Water Particle Narrative

Get your students to show off their creativity by making a narrative storyboard telling an imaginative story about a particle going through various state changes. This activity reminds students that the particles that make up solid ice, liquid water, and gaseous steam are the same type of particles. Students often have the misconception that particles change when they change state.

Differentiate this activity by deleting the information from the particle section of the example storyboard, leaving the first row completed in a template for students to fill in. Alternatively, have students start with a blank T-Chart and let your students’ imaginations run wild. This activity can be tied into a lesson on the water cycle, with the water particle being evaporated, condensed, and then freezing and falling back to Earth as a snowflake or raindrop.

PLEASE NOTE: The example storyboard uses different shades of blue to emphasize the particles in different states and NOT to suggest they are different types of particles.

Student Instructions

Demonstrate your understanding of the states of matter by creating a narrative storyboard. Tell the story of a water particle and explain what happens as the particle changes state. You should include all three states of matter and at least two state changes. Make sure you talk about the changes in thermal energy and how this affects the kinetic energy of the particle.

Explain what is happening in the real world and what is happening at the particle level. If you want, put faces on your particles and even give them names!