Year 7 Science – Term 2 (WA Curriculum): States of Matter and Separation Techniques

What this unit covers

In Term 2, Year 7 Science in the WA Curriculum centres on the unit “States of Matter and Separation Techniques”.

Students explore how matter changes between states through energy transfer and investigate various techniques to separate mixtures.

Lesson sequence (30 lessons)

The unit breaks down into the following lesson-by-lesson sequence — each title below is a teachable lesson, in order:

1. Investigating the Three States of Matter Around Us
2. Observing Particle Arrangement in Solids, Liquids and Gases
3. Comparing Motion of Particles in Different States
4. Exploring How Solids Keep Their Shape and Volume
5. Investigating Why Liquids Flow and Take Container Shape
6. Discovering Why Gases Expand to Fill Any Container
7. Measuring Volume Changes in Different States of Matter
8. Testing Compressibility of Solids, Liquids and Gases
9. Investigating How Heating Changes Ice to Water
10. Observing Water Changing to Steam Through Heating
11. Exploring How Cooling Changes Water Back to Ice
12. Investigating Sublimation: Solid to Gas Direct Change
13. Measuring Temperature During State Changes
14. Connecting Energy Addition to Particle Movement
15. Investigating How Energy Removal Slows Particles Down
16. Creating Mixtures from Different Materials
17. Separating Sand and Pebbles Using Filtration
18. Investigating Which Materials Dissolve in Water
19. Creating Saturated Solutions with Salt and Sugar
20. Testing Solubility Limits of Different Substances
21. Comparing Saturated and Unsaturated Solutions
22. Using Evaporation to Recover Salt from Saltwater
23. Growing Crystals Through Crystallisation Process
24. Separating Coloured Inks Using Chromatography
25. Investigating How Chromatography Separates Mixtures
26. Using Distillation to Separate Water from Solutions
27. Comparing Effectiveness of Different Separation Methods
28. Selecting Appropriate Separation Techniques for Given Mixtures
29. Designing Separation Procedures for Complex Mixtures
30. Applying State Changes and Separation in Real World Examples

Curriculum codes in this unit

Content codes:

Reading the codes: WA codes (the ones starting with WA) pack the year level, learning area, strand and content number into one string, while the national Australian Curriculum v9 uses a different anatomy that starts with AC9 — same content family, different labels. Our complete WA Curriculum guide decodes both, character by character.

Planning notes for Term 2

WA terms run roughly 9–11 weeks, and in 2026 Term 2 runs from Monday 20 April to Friday 3 July — 11 weeks for WA public schools. With 30 lessons in this unit, that leaves breathing room for assessment, moderation and the weeks that disappear to carnivals, camps and public holidays — plan the assessable work to land two to three weeks before the end of term rather than in the final week.