Sink or Swim

Playing with balloons, water, oil, and bottles help put this lesson over the top! Participants use air-filled balloons in water tanks to experience gas compression. They also use oil-filled bottles to experiment with buoyancy. Included...

Young scholars inspect physical science by conducting a floatation experiment. In this density lesson plan, students examine a group of items and dunk them in an aquarium full of water to see which sink and float. Young scholars define...

Will your next buoyancy lab rise to the occasion? Make a splash with action figure divers! Teams of young physicists explore the relationship between mass and buoyancy by adding weights or balloons to achieve a diver that neither sinks...

Students examine buoyancy.  In this density lesson students form a hypothesis, collect data and draw a conclusion using the data. 

Students identify two broad groups of plankton: phytoplankton and zoo plankton. They describe the general body adaptations which characterize each group. They discuss and write about what it would be like to be carried around by the...

In this density worksheet, students choose the statement from column 1 that best matches the description in column 2. Students determine whether objects will float or sink based on their density. Students apply Bernoulli's Principle to...

High schoolers demonstrate how different materials produce sound better in air and some better in water.  In this experimental lesson students participate in an activity that tests different mediums wavelengths and amplitude of a sound.

In this buoyancy learning exercise, students read about neutral buoyancy and that the downward force of gravity is equal and opposite to the upward force of water. They answer four critical thinking questions about buoyancy.

Students build plankton models and compete to see which sinks most slowly. They write, or orally present ,the adaptations they incorporated to slow the sinking rate of their organisms. Race results can be grounds for some prizes!

Why does a seastar sink, but a jellyfish float? Through a fun investigation, learners examine the concept of buoyancy using simple household items. The challenge: create neutral buoyancy for an action figure in water. With ample teacher...