Lesson Plan
Curated OER

I've Got That Sinking Feeling

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students design a simple boat and predict how much weight it can carry. They should also discover why objects float or sink and how this can be determined experimentally. A great lesson on buoyancy!
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Why Cheerios Don't Sink

For Teachers 8th - 10th
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...
Organizer
Curated OER

Deducing Density

For Students 3rd - 4th
In this deducing density worksheet, students follow the procedures to set up an experiment about objects floating in water and liquids of different densities, answer questions, collect data and complete charts.
Lesson Plan
NOAA

Come on Down!

For Teachers 7th - 8th Standards
What do we do when a dive is too dangerous for humans to accomplish? Send in the robots! Middle school scientists get acquainted with several different models of submersible robots in the second lesson of six from NOAA. Lab groups then...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Day Two: Generating New Questions

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students investigate buoyancy by participating in a lab experiment. In this density lesson plan, students utilize vinegar and alcohol in beakers and attempt to float different items in them. Students analyze which items float and do not...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Does the USS Alabama Float?

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students investigate buoyancy. In this buoyancy instructional activity, students apply the Archimedes Principle of Buoyancy to the experiment conducted in class to determine how battleships float.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Student Exploration: Density Experiment: Slice and Dice

For Students 4th - 8th
For this density worksheet, students explore an internet program called Gizmo where they do an experiment with density. Students complete 18 questions.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Why Could the Hindenburg Float?

For Teachers 10th
Tenth graders experiment with floating and sinking objects and heavy and light liquids, using correct terms, like density, to explain what happens.  In this Hindenburg lesson, 10th graders watch a demonstration called the invisible...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Investigating Density: Heavy Ice

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students end up learning the formula for density and calculate the densities of various materials, and predict if they sink or float.
Lesson Plan
Reach Out!

Paper Clip Sailing

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students explore water, molecules, and surface tension. For this floatation lesson, students discover why some objects are able to float on water as they follow the procedures included in this activity.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Wet Can You Get?

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Students visit a swimming pool and brainstorm different water sports and what benefits swimming has over other types of exercise. They then discuss buoyancy and water pressure and when how objects sink or float before playing a game of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Water Exploration Station

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Pupils explore the characteristics of water. In this water exploration lesson, students participate in various learning centers to inquire how water drains and how to increase the flow of water. Pupils use estimation and measurement in...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Exploring the Properties of Matter in the Preschool

For Teachers Pre-K
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...
Lesson Plan
Center for Precollegiate Education and Training

Buoyancy Boats

For Teachers 9th - 12th
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

MEASURING THE DENSITY OF WATER

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Learners perform an experiment to measure the density of tap water vs. salt water.
Lesson Plan
American Chemical Society

Changing the Density of a Liquid - Heating and Cooling

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
During a unit on density, pupils ponder whether or not temperature affects this property. By carefully inserting blue cold water and yellow hot water into a room-temperature sample, they will see the answer. Make sure to have done the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Immiscible Liquids and Density

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students will make a lava lamp. For 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.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Grand Designs And Great Failures

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students extend their understanding of floating, sinking, density, and buoyancy and apply it to the design and testing of ships. students discover that most ships are constructed very similarly-whether they are schooners or destroyers.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ships 3: Grand Designs And Great Failures

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students engage in this, the third in a three-part series on ships. The overall lesson series is designed to allow students to extend their understanding of floating, sinking, density, and buoyancy and apply it to the design and testing...
Activity
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Teach Engineering

Clay Boats

For Teachers 7th - 9th
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Investigating the Effect of Salinity on the Density and Stability of Water

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Water with varying amounts of dissolved salt are dyed and then used to compare densities. The objective is to discover the effect of salinity, and therefore density, on ocean water on the stability of the ocean. Many branches of science...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Stacking Water

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Pupils experiment with different salinities of water using straws and different colors of water. They collect and interpret data from the experiment.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Teacher's Guide For: Water Temperature and Salinity Experiment

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students experiment with water density, temperature and salinity. In this water lesson plan, students observe how the coldest water sinks to the bottom of a test tube, and how saltwater sinks in comparison to freshwater.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Floats Your Boat?

For Teachers 7th - 9th
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.