Teach Engineering
Above-Ground Storage Tanks in the Houston Ship Channel
Introduce your class to storage tank failures caused by major storms with an activity that looks at how the concepts of Archimedes' Principle and Pascal's Law affect the storage tanks along the Houston Ship Channel. The background...
University of Southern California
Design and Test an Air Lift Siphon
Build an air lift siphon using your mad physics skills! Learners first investigate the importance of circulating water in aquaponics systems. They then use density to their advantage as they engineer an air lift siphon
Teach Engineering
What Floats Your Boat?
Clay's as good a material as any to build a boat, right? An introductory lesson sets the stage for two activities associated with buoyancy. The first involves building boats out of clay, while the second uses these boats to measure the...
Curated OER
How Does the USS Alabama Float?
Students investigate buoyancy. For this buoyancy lesson, students apply the Archimedes Principle of Buoyancy to the experiment conducted in class to determine how battleships float.
Curated OER
Physical properties of matter
Sixth graders find the physical properties of matter. In this matter lesson plan, 6th graders measure mass, volume, and density. Students are broken into 3 tiers with 3 different activities based on their understanding of mass and volume.
Teach Engineering
Rock and Boat
Present the class with a question on whether the water level of a pond will rise they take a large rock out of a boat and drop it into the pond. Groups come down on all sides of the question and try to justify their answers. The activity...
Florida International University
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...
Anglophone School District
Fluids: Force in Fluids
Discuss Archimedes' Principle and fluid forces with your young scientists as they describe the relationship between mass, volume, and density during a series of engaging activities. They use the Participle Theory of Matter to explore the...
CK-12 Foundation
Going Fishing
Why do some things float and others sink? A creative simulation allows learners to adjust mass and volume of an object to affect its buoyancy in water. A graph records the effect of each manipulation.
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
How Dense Are You?
Students examine how density is a value that describes what type of a material an object is made of regardless of its shape or size.
Curated OER
Float Your Boat
Students design an experiment to find density using Archimedes' Principle. In this physics lesson, students calculate density using mass and volume. They share their findings in class.
Cornell University
Buoyancy
Swimmers know to float by turning their bodies horizontally rather than vertically, but why does that make a difference? In an interesting lesson, scholars explore buoyancy and the properties of air and water. They test cups to see which...
Teach Engineering
Above-Ground Storage Tank Design Project
The challenge: determine whether a tank will float. A design activity has groups work as engineering teams in order to determine the stability of given tanks and liquid contents. The teams need to determine the equations to calculate the...
CPO Science
Physics Skill and Practice Worksheets
Stop wasting energy searching for physics resources, this comprehensive collection of worksheets has you covered. Starting with introductions to the scientific method, dimensional analysis, and graphing data, these skills practice...
Rice University
College Physics for AP® Courses
Take a look at an organized physics course. The 34-section electronic textbook covers material in AP® Physics 1 and 2. Teachers use the text to supplement lectures and have the class work through the labs. Each section contains multiple...
Curated OER
What Floats Your Boat?
Students discover the Archimedes principle through a buoyancy experiment. They measure the water displacement of a lump a clay which is denser than water then reshape the clay into a bowl which floats but displaces more water.
Curated OER
Properties of Matter
Students describe four states of matter and their characteristics, explain thermal expansion of matter, interpret state changes in terms of kinetic theory of matter, explain relationship between temperature and volume of a gas, state...
Curated OER
Float Your Boat
Students investigate buoyancy, displacement and density. In this flotation lesson students study the Archimedes' Principle, analyze data and draw conclusions.
Curated OER
Helium Balloon Race
Students determine the force of a helium balloon that allows it to rise a specific distance. In this helium instructional activity students calculate the amount of paper needed to construct a weight and determine the density of a piece...
Curated OER
Energy and Matter
A review of a full unit on energy and matter, this slide show starts with basic definitions of states of matter and their mass. It then develops the ideas of the forces that that matter can exert. Details about bonding within matter and...
Curated OER
I've Got That Sinking Feeling
Students design a simple boat and predict how much weight it can carry. They should also discover why objects float or sink and how this can be determined experimentally. A great lesson on buoyancy!
Curated OER
Staying Up
Learners will explain the Archimedes's Principle. In this lesson on plankton, students will describe three factors that can affect the buoyancy of plankton. This lesson contains extensive background information, extensions, and multiple...
Curated OER
Creating the Ideal Cargo Boat
Students build boats out of clay to test the buoyancy of the boat in water. Students break into pairs and construct their boat to specific guide lines, then experiment with their boat in the water.