Mississippi Science FB.2.5
The Standard
- FB.2
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the structure and interactions of matter and how the organization of matter supports living organisms.
Investigate how the properties of water (e.g., cohesion, adhesion, heat capacity, solvent properties) contribute to the maintenance of living cells and organisms.
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · The Chemistry of Life
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students test how water sticks to itself and other surfaces, dissolves some substances, and changes temperature. They use their observations to explain how water helps living things move materials and avoid rapid temperature changes.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can use penny drops and paper-towel wicking to tell cohesion from adhesion. They can explain why salts dissolve in watery body fluids and why a pond warms slowly.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often call any sticking cohesion, even when water sticks to a paper towel. They may think water dissolves everything, including oil, or that it never changes temperature.
How to Assess It
- On an exit ticket, ask: Why does water rise through a paper towel, and why does a pond warm slowly? Name the water properties involved and explain one benefit to a living thing.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Count plain water and soapy water drops a penny holds, then use a paper towel to observe water sticking to another material.
Ask students to write how water rising through plant tissue depends on both cohesion and adhesion.
Give pairs cards showing oil separating, salt dissolving, and a pond warming slowly; have them match each to a water property.
Read a sports drink label and ask why its sodium can dissolve in watery body fluids while cooking oil cannot.
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Printable FB.2.5 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to FB.2.5, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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