Get students involved in a hands-on activity to learn about and practice calculating density.  Use everyday objects that you have in your science classroom or at home. Students will see the relationships between mass and volume with density.

How it works:  use different sizes of water bottles to determine which mass added will make them sink, they then add the same volume of material (sand, gravel, rice etc.) to each bottle until they sink. To start students will make predictions as to which bottle will sink first and how much material it will take. 

Students then answer two conclusion questions to reflect and expand on how mass and volume effect density. These are great classroom discussion points to have after the lab as well. 

Lab sheet:  two versions included, one already filled in for you using salt and flour another left blank for you to fill in with materials you have available

Teacher guide: detailed teacher guide provided to help you get the lab set up

Complete the lab as a demo or have students complete. To make it more interactive, you have students pour in the ingredients into the bottles. You can vary the materials used to create the mass from group to group to generate an overall conversation about materials that are more or less dense.  

Extension idea included.  Students may even come up with more density related questions they want to explore. 

Here's what you'll get:

• Lab Sheet (one already filled in, one with space for teacher to fill in)
• Teacher directions

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Check out these other states of matter activities.  

→ Changes in States of Matter Notes & Slideshow

→ Build a Molecule Game

→ Density Guided Notes & Slideshow

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