100 Days of Science #85-- Sink or Float?
Through the years we've tried many different sink or float experiments and we have rarely been wrong. I thought it might be fun to try and see if we could sink an orange and then get it to float again.
First I asked the boys what they thought would happen if we placed an orange in a bowl of water. Two of the boys thought it would float but one argued that there isn't much air inside an orange so it would probably sink.
We filled a very large bowl up with water and stuck the orange in. It almost sunk but it slowly lifted up from the bottom of the bowl just a bit and we could see it bobbing along just barely breaking the surface so it did indeed float.
We talked about why such a heavy object can float (like boats) and hypothesized about what we could do to make it sink. We decided to peel the orange and it sunk completely right away!
I challenged the boys to think of what they could do to make the orange float again.
I got a few suggestions that we thought might have worked. Sadly taping the ends shut wouldn't work because the orange was wet and tape wouldn't stick to it. We also didn't have a board to put under the orange... as one of the boys suggested making a raft. But we did try putting our orange in a plastic bag and zipped it shut. It floated so high in the water and we talked about why the air inside the bag offset the weight of the orange so much better than just the peel alone.
It was a great problem solving challenge and just 15 minutes later we were all done with science for the day.
First I asked the boys what they thought would happen if we placed an orange in a bowl of water. Two of the boys thought it would float but one argued that there isn't much air inside an orange so it would probably sink.
We filled a very large bowl up with water and stuck the orange in. It almost sunk but it slowly lifted up from the bottom of the bowl just a bit and we could see it bobbing along just barely breaking the surface so it did indeed float.
We talked about why such a heavy object can float (like boats) and hypothesized about what we could do to make it sink. We decided to peel the orange and it sunk completely right away!
I challenged the boys to think of what they could do to make the orange float again.
I got a few suggestions that we thought might have worked. Sadly taping the ends shut wouldn't work because the orange was wet and tape wouldn't stick to it. We also didn't have a board to put under the orange... as one of the boys suggested making a raft. But we did try putting our orange in a plastic bag and zipped it shut. It floated so high in the water and we talked about why the air inside the bag offset the weight of the orange so much better than just the peel alone.
It was a great problem solving challenge and just 15 minutes later we were all done with science for the day.
Others in this series:
15 & 16. Two Experiments using SNOW
20. Eco Plant pals
33. Raising Tadpoles
43. Volcanic Lemons
47 & 48. Building Model Molecules Two Ways
54. Flouride and Calcium Experiment
55. Botanical Gardens in Winter
56. Making Cell Models
57. Which Has More Water; Ice or Snow?
58. Exploding Snow and Water Baggies
59. Exploring Minerals
60. Visiting the Hartford Science Museum
61-63. 3 STEM Bridge Challenges
64. Making Models of the Earth
65. Plate Techtonics with Graham Crackers
66. Homemade Lava Lamp
67. Science Movies We're Watching
68. Index Card Towers
69. Botany at the Botanical Gardens
70. Best Board Games for Science
71. Homemade Frozen Yogurt Pops
72. Starburst Rock Cycle
73. & 74. Sinking a Marshmallow
75. Jumping Conversation Hearts
76-78. Building a Paper Airplane 3 Ways
79. Learning About Hummingbirds
80. Planting an Herb Garden
81. Mushroom Spores
82. - 84. Penny Saturation Experiments
I always enjoy reading about the extension activities you include with your experiments. You really push your kids to think and to be creative!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I do try to get them thinking critically and creatively as often as possible.
DeleteThank you for sharing at #ThursdayFavoriteThings. Pinned and shared
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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