changes unit

This Station Lab is the Explore day of our full Changes in Matter Complete 5E Lesson for TEKS 7.6C. The complete two-week unit follows the 5E method of instruction and includes an Engage hook, the Changes in Matter Station Lab for Explore, PowerPoint slides and interactive notebook pages for Explain, student choice projects to Elaborate, and an Evaluate assessment.

Most teachers grab the full 5E because the Station Lab is most effective when it sits between the Engage hook and the Explain day. But if you just need a strong hands-on day on physical and chemical changes, the Station Lab on its own does the job.

Two options

Full 5E Lesson $13.20 Get the 5E Lesson

Just the Station Lab $7.20 Get the Station Lab

Materials needed to teach changes in matter

Materials beyond what's in the download:

Sugar cubes (about 3 per group rotation, plus extras) for the Explore It! Activity 1.
Resealable plastic bags (sandwich-sized work fine) for crushing the sugar cubes.
A digital scale that reads to at least 1 gram. One per Explore It! station works.
Three beakers and ice cubes in three sizes (small, medium, large) for Activity 2. Plastic cups work in a pinch.
Baking soda (about 30 g per group), white vinegar (100 mL per group), balloons, empty plastic bottles, and a small funnel for Activity 3. The classic baking soda + vinegar reaction.
Books for crushing the sugar cubes (textbooks work).
Colored pencils or markers for the Illustrate It! station.
Pencils and the printed answer sheets (included)
A device with internet for the Watch It! station
Optional for Challenge It!: a raw egg soaked in vinegar for several days (the Naked Egg Challenge), yeast, hydrogen peroxide, and a thermometer.

Standard covered: Texas TEKS 7.6C —

Distinguish between physical and chemical changes in matter. Supporting Standard.

See the full standard breakdown →

Grade level: 7th grade physical science

Time: One to two class periods (45–110 minutes total). Plan for two periods the first time you run a station lab. The Explore It! station has three real activities, so it takes the longest.

Common student misconceptions this lab fixes

"If something looks really different after a change, it must be a chemical change."
Kids treat dramatic = chemical and small = physical. So they say crushing sugar cubes (which makes a big visible mess) is chemical. Or melting an ice cube into a puddle is chemical because "the ice is gone." The Explore It! Activity 1 demolishes this. Kids weigh the sealed bag of sugar cubes, crush them, and weigh again. Same mass. Same substance. Just smaller pieces. The sugar didn't go anywhere, even though it looks completely different. Activity 2 (melting ice) hits the same point with a state change.
"Burning is the only chemical change."
Kids associate "chemical change" with fire and explosions. Anything quieter doesn't count. So decomposing food, rusting metal, and bread rising are all classed as physical because nothing's on fire. The Research It! cards fix this. Among the chemical-change examples are a rotting apple, a rusted car in the desert, an egg cracking and frying in a pan, and bread baking in the oven. None of those involve fire, and all of them produce new substances. The Write It! Card 3 (decomposing apple) catches the kids who still missed it.
"If a change can't be undone, it must be chemical. If it can be undone, it must be physical."
This is mostly true, but the rule cuts the wrong direction. Kids hear it and reverse it: "I can't unbreak this glass, so breaking glass must be chemical." The Read It! passage and the Watch It! video both clarify: physical changes are MOSTLY reversible, but the test isn't reversibility. The test is whether new substances were formed. Broken glass shards can be melted and re-poured. The composition (silicon dioxide) didn't change. The Organize It! card sort places "shattered terracotta pot" in the physical column for exactly this reason.

What you get with this changes in matter activity

📷 Inside-the-product — add screenshot of Read It passage or sample answer sheet

When you buy the Station Lab, you get a single download with everything you need:

Print version at two reading levels (Dependent for on-grade, Modified for additional support) plus a Spanish Read It! passage
Digital version as PowerPoint files (works in Google Slides too) at both levels — for 1:1 classrooms or Google Classroom
Teacher Directions and Answer Key for both versions, all keys included
Station task cards ready to print, laminate, and drop in baskets at each station
Reference cards for the Research It! station (definitions plus 10 image cards covering physical and chemical changes)
Sort cards for the Organize It! station (the two-column physical vs. chemical sort)
Activity worksheets for the Explore It! station (Activity 2 ice-cube beakers and Activity 3 balloon-bottle observations)
Student answer sheets for each level

No login required. Download once, use forever. Reprint as many times as you want.

Tips for teaching changes in matter in your 7th grade classroom

Two things make this lab go smoother the first time:

1. Pre-measure the baking soda and vinegar.

For Activity 3, pre-measure 30 g of baking soda into small cups and 100 mL of vinegar into squeeze bottles before class. Otherwise kids spend half the rotation trying to figure out the funnel. The reaction itself is fast and dramatic, but the setup eats time. If your scale is slow, a kid will stand there waiting for it to settle while their group does nothing. Pre-measure once and the rotation moves.

2. Use the same balloon and bottle multiple times if you can.

If you have one balloon-and-bottle setup per group and you teach 6 periods, that's 6 balloons. The reaction makes the balloon stretch out, but it doesn't pop. Just rinse the bottle, refill with vinegar, refill the balloon with baking soda, repeat. One set lasts a full day across all your periods. Save them for next year.

Get this changes in matter activity

Changes in Matter Station Lab for 7th grade physical science — TEKS 7.6C

Buy the Station Lab — $7.20

Or if you want the full two-week experience with the Engage hook, Explain day, Elaborate extension, and Evaluate assessment all included:

Buy the full 5E Complete Lesson — $13.20

(Station Lab is included)

Frequently asked questions

What does TEKS 7.6C cover?

Texas TEKS 7.6C asks 7th grade students to distinguish between physical and chemical changes in matter. By the end of the lab, students should be able to look at any change (cutting, melting, burning, rusting, dissolving, baking, decomposing) and apply the test: did the composition change and were new substances formed (chemical), or did only the size, shape, or state change while the substance stayed the same (physical)?

How is a chemical change different from a physical change?

A physical change alters the size, shape, or state of matter without changing what the matter is made of (its composition). Crushing a sugar cube, melting an ice cube, or ripping a piece of paper. The substance is unchanged. A chemical change creates new substances. Burning wood (which becomes ash and gas), rusting metal (iron + oxygen makes rust), or decomposing food. Chemical changes often release light, heat, sound, gases, or odors, and they're usually permanent.

How long does this changes in matter activity take?

One to two class periods (45 to 110 minutes total). The Explore It! station with three real activities (sugar crush, ice melt, baking soda + vinegar balloon) is the longest, so plan for two periods the first time you run a station lab. Once your class has the routine down, most groups can finish all 8 stations in one period.

Do I need to provide my own materials?

Yes, but most are pantry items. Sugar cubes, plastic bags, ice cubes, baking soda, white vinegar, balloons, empty plastic bottles, and a small funnel. A digital scale is needed for Activity 1. Total cost for a class of 30: under $20 if you don't already have these supplies. The Watch It! station also needs a device with internet.

Can I use this in a 1:1 digital classroom?

Yes. The full digital version (PowerPoint or Google Slides) works in 1:1 classrooms and Google Classroom. The hands-on Explore It! activities (sugar crush, ice melt, balloon reaction) are usually kept as the one physical center kids rotate through, with the rest run digitally. Or use a teacher demo for Activity 3 if you don't have enough materials for groups.