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...

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...

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...

There's a lot content packed into the four lessons of this physical science unit on density. From salad dressing to the water cycle and hot air balloons, these lessons engage students in hands-on activities that explore real-world...

High schoolers determine the linear equations of the density of water and oil by collecting data on the mass of various volumes of each liquid. They construct scatter plots from the data and use these to write the linear equations for...

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

Students design and build full-size boats made out of two-liter plastic bottles, chicken wire, and plywood. Then they race the boats, with the boat's designers "manning the hull", in the school's swimming pool.

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...

Have your class predict whether objects will sink or float in water. Learners consider a data table of mass, volume and whether the object sank or floated. They develop an evidence-based explanation for the results.