Lesson Plan
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Teach Engineering

Floaters and Sinkers

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
Whatever floats your boat. Young engineers learn about density by measuring the masses and volumes of boxes filled with different materials. Using their knowledge of densities, they hypothesize whether objects with given densities will...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Grand Designs And Great Failures

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students extend their understanding of floating, sinking, density, and buoyancy and apply it to the design and testing of ships. students discover that most ships are constructed very similarly-whether they are schooners or destroyers.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ships 3: Grand Designs And Great Failures

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students engage in this, the third in a three-part series on ships. The overall lesson series is designed to allow students to extend their understanding of floating, sinking, density, and buoyancy and apply it to the design and testing...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Liquid Rainbow

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Students develop their own techniques for drawing a small sample of solutions into a straw. They hypothesize ways to increase the density of water, and discuss how salt-free rainwater tends to float on top of salty seawater.
Activity
1
1
Teach Engineering

Clay Boats

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

Exploring Buoyancy

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students use materials found at a resource table to design simple devices that will house instruments to take water samples from a tub of water. They design 3 instruments, each varying in density so that one will float, one will hover...
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...
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...
Unit Plan
Arizona State University

Physics of Boats

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Let's go sailing! An instructive unit includes six lessons with multiple activities to teach scholars about density, center of gravity, buoyancy, and the Archimedes Principle. They can complete the final project of building a boat...
Activity
PBS

Watercraft

For Teachers 4th - 8th
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Float or Sink?

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners examine why some objects float while others do not. They place various objects in water to observe their floating capability. Students record the object, its weight, and if the object floated. They construct a graph plotting...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

To Float or Not to Float - A Lesson on Density

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students 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.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Density Laboratory Gizmo

For Students 4th - 6th
In this mass worksheet, students fill in a chart with different items and their volume, whether they float or sink, and their density. Students complete this for 10 items and answer 6 multiple choice mass questions.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Day Two: Generating New Questions

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Learners 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. Learners analyze which items float and do not while...
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...
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..
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.
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. 
Organizer
Mr. Hill's Science Website

Density Workbook

For Students 5th - 8th
It's all about density! Here's a dense workbook for young scientists; they solve (and show work for) 29 density word problems, including a problem where they solve for the density of Godzilla. They complete labs analyzing metal...
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.
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.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Solve a Problem: Build a Boat

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students build a boat that float and hold as many pennies as possible, then discuss the process of building the boat and relate the experience to experiences they encounter in life.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Marine Debris

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students 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.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Gift for the Indians: Model of the Mayflower in the Ocean

For Teachers K
Students build a miniature replica of the Mayflower. They make the boat float in a cup of water while studying the concept of gift giving on Feast Day.

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