Curated OER
Let's Catch Some Dirt From the Air
Learners investigate the dirt in the air. In this air quality lesson, students use aluminum foil and petroleum jelly to discover if there is dirt in the air. Learners discuss results.
Curated OER
Graphical Determination of Density
Students determine the density of metal shot by a graphical method using significant digits in making measurements and calculations. Students graph a seris of laboratory measurements and determine density from a mass verses volume graph.
Curated OER
Clay Boats
Seventh graders are given the opportunity to use model-building as a way to help comprehend the forces and phenomena at work in the world around them. They use both successful and unsuccessful models to make inferences, refine...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Sesame Street: Sink or Float Educator Guide
This is an educator's guide for a unit on things that sink or float. It includes lesson plans, experiments, and activities. Students apply the scientific method as they investigate whether objects sink or float.
American Chemical Society
Inquiry in Action: Changing the Density of an Object: Changing Shape
Throughout the activities in this investigation, students may have wondered how a boat made out of steel, which is more dense than water, can float. This activity addresses that question. Students will see that changing the shape of an...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Investigating Density in Solutions: How Can You Make an Egg Float?
In this activity, young scholars will learn about density by determining how to make an egg float in water. By the end of the lesson, students will understand that density and weight are different and that density matters in floatation....
American Chemical Society
Inquiry in Action: Changing the Density of an Object: Adding Material
In this activity, students see that a can of regular cola sinks while a can of diet cola floats. As a demonstration, bubble wrap is taped to the can of regular cola to make it float. This high-volume but light-weight material increases...
Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement (SMILE)
Smile: Density in Relation to Float and Sink
Students find the densities of objects based on sinking or floating in this activity that demonstrates Archimedes Principle.
American Chemical Society
Inquiry in Action: Compare the Density of an Object to the Density of Water
In this activity, students use tea light candle holders and a student-made balance to compare the weight of equal volumes of wax, water, and clay. Students will discover that since the wax weighs less than an equal volume of water, it is...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: What's the Matter: A Sinker or Floater?
Students will explore matter that sinks or floats when submerged in water and that matter is categorized as either a sinker or a floater. Students will work actively in small, cooperative learning groups as well as gather in a whole...
National Association of Geoscience Teachers
Nagt: Density Mystery Canisters
Students experiment with items that sink or float, and learn that water's density is equal to one, and objects/solutions with a density greater than one will sink, and those with a density less than one will float.
Other
National Engineers Week Foundation: Flinker
Students investigate with common objects to see if they can make something that neither floats nor sinks, but rather "flinks" in the middle.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Floaters and Sinkers
Through this curricular unit, students are introduced to the important concept of density. The focus is on the more easily understood densities of solids, but students may also explore the densities of liquids and gases. Students devise...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Floaters and Sinkers
This lesson introduces students to the important concept of density. The focus is on the more easily understood densities of solids, but students can also explore the densities of liquids and gases. Students devise methods to determine...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Clay Boats
Each student uses a small quantity of modeling clay to make a boat that will float in a tub of water. The object is to build a boat that will hold as much weight as possible without sinking. In the process of designing and testing their...