NGSS Resource Hub
Three-dimensional breakdowns, phenomenon ideas, misconceptions, and engagement activities for every NGSS standard.
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5th Grade NGSS Standards
Pick any standard. Each page is your full lesson-planning workspace for that standard.
Formation of New Substances: When Mixing Two Things Makes Something Brand New
"Conduct an investigation to determine whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances."
The official NGSS lists no Clarification Statement for this standard.
The official NGSS lists no Assessment Boundary for this standard.
The three dimensions packed into this standard
Every standard bundles a DCI (the content), a SEP (the science practice), and a CCC (the crosscutting lens). They run in the same task, not in sequence.
"When two or more different substances are mixed, a new substance with different properties may be formed."
Mix two things and sometimes you just get a blend, like sand in water. Other times something new shows up: bubbles fizz, the cup gets cold, or a solid forms out of two liquids. 5th graders test mixtures and watch the properties. If the new stuff acts different from what they started with, a new substance formed.
"Conduct an investigation collaboratively to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence, using fair tests in which variables are controlled and the number of trials considered."
5th graders don't just watch a demo. They run the test themselves, in a group, and keep it fair. Same amount each time, same cups, only one thing changed. They mix it more than once so a weird result doesn't fool them. The data they record becomes the evidence.
"Cause and effect relationships are routinely identified and used to explain change."
Here's the thinking 5th graders carry out the door: a change has a cause. The fizzing didn't just happen. It happened BECAUSE two certain substances mixed. They point to the cause (mixing baking soda and vinegar) and connect it to the effect (bubbles and a new substance), then use that link to explain what they saw.
📍 Where This Standard Fits in the K-12 Progression
Use this to plan the year. Knowing what students should already know and what they're heading toward keeps the lesson focused.
In 2nd grade students argued from evidence that some heating and cooling changes can be reversed, like melting and freezing, and some cannot, like cooking an egg. They have not yet tested whether mixing two substances makes something brand new.
Formation of New Substances: When Mixing Two Things Makes Something Brand New
In middle school, students analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after they interact to decide if a chemical reaction occurred. They move from "is it new?" to comparing measured properties as evidence of a reaction.
🌎 Phenomena for 5-PS1-4
Anchor the lesson in one puzzling phenomenon kids keep coming back to. Use the two investigative phenomena to sharpen specific facets.
The Cup That Bubbled, Got Cold, and Made Something New
Pour one clear liquid into another clear liquid and nothing happens. Pour a white powder into a different liquid and it foams up, overflows, and the cup turns cold to the touch. Both times you mixed two things, but one mixing made a brand new substance and the other didn't. 5th graders will want to know what's different about the second one.
"Why does mixing some substances make something totally new, while mixing others just gives you a blend?"
- "What made the cup get cold when nothing was heating it?"
- "Is the foam a brand new substance, or is it just the powder and liquid stirred up?"
- "How can we tell when mixing made something new and when it didn't?"
Baking Soda Meets Vinegar
Drop a spoon of baking soda into a cup of vinegar and it erupts with fizzing bubbles. Run it again with the same amounts and it fizzes the same way every time. This sharpens the anchor's big question: the bubbles are a gas that wasn't there before, so a new substance formed. The fizzing is the evidence.
"Where do the bubbles come from, and does that mean a new substance was made?"
- "What is the gas inside the bubbles, and was it in either cup before we mixed?"
- "If we use the same amount every time, do we get the same fizzing?"
- "How do we know the bubbles aren't just air that was already in there?"
Salt in Water: New Substance or Just a Blend?
Stir salt into a cup of warm water until it disappears. It looks like the salt is gone, but let the water dry out and white salt crystals come right back, so nothing new formed. Comparing this to the fizzing cup helps 5th graders see that dissolving is not the same as making a new substance.
"When the salt seems to disappear in the water, did it turn into something new or is it still salt?"
- "If the salt is gone, why does it come back when the water dries up?"
- "Did any bubbles, heat, or color change happen when we stirred it in?"
- "How is this different from the cup that fizzed and got cold?"
⚠️ Misconceptions Your Students Will Walk In With
These come up almost every year. Knowing them in advance lets you head them off in the first lesson.
"Any time you mix two things together, you always make a new substance."
Not true. Mixing sand into water, or stirring marbles into rice, just makes a blend you could separate again. A new substance only forms when the result has different properties, like fizzing, heat, a color change, or a new solid. 5th graders judge by the properties, not by the act of mixing.
"When salt dissolves in water, the salt turns into a new substance and is gone forever."
The salt only seems to disappear. It's still salt, just spread out so small you can't see it. Let the water evaporate and the salt crystals come right back. Dissolving is not the same as forming a new substance, because the salt never changed its properties.
"If a mixture gets cold or warm, that's just from the room or the water temperature."
A real temperature change during mixing is a clue that a new substance is forming. When baking soda meets vinegar, the cup gets colder all by itself, with nothing in the room cooling it. That heat change is evidence a reaction is happening, not just the room.
"The bubbles in a fizzing mixture are just air that was already trapped in the cup."
The bubbles are a brand new gas made when the two substances react, not leftover air. You can prove it: the fizzing keeps going long after any trapped air would be gone, and it only happens when those two specific substances mix. That new gas is a sign a new substance formed.
🙋 Common Student Questions and How to Respond
These come up almost every time this standard gets taught. Plan a response and you'll keep the lesson focused.
Don't hand it to them. Ask, "What's different now that wasn't there before you mixed?" Push them to name a property: bubbles, heat, cold, a new color, a new solid. If they can point to a changed property, a new substance formed. If it just looks stirred together, it didn't.
Great question to slow down on. Ask them to dry out the salt water and watch the salt return. "Did the salt change, or did it just hide?" Steer them to see that dissolving spreads the salt out but keeps it salt. No new properties means no new substance.
Resist explaining the chemistry. Ask, "Did anything in the room make it cold, or did the cold come from the mixing?" Let them realize the temperature change is its own clue. A change in heat with nothing heating or cooling it is evidence that a new substance is forming.
In 5th grade we don't put a number on the new substance itself. We use evidence instead, and 5th graders CAN measure the clues. Have them time how long it fizzes, measure how high the foam rises, or check the temperature before and after. Those measurements become the data.
📚 Vocabulary Students Need for 5-PS1-4
The terms students need to access this standard. Definitions in plain-English, classroom-ready language.
💡 Free Engagement Ideas for 5-PS1-4
Mix-It Mystery Stations
Set up four stations, each with two substances to mix: baking soda and vinegar, salt and water, cornstarch and water, sand and water. Groups mix each pair, record what they observe in a chart, and sort them into "made a new substance" or "just a blend." A hands-on way for 5th graders to test for new substances. Teacher note: cornstarch and water is a "just a blend" case. It is a suspension you can dry back out to recover the cornstarch, and its weird thick-then-runny feel is a physical property of the mixture, not a new substance.
Fizz Timer Fair Test
Groups mix baking soda and vinegar using the exact same amounts each time, then time how long the fizzing lasts across three trials. Because the amounts stay the same, the only thing they're checking is whether the result repeats. A clean way to practice fair tests and multiple trials.
Bring the Salt Back
5th graders dissolve salt in warm water, then pour a thin layer onto a dark plate and set it in a sunny window to evaporate. Days later, the salt crystals reappear. They use this to prove dissolving did NOT make a new substance, since the salt came back unchanged.
New-Substance Evidence Poster
Using the data from the labs above, groups build a poster that makes a claim about one mixture ("mixing baking soda and vinegar made a new substance") and backs it with their own evidence: the clues they observed and a labeled drawing of before and after. Turns their data into a cause-and-effect explanation.
📝 Assessment Ideas for 5-PS1-4
Three short tasks that hit all three dimensions. Doable in one class period each.
Give 5th graders a data table showing what happened when four pairs of substances were mixed (one fizzed and got cold, one dissolved, one changed color, one just settled). They sort each into "new substance formed" or "no new substance," and for each one name the property that proves it. Mirrors analyzing data and using it as the basis for evidence.
5th graders write a plan to test whether mixing two specific substances makes a new one. Their plan must keep the amounts the same, change only one thing, and include more than one trial. Checks whether they understand controlled variables and repeated trials, not just the result.
Show a photo of a fizzing, overflowing cup of baking soda and vinegar. 5th graders write a short explanation naming the cause (mixing the two substances) and the effect (a new gas formed) and state what evidence shows a new substance was made. No new lab needed, just cause-and-effect reasoning.
🎯 What Proficient Student Work Looks Like
Same prompt, three student responses at different proficiency levels. Use as anchor papers when scoring.
"Use evidence from your investigation to explain whether mixing baking soda and vinegar made a new substance."
- A specific claim backed by data or observation
- Use of standard-specific vocabulary in context
- Connection between what students observe and the underlying science idea
- A question they're still wondering about (curiosity stays alive)
"I mixed the baking soda and the vinegar and it bubbled a lot. There were bubbles everywhere. I think it made something new because it did stuff."
Notices the bubbling, which is the right clue, but stops at "it did stuff." Doesn't name the new substance as a gas or tie the cause to the effect. No data from the trials and no clear evidence.
"When I mixed the baking soda into the vinegar it started fizzing and the cup got cold. The bubbles are a new gas that wasn't in either cup before. We ran it three times and it fizzed every time. This shows mixing them made a new substance because it had new properties."
Names two clues (fizzing gas and the cold cup), points out the gas wasn't there before, and mentions running multiple trials. Connects the mixing to a new substance using properties. Exactly what the standard asks a 5th grader to do.
"Mixing the baking soda and vinegar made a new substance. My evidence is that it fizzed for about 20 seconds every trial and the cup dropped from warm to cold, and neither of those happened before we mixed. The cause was putting the two substances together, and the effect was a new gas forming, because the bubbles weren't air, they kept coming long after the air would be gone. The salt water just dissolved and came back, so that one didn't make a new substance."
Backs the claim with a measured time and a temperature change across trials, names the cause and effect clearly, and rules out the "it's just air" idea. Even contrasts it with the salt water test. Reaches the cause-and-effect concept and uses real data without being asked.