Curated OER
Blowing Ballast
Oceanographers participate in a memorable hands on experience about buoyancy. They build a model of a submersible using a plastic bottle and a balloon. Afterward, they answer assessment questions. An answer key and some terrific...
Curated OER
The Stone Boat Mystery
Students design and execute a lab through which they study the distinctions between density, buoyancy, and volume.
Teach Engineering
Floaters and Sinkers
Whatever floats your boat. Young engineers learn about density by measuring the masses and volumes of boxes filled with different materials. Using their knowledge of densities, they hypothesize whether objects with given densities will...
Curated OER
Sink or Float
Using a variety of objects, learners conduct buoyancy experiments. They make predictions on which object will sink or float and test their predictions. They use a graphic organizer to record their findings.
Curated OER
Buoyancy
In this buoyancy worksheet, students use clay, water, newspaper, and more to create buoyant objects. Students follow 5 directions, and answer 4 questions.
Center for Precollegiate Education and Training
Buoyancy Boats
What did the sea say to the boat? Nothing, it just waved. An inquiry-based lesson starts with a simple concept on the Archimedes Principle and challenges pupils to make something out of clay that floats. Then, they design an object out...
Curated OER
Construct a Buoyant Scuba Diver
Groups of young oceanographers get to use action figures to experiment with the property of buoyancy! This memorable lesson plan provides detailed background information, a link to the laboratory worksheet, and thorough instruction...
Curated OER
Floating and Sinking - An Investigation
A simple and effective presentation could be helpful for your young scientists. Learners consider whether or not a piece of wood, glass, cork, brick, and ice will float or sink when placed in water. After the class has made their...
Curated OER
Build a Model Submarine
Learners form lab groups and work together to construct a submarine out of a soda bottle. Next, they observe its action in a tub of water as the inner pressure is changed. It is an engaging experiment. However, links to outside resources...
Curated OER
Density and Buoyancy Experimental Design
Students must plan, design, and conduct an experiment that answers the scientific question: "Come up with a question that addresses the factors (variables) of the water and its effect on whether an object floats or sinks."
DiscoverE
Action Figure Diver
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...
DiscoverE
Foil Boats
How many pennies can an aluminum foil boat hold? That is the challenge in a collaborative activity designed to explore the concept of buoyancy. Learners use aluminum foil to build makeshift boats and test the weight they hold before...
Teach Engineering
Rock and Boat
Present the class with a question on whether the water level of a pond will rise they take a large rock out of a boat and drop it into the pond. Groups come down on all sides of the question and try to justify their answers. The activity...
Santa Monica College
The Density of Liquids and Solids
There are underwater rivers that flow on the ocean floor thanks to a difference in density. Scholars learn about the density in both liquids and solids in the second lesson of an 11-part series. They then determine the density of water,...
Curated OER
Biocomplexity Lab Activity: Density and Buoyancy of
Pupils investigate how the density of water changes the buoyancy of
water. Students create a hypothesis about what will happen when placing the
egg into the water.Pupils can research online different bodies of water (The Red Sea, The...
Curated OER
Water Properties of the Great Salt Lake
Fourth graders examine the ecosystem of the Great Salt Lake in this two-part instructional activity, completing a KWL chart before and after the field trip to the site. While there, they draw and write about their observations. To test...
Curated OER
Air and Water Pressure
Students examine buoyancy and fluid pressure. They conduct a series of fun experiments to discover the effects of pressure and explore how pressure differences can be used to float, lift, transport, or hold a material in place.
Curated OER
Density and Buoyancy Lesson Plan
Young scholars investigate why some objects float or sink in water. In this physics lesson, students calculate the density of clay ball using a mathematical equation. They write a complete lab report about the experiment.
Curated OER
Earth: The Water Planet
Students elicit data on the water cycle, ocean topography, and island formation in this six lesson unit. The ocean floor and the properties of water are examined through a variety of discussions and hands-on experiments.
Curated OER
The World's Simplest Cartesian Diver
Have your class learn about buoyancy using this simple lesson. First, they bring in condiment packets and see what happens when they place it in a glass of water. Then, they use one of the packets to illustrate the concept of a Cartesian...
Curated OER
Floating on Salt Water
Mixing substances together causes their properties to change. This resource illustrates that concept for fifth graders by having them consider four questions that have to do with buoyancy and boiling point. Learners begin to understand...
Curated OER
Sink or Float?
Students predict and test different items to see if they sink or float. In this sink and float lesson plan, students predict whether an item is buoyant or not, and learn that size and weight do not matter when it comes to buoyancy.
Curated OER
Buoyant Behavior
Combine science and literature with this lesson on buoyancy. Read There's an Ant in Anthony by Bernard Most to examine words containing the letters a, n, and t. Then introduce your class to the word "buoyant." Demonstrate how an egg...
Curated OER
What Floats Your Boat?
This open-ended boat building exercise is meant to be part of a three-lesson series on ships. Links to the other two lessons are included. This particular part is mostly a group lab activity in which they build a boat, find its load line...