Tennesee Science Standard: GLE 0107.9.1- Classify solids according to their size, shape, color, texture, hardness, ability to change shape, magnetic attraction, whether they sink or float, and use.
You can teach your students how things sink and float. You can have a class discussion about how you change the shape of an object it changes the mass and density.
Materials needed: Modeling clay, marbles or stones, bowl, and water
Step One: Drop marbles into the water. They quickly sink to the bottom.
Step two: Roll the clay into a ball and place it into the water. It quickly sinks also.
Step three: Shape the clay to make a boat.
Step four: Place the clay boat into the water. The clay floats!! The boat is bigger than the ball and diplaces more water.
Step five: Add the marbles inside the boat.
Step six: The boat and marbles displace more water, but still floats!!
We made objects sink, then float.
How did we do that?
Whether something sinks or floats has nothing to do with how much an object weighs.We did change how much the object weighs; we changed the shape of the object. An object floats or sinks based upon how much water is diplaced, or "pushed aside." the boat made out of clay was bigger than the ball of clay and displaced, or pushed aside, more water causing it to float. The marbles couldn't float because they were small and could't push enough water out of the way to equal the same weight. So, it is important to remember that anything that floats weighs the same as the water pushed out of the way. This very same principle is used when building ships. I think this would be a great experiment to use in the classroom. I think everyone wants to know just how a boat can float when it is so big. This experiment could be used to teach about density, water displacement, and volume. Students could also have fun with the experiment by seeing who could make their boat hold the most marbles.
DENSITY is a physical property of matter, as each element and compound has a unique density associated with it. Density defined in a qualitative manner as the measure of the relative "heaviness" of objects with a constant volume. When the clay was in the ball the density was smaller. When the clay was in the shape of the boat the denisty was larger.
Great Post, thanks for the work.
ReplyDeleteI have two thoughts after I read it.
(1)Technically, please try if you could reduce some blank spaces below the descriptions. That will make the post more concisely.
(2) There are three variables: mass, volume and density that are used to understand the phenomena of floating and sink. You may think about how to use these three common variables and provide examples to let the readers understand more.
I think this would be a great project to introduce density to younger students! Great job!
ReplyDeleteWould it have made a difference in you experiment to use the same amount of clay but in a larger amount of water, like in a bucket or something? Or on the other hand, same amount of water, but a larger amount of clay?
ReplyDeleteCould you let students make their own boats to see if they sink, and could you let thtem place different objects in until they sink it?
ReplyDeleteGreat job! This is a great experiment to discuss density. I think the students would enjoy making the clay boat in different shapes to see if each one would float. Also, it would be fun to see how many marbles each boat could hold :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you put up the definition for density :)
ReplyDeleteGreat project. You did well at explaining the concept of floating.
ReplyDeleteThis is cool, and anytime you can let the students work with water, you will have their attention! I love your idea about letting them see whose boat can hold the most marbles! Great job!
ReplyDeleteGreat job! You have a lot of useful information. Kids would love this.
ReplyDeleteGreat Job! This is a great experiment to do with your classroom explaining density, weight, and floating. I really liked how you all put a link to go to about density. Would it have made a difference if the clay was flat instead of shaped like a boat?
ReplyDeleteI really like this experiment ladies. It was also very nice how you provided extra information after your pictures so we could obtain more information if we needed to. Could you have used play dough instead clay? or perhaps wooden beads instead of marbles? Nice work!
ReplyDeleteVery good job ladies. I like how you put extra info o there in case we want to look it up.
ReplyDeleteWould it make a huge difference depending on the way the boat was shaped out of clay?
ReplyDelete