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Curated OER
I've Got That Sinking Feeling
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!
Curated OER
Why Cheerios Don't Sink
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...
Curated OER
Deducing Density
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.
NOAA
Come on Down!
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...
Curated OER
Day Two: Generating New Questions
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...
Curated OER
How Does the USS Alabama Float?
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.
Curated OER
Student Exploration: Density Experiment: Slice and Dice
For this density worksheet, students explore an internet program called Gizmo where they do an experiment with density. Students complete 18 questions.
Curated OER
Why Could the Hindenburg Float?
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...
Curated OER
Investigating Density: Heavy Ice
Students end up learning the formula for density and calculate the densities of various materials, and predict if they sink or float.
Reach Out!
Paper Clip Sailing
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.
Curated OER
How Wet Can You Get?
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...
Curated OER
Water Exploration Station
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...
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...
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...
Curated OER
MEASURING THE DENSITY OF WATER
Learners perform an experiment to measure the density of tap water vs. salt water.
American Chemical Society
Changing the Density of a Liquid - Heating and Cooling
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...
Curated OER
Immiscible Liquids and Density
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.
Curated OER
Grand Designs And Great Failures
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.
Curated OER
Ships 3: Grand Designs And Great Failures
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...
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...
Curated OER
Investigating the Effect of Salinity on the Density and Stability of Water
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...
Curated OER
Stacking Water
Pupils experiment with different salinities of water using straws and different colors of water. They collect and interpret data from the experiment.
Curated OER
Teacher's Guide For: Water Temperature and Salinity Experiment
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.
Curated OER
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.