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...

Enhance your states of matter lessons with a hands-on science investigation that compares six different balls' color, texture, size, weight, ability to bounce, and buoyancy. 

Students examine whether objects will sink or float.  In this buoyancy lesson students bring in objects and experiment to see if they sink or float.

Third graders conduct an experiment. In this floating and sinking liquids lesson, 3rd graders discuss density and investigate it using syrup, vegetable oil and colored water. Students observe the results and complete a worksheet.

Written to introduce pupils to buoyancy, this activity has collaborative groups work to design a floatable clay boat. They first observe that a stick of clay sinks in water and then are given their own stick to reshape into a floating...

How do temperature changes affect ocean currents? Scholars explore convection currents by demonstrating the flow of water in a baking dish. They use ice, heat, and food coloring to see currents. Then, they draw conclusions about their...

How do astronauts know how to live and work in a weightless environment? It doesn't come naturally! Junior physicists conduct experiments to examine the link between buoyancy and microgravity. Each activity illustrates a different aspect...

Here is a nice lesson, which includes some good worksheets, on pumpkins and how they grow. It is an ESL lesson designed for beginning and early intermediate students. After listening to some books about pumpkins, learners label pumpkin...

It's all about density! Here's a dense workbook for young scientists; they solve (and show work for) 29 density word problems, including a problem where they solve for the density of Godzilla. They complete labs analyzing metal...

Ninth graders predict when an object will sink or float based on comparison of the density of the object to the density of the substance in which it is placed.

Middle schoolers participate in an experiment to determine if a toy boat will sink or float. They make the boats out of different materials and determine its carrying capacity by adding pennies. They graph their findings on a classroom...

Students investigate Archimedes' Principle and show how it relates to density. In this Archimedes' Principle lesson plan, students experiment with a beaker of water, a Styrofoam "boat" and a weight. They predict what will happen when the...

Students investigate how to find the density of fluids and solids using math. Students also learn how to find the density of regular and irregular shaped objects.

Different substances can have different densities, but can the same substance have different densities? Lesson explores the effect of temperature on the density of water. Extension idea connects the concept of how melting ice in lakes...

A fascinating and engaging lesson on the properties of water awaits you. In it, learners engage in four activities that are designed to teach about the properties of water. This exciting plan has worksheets embedded in it which make the...

In this buoyancy instructional activity, students read about the principles behind objects floating including density, buoyancy and Archimedes' Principle. Students complete a buoyancy lab where they use a balloon and water and a film...

Students explore the changing density of water. In this physics lesson, students investigate how an object's density determines whether it will float or sink in water. They explain why this unique property of is important to living things.

Students discover fluid dynamics related to buoyancy through experimentation and optional photography. Using one set of fluids, they make light fluids rise through denser fluids. Using another set, they make dense fluids sink through a...

For this science learning exercise, 6th graders take a multiple choice quiz about properties, energy, formulas, and more. Students complete 30 questions total.

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...

Why do some things float and others sink? A creative simulation allows learners to adjust mass and volume of an object to affect its buoyancy in water. A graph records the effect of each manipulation.

First graders listen to the book "Mr. Betts and Mr. Potts" and examine the career of being a veterinarian. They categorize animals based on whether they could be house pets or not, develop a class pet graph, and list the various...

Students conduct experiments in which they investigate which materials float and which sink. They examine what qualities the materials that float have in common. They carry out a scientific investigation, predict, and test their...

Students explore density by floating golf balls. They explore having their golf balls float halfway in a container of water and discuss density and its realtionship to where the golf balls are floating. After adding food coloring, they...