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What activities, demonstrations, songs, or dramatizations do you use when you teach this topic? I know there are millions of activities for this topic.


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JanelleHollingshead Regular vs Diet coke 0 Jul 20 2009, 2:57 PM EDT by JanelleHollingshead
Thread started: Jul 20 2009, 2:57 PM EDT  Watch
If you buy a little can of regular coke and then one of diet coke and put them in water. I believe...if i remember correctly.....regular will sink because it has more sugar and diet will float. It demonstrates that density does not depend only on volume. I have no idea who originally came up with this idea. If you did then make yourself known! :) I saw my other co-workers with this demonstration.

Use this as an inquiry demonstration if you want. They may be able to figure it out themselves. If you do do not ask the students if one will float or if one will sink first unless you have a lower level group of kids that will get frustrated. See what they say if you simply ask them what will happen when you put the can in water and then if their answer if vague see if you can ask them to be more detailed in their prediction?

If you were the creator of this demo make yourself known ! At a workshop from Fermi, Sue Bober used a small dense ball that sunk and a BOWLING BALL that will float! But she warns that water does ruin bowling balls so you can't bowl with it but you can use it for that demonstration for as long as you want!
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JanelleHollingshead % sugar in drinks (Grape juice has more sugar then coke! ) 0 Jul 13 2009, 4:18 PM EDT by JanelleHollingshead
Thread started: Jul 13 2009, 4:18 PM EDT  Watch
Either a follow-up or preceding lab you can have students take the density of different fluids and determine the %sugar from the data.

You need a standard curve of density vs. sugar content. They measure the density of known solutions (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) Look at your beverage selections and make sure you have gone as high as your highest concentrated drink. Graph density vs %sugar

Then measure the density of ......water, juice ( apple and grape), coke, gater-aid?, and .....whatever. You need a graduated cylinder to measure the volume and balance to measure the mass. They take the densities and use the graph to find the %sugar in the drink. Have them predict and actually it will be the juices that are the most dense. When they are done have them check their calculations against the actual labels.

Either tell them a certain volume to measure or let them create their own experiment to find the density. They should again be able to see that volume does not necessarily mean the same density. After my students did this experiment they wanted to test other drinks so for about a week I let them bring in samples and at the beginning of class I quick found the density and they looked at their graphs for the %sugar.

If I have not put up an attachment of this lab yet e-mail me at janellearendt@hotmail.com and I will get you one. I can also talk to you about set up ideas and clean up ideas if you need them.
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JanelleHollingshead Flinn density blocks 0 Jul 13 2009, 4:00 PM EDT by JanelleHollingshead
Thread started: Jul 13 2009, 4:00 PM EDT  Watch
Flinn has black that you can buy that are different shapes and made of different material. You can split up your students into groups of three. The set has three blocks of each of the materials. The colors represent a kind of material that i forget. There are three gray, milky, clear, black, ...... and I forget. So you give one group of students three blocks of the same color (NONE OF THE BLOCKS HAVE THE SAME VOLUME OR MASS) Once they calculate the density they should get the same answer as the other students in their group. They learn that items of the same material have the same density....even if they are different sizes.

Flinn also has a kit where there are blocks of different materials that are all the same size. When students measure the density of these they will all get different densities even though they are the same size, They lean again it is the material and not the size that determines the density.

My school loves these blocks and you can use them forever. I suggest when you get them to number then with a marker pen and find the volume and mass of each block.

Your students must feel comfortable with measuring length and mass before they do this activity. I have found this is frustrating for students that are not comfortable with measuring and they miss the point of the lesson.
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