Buoyancy Teacher Resources
Find Buoyancy lesson plans and worksheets
Showing 1 - 24 of 321 resources
Lesson Planet
The Tech Challenge 2016 lessons
Challenge young flight engineers to design a flying device for Ant-Man, balloon crafts that have neutral buoyancy, paper airplanes from different types of paper, hoop gliders, and a launcher for ping pong balls. Although designed for the...
Lesson Planet
The Physics of Fluid Mechanics
In this collection, Pascal’s law, Archimedes’ Principle, and Bernoulli’s Principle aid young engineers in understanding the physics of fluid mechanics. Armed with the knowledge of how forces are applied to fluids, scholars design...
Lesson Planet
Floating Fishes: How do Fishes Control Buoyancy?
Playing with balloons, water, oil, and bottles help put this lesson over the top! Participants use air-filled balloons in water tanks to experience gas compression. They also use oil-filled bottles to experiment with buoyancy. Included...
Lesson Planet
Buoyancy: Integrating Science and Literature
Integrate science and literature by using the scientific method to test the veracity of the floating peach described in Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach. Clips from a Bill Nye: The Science Guy episode about buoyancy frontload...
Lesson Planet
Simulating Microgravity with Buoyancy
How do astronauts know how to live and work in a weightless environment? It doesn't come naturally! Junior physicists conduct experiments to examine the link between buoyancy and microgravity. Each activity illustrates a different aspect...
Lesson Planet
Buoyancy
Why does some aluminum float while other aluminum sinks? An interesting simulation begins with an introduction using oil, water, and blocks of wood and brick. After experimenting with gravity, buoyancy, density, volume, masses, and force...
Lesson Planet
Molluscs: Nautilus Regulates Its Buoyancy
Scientists discovered the key to nautilus buoyancy when they X-rayed the shell of living mollusks. An educational video shares these X-rays and explains how the process works. It connects evolutionary changes, a unique circulatory...
Lesson Planet
Buoyancy
Swimmers know to float by turning their bodies horizontally rather than vertically, but why does that make a difference? In an interesting instructional activity, scholars explore buoyancy and the properties of air and water. They test...
Lesson Planet
The Buoyancy Challenge!
Check out a lesson plan that starts with force of gravity and moves through the concepts of mass, weight, volume, and density. Learners calculate density, test the buoyancy of objects, and then demonstrate understanding by altering the...
Lesson Planet
Exploring Buoyancy
Dive into a STEM lesson! Scholars learn about positive and negative buoyancy and how they relate to concepts of density and pressure. They design a device that can dive into water to pick up an object.
Lesson Planet
How a Sailboat Works: Hull Speed and Buoyancy
How can you determine the maximum speed of a sailboat? A sailing presentation included with a straightforward lesson plan prompts learners to calculate the maximum speed of a sailboat with a displacement hull. The presentation continues...
Lesson Planet
Buoyancy
This is a brief survey of the states and properties of matter directed toward upper elementary physical scientists. Solids and liquids are compared. Density and buoyancy are related. Use this presentation just prior to demonstrating...
Lesson Planet
Balloons and Buoyancy
If you are flying high in a hot air balloon, can a helium balloon pass you? Simulation allows pupils to predict how changing pressure, volume, and temperature impacts helium balloons, hot air balloons, and a sphere filled with a...
Lesson Planet
Archimedes' Principle of buoyancy
Students use the internet to research Archimedes' principle of buoyancy. In groups, they summarize the principle and share it with the class. They also participate in experiments in which they test the principle and share their results...
Lesson Planet
Buoyancy: Who Sank the Boat?
Students examine whether objects will sink or float. For this buoyancy lesson students bring in objects and experiment to see if they sink or float.
Lesson Planet
How Does the Density of a Liquid Affect the Buoyancy of an Object?
Here's a lesson plan that will really float your boat! Introduce physical science scholars to the relationship between buoyancy and density through an assortment of individual and collaborative exercises. Lab groups work together to...
Lesson Planet
Designing an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV): Concepts in Lift, Drag, Thrust, Energy, Power, Mass, and Buoyancy
Engineer an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to study concepts of physics. Using household materials, collaborative groups design and build an AUV and then test Newton's Laws of Motion as they apply them in underwater environments...
Lesson Planet
Buoyancy Quiz
Need to demonstrate buoyancy to your class? Rise to the occasion with a video from Veritasium! The narrator demonstrates how a golf ball behaves in dish detergent and saltwater, then adds the detergent to the saltwater for a surprising...
Lesson Planet
Exploring Buoyancy
Students use materials found at a resource table to design simple devices that will house instruments to take water samples from a tub of water. They design 3 instruments, each varying in density so that one will float, one will hover...
Lesson Planet
Bubble and Boyle
Even middle schoolers still enjoy experimenting with bubbles! They execute a series of experiments enabling them to distinguish between convex and concave surfaces, explore the properties of buoyancy, surface tension, and density,...
Lesson Planet
Descartes' Diver
Pique interest in water pressure, demonstrate buoyancy, and explore water displacement concepts with a homemade Cartesian diver. You may want to change the name of the toy, however, as is is not documented the Rene Descartes actually...
Lesson Planet
How Fish Maintain Neutral Buoyancy
For this buoyancy worksheet, students read about neutral buoyancy and that the downward force of gravity is equal and opposite to the upward force of water. They answer four critical thinking questions about buoyancy.
Lesson Planet
Buoyancy and Viscosity
Some of these beautiful diagrams should help your students understand the connections between pressure and flight. Pressure and density are also discussed, and a number of links are included to give fantastic interactive examples of...
Lesson Planet
Natalie Morales: Float
Natalie Morales performs a simple experiment to show what the word float means by placing a pumpkin in water. This video could be used as an introduction to a science experiment on buoyancy. It would be fun to have your class experiment...
