Year 8 Science · Unit 3 · Lesson 2

Physical Change vs Chemical Change

Foundation Worksheet

Name
Date
Class

Learning Goals

Warm Up

Match each change to its type and evidence

Draw a line from each change to its correct type AND its key evidence. Or write the matching letters in the "Your answer" column.

Change Type (your answer) Evidence (your answer) Types & Evidence options
Burning magnesium ribbon Types:
P = Physical change
C = Chemical change

Evidence:
A. New white solid forms
B. Substance can be melted & re-solidified
C. Salt crystals re-appear on evaporation
D. Gas and new flavour compounds form
E. Original shape lost but substance unchanged
F. Reddish-brown new substance forms
Crushing an aluminium can
Dissolving salt in water
Iron nail left in rain
Melting chocolate
Baking bread dough

Your Turn

Sort it!

Write each change from the pool into the correct category box. Watch out for the tricky cases!

Melting butter Burning coal Dissolving salt Rusting iron Digesting a meal Boiling water Cutting paper Fermenting grape juice Stretching a rubber band Cooking an egg

Physical change

Chemical change

Dissolving and digestion are intentionally tricky — think: is a new substance formed?

Show What You Know

1. A student says "rusting is just a physical change because iron is still iron — it just changed colour." Explain why this is incorrect using the key test for chemical change.

Recall 2 marks

2. At BlueScope Steel in Port Kembla, rolling hot steel into sheets is a physical change, but converting iron ore to iron in a blast furnace is a chemical change. State one difference between these two processes at the particle level.

Recall 2 marks

Wrap Up

In one sentence, what was the main idea of this lesson?

HSCScience · Year 8 Science · Unit 3 · Lesson 2 · Foundation Worksheet