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
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
Beneath the Sea
Students build a model of a submersible that will allow them to explore ballasts and how they operate. In this hands on lesson students participate in an activity that shows them how to control buoyancy.
Curated OER
Day Two: Generating New Questions
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...
Reach Out!
Paper Clip Sailing
Students 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
What In The World Are Swim Bladders and Why Are They Important
In this swim bladders worksheet, students use a bowl, water, and balloons to make swim bladders, and answer short answer questions about them. Students answer 7 questions and interview someone who has been scuba diving.
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
Diving Raisins
Students hypothesize and observe what occurs when raisins are dropped in a carbonated liquid. They examine buoyancy and how density effects ascent and descent.
Curated OER
Floating Pencil
Students discover how salt water makes a pencil float better than freshwater by measuring and comparing the lengths of the portion of the pencil that floats above the water surface. They then determine if an unknown water sample is...
Curated OER
Day Six: Floater What Ifs
Learners observe earth science by examining results from an experiment. In this buoyancy lesson, students practice floating different items in two different liquids and identify why certain objects will float and others sink. Learners...
Curated OER
Sink It
Introduce your class to the concept of sinking and floating. In groups, they classify objects after making predictions about which materials will sink or float. They record their results and create graphs and charts to share with the class.
Curated OER
Salinity and Brackish Water Systems
Young scholars are able to tell the difference between brackish and salt water. They also are able to distinguish water qualities specific to each type of water. Students answer various questions about all types of water.
Teach Engineering
Cartesian Diver
Amaze your scholars with an activity that uses a Cartesian diver to demonstrate Pascal's Law, Archimedes' Principle, and the Ideal Gas Law. Groups then repeat the process and make their own diver move up and down in a bottle.
Curated OER
How to Float an Egg
Use the scientific method to experiment with an egg. Your class can examine buoyancy and density by finding how many spoons of salt are needed to float an egg. They can predict, experiment, record data, and analyze results.
Curated OER
Archimedes' Principle
In this Archimedes' principle worksheet, students 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
Salinity
Students take a provided ocean Trivia Quiz in order to start a discussion of the ocean. They then perform an experiment on how the amount of salt in the ocean affects it and varies from ocean to ocean.
Curated OER
Science: Floating and Sinking Objects
Second graders discuss why some objects float while others sink. They examine various objects and predict whether or not they will sink or float. Students discover the properties needed for objects to float.
Curated OER
Density Review
In this density worksheet, students review how to calculate density and how to apply Archimedes' Principle, Boyle's Law, and Charles' Law. This worksheet has 10 matching, 13 short answer, and 6 fill in the blank questions.
Curated OER
Does Soap Float?
Students form hypotheses and carry out an investigation in order to answer a central question: Does soap float? The focus of this lesson is on scientific inquiry, but it incorporates scientific topics such as sinking and floating.
Curated OER
Floating Fishes: Boat Sinking Lab
Cut milk cartons in half to make boats and let investigators attempt to sink them. They add dividing walls and observe what happens if marbles are put into only one of the newly formed compartments. Vocabulary is provided: buoyant force,...
Curated OER
Pumpkin Play
Have you ever examined a pumpkin and estimated the number of lines it has? In this math lesson plan, students count the actual number of lines, record and graph the results. They investigate the circumference, weight and buoyancy of the...
Newspaper Association of America
Cereal Bowl Science and Other Investigations with the Newspaper
What do cereal, fog, and space shuttles have to do with newspapers? A collection of science investigations encourage critical thinking using connections to the various parts of the newspaper. Activities range from building origami seed...
Curated OER
How Wet Can You Get?
Students visit a swimming pool and brainstorm different water sports and what benefits swimming has over other types of exercise. They then discuss buoyancy and water pressure and when how objects sink or float before playing a game of...
Curated OER
What Floats Your Boat?
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.