Curated OER
Concrete Canoes
Students explore and analyze the relationship of buoyancy and displacement needed to make an object float. They examine various boat designs, then design and build clay and aluminum boats that hold a cargo of marbles.
Curated OER
Day Six: Floater What Ifs
Students observe earth science by examining results from an experiment. In this buoyancy instructional activity, students practice floating different items in two different liquids and identify why certain objects will float and others...
Curated OER
Technology of the Deep: Experiments with Buoyant Forces
Young scholars conduct a series of experiments to study the effects of temperature and salinity on the buoyancy of an object in water. They devise ways to make floating and sinking objects neutrally buoyant.
Curated OER
Day Two: Generating New Questions
Pupils 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. Pupils analyze which items float and do not while...
Reach Out!
Paper Clip Sailing
Young scholars explain that some things can float on top of water because of what we call "surface tension." They see that if something happens to disturb these water molecules from tugging on each other, the skin-like surface breaks up.
Curated OER
Chemistry: The Case of the Sunken Ice Cube
Students examine a density demonstration involving ice cubes and beakers of water and alcohol. After observing how one ice cube floats in water and sinks in alcohol, they determine which mixture of the two would suspend the ice cube in...
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.
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...
Curated OER
Archimedes' Principle
For this Archimedes' principle worksheet, learners answer 13 questions about the concepts of Archimedes' principle such as water displacement, buoyancy and force. The answer questions from a lab they did in class to simulate Archimedes'...
Curated OER
Give Me a Tall Ship
Sixth graders develop an understanding of floating, sinking, density, and buoyancy and apply it to the design of testing of ships.
Curated OER
Marine Debris
Pupils perform experiments to examine if debris float, or blow in the wind. The effects of these characteristics on the marine debris are then discussed. They determine how a material can influence what becomes marine debris.
Curated OER
Student Exploration: Density Laboratory
In this density laboratory worksheet, students complete 2 prior knowledge questions, then use the "Density Laboratory Gizmo" to complete several activities, answering short answer questions when finished.
Curated OER
Cartesian Diver Lab
In this Cartesian diver lab, students explain using text and diagrams how the Cartesian diver works. Students evaluate ways in making their lab design better. Students make predictions of how changing the variable would change the...
DiscoverE
Water Sampling
What is the best way to test water quality? Using plastic bottles, scholars create monitoring sensors to test water quality. Creating three different sensors allows individuals to measure water quality at different water levels.
DiscoverE
Design a Flotation Device
Save the soup! Scholars devise a flotation device using straws, balloons, foam, corks, and other objects. A can of soup must stay afloat for at least a minute with this device—your dinner might depend on it!
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
Transportation with Lewis and Clark
Students listen to a PowerPoint presentation and complete a Venn diagram comparing the methods of transportation in the early 1800s with today's transportation. They experiment with the buoyancy of keelboats.
Curated OER
The Weight of Water
Students examine how salt water is more dense than fresh water. They discuss how manatees need to float and sink, conduct a sink or float experiment, and conduct an experiment with eggs and salt and fresh water.
Curated OER
Fishy Physics
Learners explore how fish are able to move easily from one depth to another in water. In this fish lesson students create their own balloon fish.
Curated OER
Water and Ice
Young scholars investigate the states of matter. In this physics lesson, students use water and ice to demonstrate the characteristics of a solid and liquid. Young scholars record their observations as the state of the water changes.
Curated OER
Investigating the Effect of Salinity on the Density and Stability of Water
Water with varying amounts of dissolved salt are dyed and then used to compare densities. The objective is to discover the effect of salinity, and therefore density, on ocean water on the stability of the ocean. Many branches of science...
Curated OER
The Impact of Invention
Students explore the impact of invention. For this invention lesson, students examine how inventions are on going and affect all aspects of life in both good and bad ways. Students will research the history of invention, become an...