Classify and compare substances on the basis of characteristic physical properties that can be demonstrated or measured; for example, density, thermal or electrical conductivity, solubility, magnetic properties, melting and boiling points, and know that these properties are independent of the amount of the sample.
| Name |
Description |
| What Floats Your Boat | Students will solve real-world and mathematical problems involving density. Students will engineer solutions to the given problem using gained scientific content knowledge as application of mathematical skills |
| Drink Mix Mix-Up | In this inquiry activity, students will identify unknown powdered drink mixes. They will use their knowledge of various physical properties to design tests for the unknown drink mixes and then compare them to the known. Students will use their own generated data as evidence to form a conclusion and support their findings. |
| Scout Robot: Mass, Density, Volume, Weight | In this MEA, students must select which material to use in the development of an advanced military scout robot. Students must analyze data about each material’s individual properties that would make it a valid choice for military or police service. Students must complete calculations to determine material density as well as the overall mass and weight of the robot. This lesson focuses on the characteristic properties of density, unit conversion, and differentiating between mass and weight.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Pennies For Thought | Through this two day lesson, students will learn the concepts of weight, mass, volume, and density, and be able to accurately measure them and understand the relationship between them. They will also be able to calculate a substance's density by taking two points on a graph and applying the rise/run equation.
Day one will include a pre-test to access prior knowledge on the concepts of weight, mass, volume and density. Direct instruction of their definitions along with practice measuring these four properties will be provided in the form of interactive centers.
The hook for day two will be a class demonstration. (You will need a balance, and 50 pennies divided into two separate piles: 25 pennies from the year 1981 and earlier and the other 25 newer than 1982.) The pennies will be measured by placing a penny from each pile on the balance until all the pennies have been placed on the balance; students will observe that as you add more pennies to each side, it becomes unbalanced. Discuss how it is possible to have two equal volumes of pennies be unbalanced using their knowledge of weight, mass, volume and density from the day before.
For the remainder of class, have them explore the relationship between mass, volume and density by measuring and graphing their two sets of pennies. By creating a double line graph of their volume and mass, they will discover that their densities (indicated by the slope in their graph) are different. And that by taking the points on their graph and applying the rise/run equation they can obtain the density of each group of pennies.
To provide enrichment for those that are ready to take it a step further, have them research and compare densities of commonly used metals to discover what their two groups of pennies were composed of and what change was made in 1982 to change the density of the pennies. |
| Rainbow Density Lab | Students make salt water solutions varying in density to create a rainbow in a 10 mL graduated cylinder. Students apply their knowledge of solutes, solvents, solutions, and the properties of density. |
| Crime Scene Density Lab | Students will learn about the practical application of density measurement in the context of conducting a crime scene investigation of a break-in at the school. |
| Density of Solids and Liquids | In this Lab, students create their own definition for the term density and calculate the densities of different substances- solids and liquids. Students will learn that every substance has its own unique density, depending on how tightly atoms or molecules of the materials are packed. Students gather data about known samples to infer the identity of an unknown sample.
Note: This lesson will only cover the density portion of benchmark SC.8.P.8.4 |
| What does it mean to be dense? | Students will use card stock patterns to create two mini-boxes that they can fill with three different substances. The density of each substance will be compared when contained in both the smaller and larger boxes. Students will use their observations to develop an argument describing how the change in volume of the box affected the density of the substance.
SC.8.P.8.4 will not be completely covered; only the physical property of density will be addressed. |
| Silly Cylinders | This is a short activity where students determine the density of the human body by considering each part of the body to be a cylinder. I use this activity during the second week of school, so students have already had some practice with measurement. In addition to providing students with practice in data collection and problem solving, it is a good activity that allows teachers to measure students' previous knowledge in these areas. |
| Discovering Density | Students observe the effects of density on flotation and develop an understanding of density as the amount mass per unit volume through discussion and experimentation. Students also work in groups to design an experiment to determine the densities of several irregularly shaped objects and use data to support a conclusion about the buoyancy of each object. |
| Measurement in the Science Classroom | Students will practice measuring length, mass, volume in a variety of ways using a variety of tools including triple beam balances and graduated cylinders. Density will then be calculated. |
| Determining the density of regular and irregular objects | This MEA provides students with opportunities to practice solving one-step equations while learning about density. Students will calculate density of regular and irregular objects.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Tranquilizer Chemistry - Temperature and Reaction Rates | Students must select a tranquilizer dart to be used by the US Fish and Wildlife Service for researching large animals. Next, they must help the US Geological Survey choose a new drilling device. Each projectile has varying characteristics based on the temperature of the chemicals inside. Students must select which temperature lends itself to a reaction suitable for service in animal research or geological studies. Other factors due to temperature come into play as well, such as density and melting point.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Constructing and Calibrating a Hydrometer | Students construct and calibrate a simple hydrometer using different salt solutions. They then graph their data and determine the density and salinity of an unknown solution using their hydrometer and graphical analysis. |
| Density and Viscosity | Students perform an investigation leading them to conclude that temperature is a factor affecting viscosity. Reinforces graphing skills and cross disciplinary concepts. |
