Curated OER
Immiscible Liquids and Density
Learners 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.
Teach Engineering
Clay Boats
Clay itself sinks, but clay boats float. Why? Young engineers build clay boats to learn about buoyancy. They test the weight the boats can hold using washers and then tweak their designs to make improvements, following the engineering...
Teach Engineering
Buoyant Boats
Eureka! Using the clay boats made in the previous lesson, learners investigate the idea of buoyancy and water displacement to finish the last installment of five in a Floaters and Sinkers unit. Their observations during the activity...
Curated OER
Sink or Float?
Students predict and explore to discover which objects sink or float in fresh and salt water, predict how salt affect objects, write predictions on T chart, discuss difference between man-made and natural waters, and graph results.
Curated OER
Density Lab Activities
Pupils participate in several density lab activities in order to clarify the misconceptions that solids sink and liquids float. Students work with triple beam balances to find mass of objects to calculate density.
Curated OER
Making Predictions
First graders write with his or her pencil on a worksheet created by the teacher his or her prediction of whether each part of a pumpkin will sink or float. They drop each of five objects in the water one at a time allowing enough time...
Curated OER
Day Two: Generating New Questions
Students investigate buoyancy by participating in a lab experiment. In this density lesson, students utilize vinegar and alcohol in beakers and attempt to float different items in them. Students analyze which items float and do not while...
Curated OER
Liquids of Different Densities
Pupils compare the densities of different liquids. In this liquids lesson plan, students compare color, viscosity, weight, volume, and graph their findings.
Curated OER
Salinity
Learners define and discuss salinity, conduct classroom experiment to determine salinity of water sample by using hydrometer, record predictions, and demonstrate understanding of how salinity influences object's ability to float in water.
Curated OER
Exploring the Properties of Matter in the Preschool
Students study the properties of the physical and natural world. In this properties of the physical and natural world lesson, preschool students work at discovery tables to see how simple machines work, what happens when items are put...
Curated OER
You Are What You Eat: Plastics and Marine Life
Students study the different types of plastics and see which ones sink or remain buoyant. In this ocean environmental lesson plan students complete several handouts, and view a film on PBS.
Curated OER
Save the Bay
Students explore the concept of environmental stewardship. In this science lesson, students examine the environmental effects of oil spills as they replicate a contained oil spill and clean up.
Curated OER
Ocean Pollution & its Effect on Aquatic Animals
Students consider the concept of ocean pollution. In this ocean instructional activity, students participate in a hands-on demonstration in order to replicate an oil spill and its effects on marine life.
Curated OER
Surface Tension and Bubbles
Students investigate surface tension and bubbles. In this scientific inquiry lesson plan, students explore how the surface tension of water is able to support tiny objects that actually weigh more than the water as they collect date by...
Curated OER
Learning Lesson: Salt 'n Lighter
Students participate in a demonstration showing that as salinity increases density increases as well. They also examine the different densities of air. They discuss the amount of water displaced by large ships.
Discovery Education
Future Fleet
Turn your pupils into engineers who are able to use scientific principals to design a ship. This long-term project expects pupils to understand concepts of density, buoyancy, displacement, and metacenter, and apply them to constructing a...
Curated OER
Rock My World
Students conduct a hands-on experiment designed to demonstrate how continents and oceans formed and why the manner of formation is relevant to a study of volcanoes.
Curated OER
Water Displacement
Students formulate a hypothesis using critical thinking skills. They use an orange to examine the displacement of water as the orange sinks or floats.
Curated OER
How Do We Breathe?
Learners study the structure of the lungs. In this lung structure instructional activity, students use lung models to study the structure of lungs and experiment to measure the amount of air in the lungs.
Discovery Science Center
Kindergarten Observing, Comparing and Contrasting
Although this is a science lesson, it can be adapted to help meet Common Core standards in math as well. Starting scientists describe physical properties of objects and explore three forms of water. To address the Common Core, they can...
Curated OER
Water Density and Salinity
Students observe how different water densities control the depth at which different water masses occur. They explain one fact that they comprehend about salt water. Students comprehend that temperature and salinity affect the density...
Curated OER
Let's Get Carried Away
Students discover how seeds travel from their parent plants in search of water, sunlight, and nutrients, and conduct experiments in which they note characteristics that encourage seed dispersal by means of wind, water, animal carriers,...
Curated OER
Trash Traits: Marine Debris, Litter, Ecology, Oceans
Students perform experiments to examine whether trash can float, blow around, or wash away. The effects of these characteristics on the presence of marine debris in the environment are then discussed.
Curated OER
The Impact of Invention
Students explore the impact of invention. In this invention lesson, students examine how inventions are on going and affect all aspects of life in both good and bad ways. Students will research the history of invention, become an...