Museum of Science
Museum of Science: Water Density Experiment
A simple lab activity to demonstrate that ocean currents are influenced by changes in water density.
American Chemical Society
Inquiry in Action: Changing the Density of a Liquid: Heating and Cooling
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...
Science Fun for Everyone
Science Fun: Water Fireworks
In this science experiment, you will learn about density while making water fireworks!
PBS
Pbs, Secrets of the Ocean Realm: Mountain in the Sea
This experiment allows your students to study the effect of temperature on water motion and also to create their own density driven current.
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Buoyancy of Floating Cylinders
This project presents an interesting puzzle. A disk of wood will float face-up, that is, with its circular cross-section parallel to the surface of the water. A long log of wood, however, floats with the circular cross-section...
University of Chicago
Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica: Don't Be Too Flaky
After reading some facts about the properties of water, students conduct experiments to measure the relative densities of water, ice and snow and submit the results to the website.
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...
Other
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences: Salinity and Deep Ocean Currents
For this activity, students will investigate how temperature and currents affect the salinity of ocean water, making predictions after studying ocean maps. It is recommended that teachers do the experiment themselves before presenting it...