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Chemistry: The Case of the Sunken Ice Cube
Students examine a density demonstration involving ice cubes and beakers of water and alcohol. After observing how one ice cube floats in water and sinks in alcohol, they determine which mixture of the two would suspend the ice cube in...
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Floating Vegetables
Students design a craft that safely floats vegetables across a classroom. The teacher provides some materials, but the child may as well. As the experiment is created, they have to fill out worksheets to keep the actiivity organized....
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Properties of Matter: "Sink or Swim"
Third graders recognize that different materials have different properties which can be observed such as texture and bouyancy, and compare and contrast, through observation, ability of some objects to float because of action of...
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Density and Buoyancy Experimental Design
Learners 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."
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Floating Pencil
Students discover how salt water makes a pencil float better than freshwater by measuring and comparing the lengths of the portion of the pencil that floats above the water surface. They then determine if an unknown water sample is...
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Hot Air Balloon
Students view a video and discuss the mechanics of a hot air balloon. They, in groups, construct a functioning hot air balloon.
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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.
Reach Out!
Paper Clip Sailing
Students explain that some things can float on top of water because of what we call "surface tension." They see that if something happens to disturb these water molecules from tugging on each other, the skin-like surface breaks up.
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Diving Raisins
Students hypothesize and observe what occurs when raisins are dropped in a carbonated liquid. They examine buoyancy and how density effects ascent and descent.
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Concrete Canoes
Students explore and analyze the relationship of buoyancy and displacement needed to make an object float. They examine various boat designs, then design and build clay and aluminum boats that hold a cargo of marbles.
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Technology of the Deep: Experiments with Buoyant Forces
Pupils conduct a series of experiments to study the effects of temperature and salinity on the buoyancy of an object in water. They devise ways to make floating and sinking objects neutrally buoyant.
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Float Your Boat
Students design an experiment to find density using Archimedes' Principle. In this physics lesson, students calculate density using mass and volume. They share their findings in class.
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Condiment Diver: The World's Simplest Cartesian Diver
Students explain what density is in their own words. For this physics lesson, students perform the condiment experiment and explain why some float and some sink. They share their findings in class.
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What Boat Designs Float the Best?
Fifth graders investigate buoyancy by conducting a science experiment. In this water properties lesson, 5th graders predict which of their different paper boat designs will float for the longest period. Students conduct the...
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Buoyant Force
Students illustrate Archimedes' Principle of Buoyant Force. In this graphing instructional activity, students will observe that the buoyant force on an object is equal to the weight of the fluid it displaces. Students will then create a...
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Immiscible Liquids and Density
Students will make a lava lamp. In this density lesson, students will combine water and oil and make observations, then add salt to the oil and observe the oil sink, then float again when the salt dissolves in the water.
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Forces in Fluids
In this forces in fluids worksheet, learners answer questions as they relate to forces in fluids. Students complete a chart about atmospheric pressure.
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Radical Raisins!
Students explore the concept of buoyancy through experimentation. Given materials of various weights and composition, they drop them in club soda and determine which substances sink or float. Students discuss their results in terms of...
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Eisenhower 1/26
Eighth graders identify and explain what Bernoulli's Principle is and draw diagrams to incorporate Pascal. They also perform simple calculations of density, buoyancy, and fluid pressure. Finally, 8th graders describe fluid pressure in...
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Clay Boats
Seventh graders are given the opportunity to use model-building as a way to help comprehend the forces and phenomena at work in the world around them. They use both successful and unsuccessful models to make inferences, refine...
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What Floats Your Boat?
Students discover the Archimedes principle through a buoyancy experiment. They measure the water displacement of a lump a clay which is denser than water then reshape the clay into a bowl which floats but displaces more water.
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Buoyancy
Students look at clippings of boats. They are able to define the following terms displacement, and density. Students construct a clay boat. After they complete their clay boat students answer questions about their clay boats.
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The Buoyancy Factor
Students examine why some objects float in water while others sink and the ability of something to float does not depend entirely on its weight. Archimedes' principle is introduced and buoyant force is discussed. Practice calculations...
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Secrets Beneath the Waters
Students work in small groups and design a ship out of balsa wood. They hypothesize what happens when the ship is placed in water then make predictions as to which ship stays afloat the longest with the greatest amount of weight added.