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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Density Studies of the Earth

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Density comes to life as investigators place soda cans into containers of various liquids to find if they sink or float. They layer different density liquids, compare densities of different gases, and more. A total of six different...
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Lesson Plan
California Academy of Science

Buoyancy Bulls-Eye

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Why does a seastar sink, but a jellyfish float? Through a fun investigation, learners examine the concept of buoyancy using simple household items. The challenge: create neutral buoyancy for an action figure in water. With ample teacher...
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Lesson Plan
DiscoverE

Foil Boats

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
How many pennies can an aluminum foil boat hold? That is the challenge in a collaborative activity designed to explore the concept of buoyancy. Learners use aluminum foil to build makeshift boats and test the weight they hold before...
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Activity
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Teach Engineering

Clay Boats

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
Clay itself sinks, but clay boats float. Why? Young engineers build clay boats to learn about buoyancy. They test the weight the boats can hold using washers and then tweak their designs to make improvements, following the engineering...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Come On Down!

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Begin with an introduction to famous deep-sea submersibles. Learners work in groups to gather information on different vessels and then share with the class. Each group then uses water displacement to help calculate the density of...
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Interactive
Concord Consortium

Molecular Sorting

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Can scientists sort molecules based on their interaction with oil and water? The simulation demonstrates how this is possible. Pupils decide when to insert a molecule and observe how they sort themselves based on polarity.
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Activity
Exploratorium

Bubble Suspension

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Create a cushion of carbon dioxide gas to float some soap bubbles on. Many concepts can be demonstrated through this activity: Carbon dioxide gas is more dense than air Bubbles are semipermeable, allowing only carbon dioxide to diffuse...
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Activity
PBS

Watercraft

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
Whatever floats your boat—with some additional weight. The first activity in a five-part series challenges pupils to design a boat to hold pennies. Using the design process, learners design, build, and test their boats, making sure they...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sink or Float?

For Teachers K - 5th
Young scholars predict and explore to discover which objects sink or float in fresh and salt water, predict how salt affect objects, write predictions on T chart, discuss difference between man-made and natural waters, and graph results.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Radical Raisins!

For Teachers K - 1st
Students explore the concept of buoyancy through experimentation. Given materials of various weights and composition, they drop them in club soda and determine which substances sink or float. Students discuss their results in terms of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Day Two: Generating New Questions

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students investigate buoyancy by participating in a lab experiment. In this density lesson, students utilize vinegar and alcohol in beakers and attempt to float different items in them. Students analyze which items float and do not while...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Why Cheerios Don't Sink

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Students investigate Archimedes' Principle and show how it relates to density. In this Archimedes' Principle lesson plan, students experiment with a beaker of water, a Styrofoam "boat" and a weight. They predict what will happen when the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Role of Density in Sinking or Floating: Relational Causality

For Teachers Higher Ed
Students watch the teacher do a demonstration of density with diet and regular soda. Note: try this first, as different types of artificial sweetener have different densities. Students discuss density and volume. They discuss "Relational...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Give Me a Tall Ship

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders develop an understanding of floating, sinking, density, and buoyancy and apply it to the design of testing of ships.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Float My Boat

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders, in groups, experiment with density and the displacement of water by creating and designing their own boats and seeing which boat holds the most centimeter cubes without sinking..
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Weight in Water

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Learners investigate why some materials are able to float while others sink. They carry out a scientific investigation, predict and test their predictions. They record their results in a spreadsheet, and use a forcemeter in another...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Designing and Floating Boats

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students participate in an experiment to determine if a toy boat will sink or float. They make the boats out of different materials and determine its carrying capacity by adding pennies. They graph their findings on a classroom graph.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

To Float or Not to Float - A Lesson on Density

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Learners define density in their own words. In this physics lesson, students calculate density using mass and volume. They explain why some objects sink and some float.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Floats Your Boat?

For Teachers 7th - 9th
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.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Floating Golf Ball

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders discuss density.  In this floating golf ball lesson students complete a lab activity on density while working in groups. 
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Lesson Plan
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Center for Learning in Action

Density

For Teachers 2nd - 5th Standards
Explore the concept of density within states of matter—gases, liquids, and solids—through a group experiment in which young scientists test objects' texture, color, weight, size, and ability to sink or float.    
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Interactive
CK-12 Foundation

Going Fishing

For Students 6th - 12th
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.
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Interactive
CK-12 Foundation

Scuba Training

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
How does a scuba diver control whether they sink or float? Scholars observe the relationship between absolute pressure and depth below the surface in an undersea simulation. They control the diver size and depth to center of mass to see...
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Activity
University of Waikato

Temperature, Salinity and Water Density

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
The difference between sinking and floating may be a little salt. Young experimenters analyze the effect of salt and temperature on the density of water. They use their results to predict the effect of climate change on ocean ecosystems.

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