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...

What's with all the numbers on plastic products? Learners complete an in-depth analysis of the physical properties of the different plastic types. They connect the properties of the plastics to uses and test their observation skills by...

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

Density can be the difference between sinking or swimming. A hands-on investigation has learners use pipets to measure the volume of samples of three liquids. After they find the mass of each, they graph their results and determine the...

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. 

Learners 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 learning exercise, 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...

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...