The law of conservation of mass can be counterintuitive for most students because they often think the mass of a substance is related to its physical state. As a result, students may hold a number of alternative conceptions related to this concept, including, for example, the believe that gas has no mass, that solids have greater mass than fluids,…

Presents three inquiry-based lessons to develop the science process skills of observation, identification, and classification. Activities use whelk eggs and snail shells as the focus of the students' inquiries. Provides a list of 19 facts about whelks and snails. (MDH)