CRISANTO T.

GARZON,MAED SCIENCE
REFERENCE: http://www.ul.ie/chainreaction/sites/default/files/Sample%20Lesson
%20Plan%20using%20a%20Scientific%20Inquiry%20Approac1.pdfDate: 30/01/2014
Topic: Acids and Bases
Previous knowledge/experience: In the previous lesson students would have been given an
introduction to acids and bases with students learning a number of examples of acids and bases
and being informed of the fact that some acids and bases are harmful and some are not. Even
though they do know of specific examples of acids and bases, they do not know how they would
test whether an unknown substance is an acid or a base. They would also not know how to test
whether an acid or a base is harmful or not.

Impact of previous lesson: students had significant prior knowledge of acids in terms of
examples of acids. They did however require a lot of probing to come up with examples of
bases. Some students struggled with the idea that some acids/bases could be harmful and
questioned how someone would know if an acid or a base was harmful. Therefore todays
lesson nicely leads on to this as the students will begin learning about the pH scale. This will be
finished in the next lesson with a discussion on the pH of water and neutralisation.

Aim(s) of lesson:
To develop students awareness of how one can test whether a substance is an acid or a base
To expand on the topic of acids and bases by delving deeper into the levels of acidity and
basicity using the pH scale.
Objectives and Assessment
Aim
Objectives: Students will
Assessment

1
Design and conduct an investigation to test whether
Whole group discussion and
substances are acids or bases
teacher observation

List examples of acids and bases

Lab copies and questioning

Define the purpose of an indicator

Lab Copies and questioning

2
Develop an investigation to test out the
Whole group discussion and
acidity/basicity of varying substances
feedback from teacher

Use a pH scale to determine whether a substance is a

Lab copies and questioning
strong/weak acid or base

Work in groups to carry out the investigation

Observation by teacher

Subject matter:
The lesson will focus on defining what an indicator is used for together with using litmus
paper to identify whether a variety of substances are acids or bases. The next part of the
lesson will look at the strength of acidity/basicity of substances. Whilst investigations will be
carried out concurrently, the remaining part of the lesson will focus on a discussion on
indicators and the pH scale separately.
Resources:
Examples of acids (vinegar, lemon juice, dilute HCL) and bases (Soap, Soda Water, dilute
sodium hydroxide), beakers, droppers, litmus paper, universal indicator paper, acetate, OHP,
whiteboard

Organisation of lesson
Time
Teacher activity
Student activity
2 mins

Asks students a number of questions

Students answer questions individually
to recap on the material covered in
when prompted to by the teacher
the previous lesson.

Possible questions:

What is an acid?

What is a base?

Recap of the Previous Lesson

Name one interesting thing we said

about an acid?

What are examples of acids?

What are examples of bases?

The teacher now informs students that

Students take out their lab copies and note
what the lesson will focus on today
in todays lesson they will be asked to

design investigations around the

testing of whether substances are

acids/bases and how acidic or basic

they are.

5 minutes

Teacher begins a group discussion and

scaffolds students to consider what research
question will drive the investigations. The
teacher puts the possible questions on the
board and refines the questions with the
help of the students. The research questions
should resemble the following:

Formulation of the research question

instructed to by the teacher, give their views on
what research questions will revolve around
this investigation. The students use their prior
learning from the previous lesson to help them
establish a research question.

1. How can we test a substance to see if it

is an acid or a base?
2. How do we know if some substances
are stronger acids
or bases?
Students put up their hands and when

Students take note of the accepted research

questions in their lab copies.
8 minutes
Designing Investigation
will be used.

The teacher shows the students a number

of pieces of apparatus and substances
(these include equipment that can be used
in the investigations and some Red
Herrings)

Students look at the apparatus available for the

investigation and in pairs work on procedure to
test out the research question.
They put this sample procedure in their lab
copies.

The teacher circulates as the students are

designing their investigation

Students discuss with the teacher why they

have decided to do the investigation in the way
they did.
The teacher then using the students
suggestions writes the investigations on
an acetate shown using an overhead
projector.
The teacher confirms the procedure that

Students contribute to the design of the

procedure as the teacher puts it on the overhead
projector.

instructions.

some of the substances can be

dangerous.

13
minute
s
The
teacher
asks
Conducting Investigations
student
s to put
on
The
student
s put on
the
require
d safety
their
lab
The teacher circulates as the students
goggles
, coats
Students carry out the procedure in their
and
gloves
gear
and
listen
to the
teacher
s
safety
carry out the investigation and probes
and
advises
student
s to be
careful
as

pairs. Students first test a number of

their thinking as they are doing this
substances with red paper and then a

number
of
substan
ces
with
blue
paper.
As the students collect the data the
Students make observations and chose
Student
s then
test the
same
substan
ces

teacher discusses the data with

their own way of representing the data (i.e

students

with
the
white
paper

on a table or pictorially). The main

observations students should not is that red

Collect
ing
Data

base). They should also note that the white

paper
stays
red in
acid
and
turns
blue in
a

paper turns a variety of colours depending

on what substance it is put into.

base
and
vice
versa
with
blue
paper
(blue

Drawing Conclusions
paper
turns
red in
acid
and
stays
blue in
a

12
minute
s
The
teacher
revisits

the research questions and asks

students to use their data in groups to
answer these questions.
The teacher leads a discussion on the
conclusions. The teacher informs the
students that the paper used to test
for an acid or base is litmus paper

and is an example of an indicator. The

teacher asks the students to define what
an indicator is based on what they have
observed

conclusions which should reflect the

following:
Student
s draw
The teacher now leads a discussion on
what the students observed when they
used the other paper. The teacher asks
students why they think the paper changes
different colours in different substances.

Red or blue paper can be used to test

whether a substance is an acid or a base
and it is an example of an indicator
The teacher ends the lesson by asking students
whether they think water is an acid or a base,
the teacher advises that this will be covered in
the next lesson.
The white paper turns different colours when
dropped in different substances.

The teacher now puts up a powerpoint

slide of a pH scale and asks students to
now draw conclusions using this scale.
The students look at the scale and should come
to the conclusion that a strong acid is a different
colour to a weak acid and a strong base is a
different colour to a weak base.
The teacher asks random students to say
one new thing they had learned today
The teacher then collects the students
work and will offer them feedback in the
next lesson

The students take note of these conclusions

Students answer questions when asked by the

teacher