SC.8.P.8.4

This is an excellent resource for teachers and students that provides student sheets, data graphs, vocabulary, and teacher notes as well as Big Ideas, Essential Questions, Data Tables, Formative Assessment questions - extremely teacher friendly who need assistance on this Big Idea and Concept. (The Preconceptions were helpful to my students.)

Type: Educational Software / Tool

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

Type: Lesson Plan

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. 

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

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

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students perform an investigation leading them to conclude that temperature is a factor affecting viscosity. Reinforces graphing skills and cross disciplinary concepts.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn to identify physical properties, compare and contrast substances based on their physical properties. In this interactive tutorial, you'll focus on density and determine whether physical properties have the ability to change.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Statistical analysis played an essential role in using microgravity sensors to determine location of caves in Wakulla County.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Glass is the clear choice for deep ocean research probes, if you know what shape to use.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Let these thoughts about ocean density really sink in!

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

This discussion about the physical properties of flamenco guitars is full of good vibes.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Want a clean sound in your recording? Oxidation will test your mettle. Make sure you choose the right material for the job.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Shrinky Dinks for science! Students learn about the properties of Shrinky Dinks by finding their mass, volume, and density before and after shrinking.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

In the dark about chemistry and conductivity? See the light as this chemist explains a great demonstration.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Students will investigate how salt and other dissolved solids can lower the freezing point of water.

Type: Teaching Idea

A series of straightforward simulations offers students a variety of ways to explore the concepts of mass, volume, and density. Students see that objects of the same mass may not have the same volume, objects of the same volume may not have the same mass, objects having a density greater than that of water sink in water, and the density of a floating object determines the position of the object in a tank of water.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. When electric charges build up on objects, static electricity can occur. Static electricity can be particularly harmful to electronic devices if there are small static discharges. Researchers have found that treating electronics with vitamin E can help reduce static electricity by removing free radicals that are attached to the charges.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists have developed a new type of camouflage "makeup" for soldiers that can help prevent burns from nearby explosions. They have chemically swapped out flammable materials for a new heat-resistant polymer to create a type of makeup with applications well beyond the military.

Type: Text Resource

Students investigate the polarity of the water molecule and design tests to compare water to less polar liquids for evaporation rate, surface tension, and ability to dissolve certain substances. Students also discover that dissolving applies to solids, liquids, and gases.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

Students experiment with objects that have the same volume but different mass and other objects that have the same mass but different volume to develop a meaning of density. Students also experiment with density in the context of sinking and floating and look at substances on the molecular level to discover why one substance is more or less dense than another.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence