Historical Science Story - History of Matter (2nd Grade)

A few weeks ago one of my teachers told me a story about “stuff” and what it’s made of.  Now, here in this class, we are also learning about “stuff” which is also called matter.  My teacher’s story was really good, but a bit confusing, especially for second graders, so I thought that I would write something similar, especially for you.

Once upon a time; a long, long, long, LONG time ago there were people just like us who wondered what things were made of.  Not just that a desk is made of wood or that cement is made of rocks, but they wondered, “What are the trees, air, water, rocks and everything else made of?”

·         What do you think all those things are made of? 

One man thought everything was made of water, and another thought everything was made out of something in the air.  One man went a little further and said that everything was made of one or more of the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water.

Time went by and many people thought very hard about nature, life, and what made.. everything.  Sometimes they worked and thought by themselves, but many knew each other and could talk together to try and learn more.  Some of their ideas fought and did not agree at all.  People argued for many years about what stuff was made of but nothing ever seemed to fit.  Still, people kept trying to understand stuff down to its smallest pieces.

·         Has there been a time where you didn’t like someone’s ideas but you kept working with them because you didn’t know the answer either?

·         How can working as a team help solve a scientific problem?

Eventually, there was a scientist who had the idea that right now we CAN’T know what stuff really is made of yet.  We know a lot about the different pieces of matter but we don’t actually know what matter is.  Maybe someday you will find out! 

·         What do you do when you can’t answer a problem? 

·         All the people I talked about in this story were scientists.  They did not do traditional experiments, but they all thought a great deal about the world.  They did experiments with their minds and imaginations, not their hands.  What is something you want to know more about but would be hard to experiment with or touch?