Curated OER
Density Stratification and Ocean Circulation
Students examine how circulation currents of the ocean. They use a tub of hot and cold water to demonstrate the currents. They discover how salinity and temperature of water affect its movement.
Museum of Science
Design a Submarine
Don't just sink the boat. Using a closed container as a submarine, pupils experiment to see what to add to the container to make it float, sink to the bottom, and hover in the middle. After finding one option, learners see if they can...
Curated OER
Activity #8 U Are So Dense!
Students watch as the teacher demonstrates: if a single liquid is placed in a U-shaped tube, the level of liquid on both sides are the same. When the mass is greater on one side than the other, liquid is pushed from one side to the...
Curated OER
Water Layering and Circulation
Students examine relationships and interactions between different types of water. They experiment with colored water of different temperature and salinity and discuss how the results relate to real ocean currents.
Polar Trec
Do You See What Icy?
Here is a lesson that kicks off with a question. "How does ice floating on the ocean act as it melts?" As learners investigate this natural phenomenon, they'll discover that it has a lot to do with temperature, salinity, and the effect...
Curated OER
Liquid Rainbow
Students develop their own techniques for drawing a small sample of solutions into a straw. They hypothesize ways to increase the density of water, and discuss how salt-free rainwater tends to float on top of salty seawater.
Curated OER
Sea Water Freeze
Students observe how salinity affects the time it takes water to freeze. They participate in an experiment to determine that ice is essentially salt-free whether formed from fresh or salt water
EduGAINs
Understanding Viscosity through Investigation and Comparison of Fluids
Not all liquids are the same. Investigate the viscosity of different fluids with a series of activities designed for eighth grade science. As learners move through learning centers with different experiment setups, they determine the...
Curated OER
The Floating Golf Ball
Fourth graders discuss density. In this floating golf ball lesson students complete a lab activity on density while working in groups.
Curated OER
New Jersey Estuaries
Young scholars experiment to discover that salt water is denser than fresh water by creating color coded solutions. They examine how heavy rainstorms and high tides develop layers of different degrees of density.
Curated OER
Teacher's Guide For: Water Temperature and Salinity Experiment
Students experiment with water density, temperature and salinity. In this water lesson, students observe how the coldest water sinks to the bottom of a test tube, and how saltwater sinks in comparison to freshwater.
Curated OER
Science Lesson #2
Fourth graders explore and experiment with objects that float to see if they float differently in salt water or fresh water. After the experiment, they write a paragraph in their science journal explaining how fresh water and ocean water...
Alabama Learning Exchange
The Composition of Seawater
Students explore the concept of finding the composition of seawater. In this finding the composition of seawater instructional activity, students make a saturated salt water solution. Students discuss why there is variation in ocean...
Curated OER
Learning Lesson: Salt 'n Lighter
Students participate in a demonstration showing that as salinity increases density increases as well. They also examine the different densities of air. They discuss the amount of water displaced by large ships.
Curated OER
Density Columns
Eighth graders create solutions with 5 different densities. In this chemistry instructional activity, 8th graders analyze the density of solutions stacked on top of each other. They document their data through graphing. This assignment...
Curated OER
Making and Using a Hydrometer
Pupils build a hydrometer to measure the densities of fresh and salt water samples. They record the water temperature and density and use the temperature, density, and salinity conversion graph to locate the salinity. Finally, students...
Curated OER
Estuarine Currents
Students explore an estuarine system to gather data on density driven currents. This type of current is contrasted with temperature and wind driven currents.
Curated OER
The Sun as the Driving Force of the Water Cycle
Students study the water cycle and how the sun is an important factor. In this water cycle lesson students investigate how to desalinate water and explore the different densities of fresh versus saltwater.
NOAA
Please Pass the Salt
Salinity is the focus of two experimenters that work to answer the question, How does salt change the physical properties of water? Super scientists compare the freezing rate of salt and fresh water, combine the two waters to observe how...
Curated OER
The Buoyancy Factor
Students examine why some objects float in water while others sink and the ability of something to float does not depend entirely on its weight. Archimedes' principle is introduced and buoyant force is discussed. Practice calculations...
Curated OER
Soap, Wood, and Water
Pupils measure the properties of two different types of soap and wood and calculate their densities. Then they predict whether or not whether or not each object would float or sink in fresh or salt water.
Curated OER
What is an Estuary?
Students define the terms estuary and watershed. They conduct an experiment to determine the density differences between fresh and saltwater. They examine the salinity distribution of the Peconic Bay Estuary.
Curated OER
Designing a Flotation Strategy for the Purification of Recycling
Twelfth graders work in teams to design a method of recycled plastics purification by flotation. They base their design on the concept that different kinds of plastics have different densities and keep overall costs and purification time...
Curated OER
THE WONDERFUL WATER CYCLE
Learners are introduced to the processes of evaporation and condensation as they observe physical changes in water. They observe how matter changes from a solid to a liquid state. Students are explained that steam is water in its gaseous...