Diffusion KS3 worksheet
This worksheet is perfect to introduce diffusion at key stage 3 as part of teaching the particle model. The first activity gets students thinking about how a person in one part of the house can smell food cooking in another.
It can be used with a diffusion demo, e.g. spraying some perfume at the front of the room and asking students to put their hands up when they can smell it.
After a class discussion about diffusion, the next activity asks students to illustrate what is happening as a diagram showing the movement of particles through the air.
The final task consists of five photos that compare the diffusion of particles in cold water and hot water. Students rearrange the pictures into the correct order, allowing them to observe how the rate of diffusion increases as temperature increases. Students then complete a write-up and answer ‘true or false’ questions, providing an opportunity to relate their observations to kinetic and particle theory.
For more KS3 science teaching resources on the particle model, and on states of matter, visit our Matter collection.
The answers to the write-up activity:
- This experiment was set up to investigate how temperature affects diffusion in liquids.
- The glass on the left is the one with the hot water in it. I know this because this is the glass where diffusion happened faster.
- Diffusion happens faster in hot liquids and gases because when the particles are hot they have more energy and move round more so the particles spread out faster.
- Diffusion still happens in cold liquids but it happens slower.
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