Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: What Floats Your Boat?

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students use modeling clay, a material that is denser than water and thus ordinarily sinks in water, to discover the principle of buoyancy. They begin by designing and building boats out of clay that will float in water, and then refine...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Floaters and Sinkers

For Teachers 7th - 9th
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...
Activity
American Chemical Society

Inquiry in Action: Changing the Density of a Liquid: Heating and Cooling

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this activity, students will investigate whether the temperature of water affects its density. Students will place colored hot and cold water in a cup of room-temperature water to see that cold water sinks while hot water floats. Then...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Floaters and Sinkers

For Teachers 6th - 9th
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...
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Water Activity

For Teachers K - 1st
Students investigate water by estimating how long it takes to freeze, then see if the ice cube will float in water, and eventually work with other items to see if they sink or float in water.
Lesson Plan
Utah Education Network

Uen: 1st Grade Act. 01: Exploration Tubs

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
In this lesson, students will investigate different categories related to safety, organisms, sink or float, boats, seeds, and water droppers. Students will use exploration tubs to make observations.
eBook
OpenStax

Open Stax: Physics: Archimedes' Principle

For Students 11th - 12th
From a chapter on Fluid Statics in a Physics textbook. This section of the chapter provides a detailed discussion of Archimedes' principle, buoyant force, floating and sinking, and the role of density. Includes questions, problems and...
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Investigating Floating and Sinking: Density

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
This investigation introduces the concepts of volume, mass, and density and how they interact. Young scholars will make predictions of whether an object will float or sink after finding mass and volume of an object.
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Mn Step: Sinking Water: Glaciers, Ocean Currents and Weather Patterns

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
A lesson plan where students learn how warm water is less dense than cold water, and what this means for global climate change as ice from the polar regions melts. Students will do experiments in buoyancy and water density when hot or...
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Mn Step: Solid and Liquid Density Investigation

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
For this activity, students investigate whether objects and liquids float or sink when placed in water. As they proceed, they will develop an understanding of what density is. Student handouts are provided.
Lesson Plan
Utah Education Network

Uen: Floating and Sinking Potatoes

For Teachers 6th
After the teacher puts pieces of potatoes in water and salt water, the students predict what is going to happen and try to name what makes this happen.
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Investigating Buoyancy, Density, and Fluid Principles: Make Mini Submarine

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this lab, young scholars will use the scientific method to design an experiment that explains how/why a submarine floats and sinks.
Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex: Float or Sink?

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Students will define density and use the density formula to determine the density, volume, and mass of various items using the correct units for each measurement.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Floating and Falling Flows

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students discover fluid dynamics related to buoyancy through experimentation and optional photography. Using one set of fluids, they make light fluids rise through denser fluids. Using another set, they make dense fluids sink through a...
Interactive
Sesame Street

Sesame Street: Games

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Help the Sesame Street characters while completing various early learning tasks. Students will develop language, reasoning skills, and independence as they play the games provided.
Interactive
PBS

Pbs: Sesame Street: Science

For Students Pre-K - 1st
A collection of interactives, videos, and documents on a variety science concepts.
Lesson Plan
National Association of Geoscience Teachers

Nagt: Density Mystery Canisters

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Learners 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.
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Density of Solid Objects

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this science inquiry, students investigate whether volume or density of objects determine the floating or sinking in water. Using a rock and a block of wood teachers engage students in the discussion of density, mass and volume.
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs Teachers: Scientific American: Beneath the Sea: Blowing Ballast

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Explore the use of ballast to manipulate buoyancy in submarines by building a model of a submersible using two-liter bottles and balloons. Describe the balance of forces that is responsible for the surfacing and diving of submersibles.
Activity
American Chemical Society

Inquiry in Action: Changing the Density of a Liquid: Adding Salt

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this activity, students will see that a carrot slice sinks in fresh water and floats in saltwater. Considering the placement of the carrot slice in water and salt water, students will infer that the density of salt water must be...
Activity
American Chemical Society

Inquiry in Action: Defining Density

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Do heavy things always sink and light things always float? In this introductory demonstration and activity, students are introduced to the concept of density as they explore a rock and a wooden block in water.
Lesson Plan
Google

The Engineering Place: Balloon Flinking [Pdf]

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
A lesson and activity sheet on buoyancy. Students add weight to a helium-filled balloon to keep it suspended so that it won't float or sink, but instead will 'flink.'
Lesson Plan
American Chemical Society

Middle School Chemistry: Chapter 3: Density

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Six interactive chemistry lessons about density complete with handouts and animations.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Down With the Clip!

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students see how surface tension can enable light objects (paper clips, peppercorns) to float on an island of oil in water, and subsequently sink when the surface tension of the oil/water interface is reduced by the addition of a...

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