Purpose - Virginia Commonwealth University



Gursimran Gill

Number: 8

Lesson Plan 1 Draft

September 26th’ 06

Title: Sink or Float?

I. Objectives: The students will be able to predict whether each item will sink or float. The students will become aware that some items swim and some items float. The students will also be able to identify items that will sink or float.

VA SOLs:

• K.1 The student will conduct investigations in which a set of objects is separated into two groups based on a single physical attribute.

• K.5 The student will investigate and understand that some materials float in water while others sink.

• NSES: Content standard B: As a result of activities students will develop an understanding of properties of objects and materials.

II. Exploration Phase

• The teacher will show the students a crayon and asks them whether the crayon would sink when put in water or will it float. Next, a cork is shown and asked the same question. Stimulate the children's thinking by asking them to first think about things that sink and float: When taking a bath, does your toy duck float or sink in the water or how the soap goes to the bottom of the bathtub. Students are divided into pairs. They are given a bag with various objects in them. They are then asked to have one student pick up an object and the other partner to predict whether that item will sink or float in the water. The students then record their predictions in their sink or float handout.

• The students will be shown how the objects made of certain material sink or float. They will be shown a pattern in which items which are same but of different materials might have different results when tested for whether they will sink or float. For example, a metal spoon would sink but a plastic spoon would float, or a wooden pencil will float but a plastic pencil might sink.

III. Concept Introduction

• The teacher will explain to the students what the term “sink” or “float” means. The teacher describes to students the terms “sink” and “float”. The teacher explains that anything that stays on top o water is “float” and anything that goes inside the water is “sink”

• In this lesson, the students will determine whether various objects sink or float in water. Whether an object sinks or float in a liquid depends mainly on two factors: density and buoyancy. However, at this level, students do not need to know why objects sink or float. They are rather to be encouraged to observe that the same objects will sink or float every time, i.e., that there is consistency in the way the objects behave. This will help students devise their own ideas about physical properties and how they can be used to describe and categorize objects. 

• Next, the teacher will pass around the brown paper bag containing various items that either sink or float, around the classroom and ask each student to pick out one object from it. She will have children come up one at a time and predict whether the object he/she has will float or sink. They will record their predictions. Next the teacher will take the plastic container with water and have the students put their objects in the water. The students will again record their observations.

• This lesson will also provide students with practice in categorizing a variety of objects according to observable characteristics i.e. whether they float or sink.

• The ideas in this lesson will help lay the foundation for exploration of concepts such as density and forces in the later elementary grades.

• The teacher and students will look at the data that they have collected and discuss how their predictions differ from their observations.

IV. Concept Application

• The students will discuss which objects that they find in their classroom do they think will float and which will sink. They will be provided with different objects found in the classroom to experiment with. They will first make a prediction and then test these objects to see if they sink or float.

• In summary, the students will be asked to make one boat using items found around the house. The students have to keep in mind what they learned about various objects which floated or sank in the water. This boat would be brought to school and tested in water to see whether it floats or sinks. The students will record the materials used to build the boats that sank and those that floated.

V. Materials and Resources Listed

o Brown paper bags

o Items that sink or float such as corks, pencils, paper clips, crayons, twigs of wood, marbles, plastic spoons, several bars of soap.

o Handouts on which to make predictions and observations.

o Clear plastic containers containing water.

VI. Lesson Evaluation

a. Student

• The teacher will listen to students as they make their classifications. Students will be asked to describe what “float” and “sink” mean. The teacher will also grade the entries made for each object in the handout.

• Give each student a worksheet with pictures of each of the experiment items.  Have them to cut and paste them correctly on individual science posters labeled "Sink or Float".

|Sink |Float |

|1.___________ |1.____________ |

|2.___________ |2.____________ |

|3.___________ |3.____________ |

b. Teacher

• The teacher will evaluate her teaching and decide if she needs to make some changes to her lesson plan for students to understand better. The teacher will also reflect on her lesson plan and decide what she needs to modify next time and what worked or not worked in the lesson.

c. Accommodations for diverse learners listed

• Different learning styles are employed which allows the students to perform at their own developmental level. The student who has trouble with sitting still in one place can benefit from the hands-on activities involved in this lesson.

• For more advanced students, the teacher can extend the ideas in this lesson by having students explore the question, "Can we change something from a sinker to a floater?" 

• For students who are academically weak, the teacher can draw a picture on the blackboard of an object on the surface of water and write float. Draw an object below the surface and write sink.

Name _____________________________ Date ______________

Pictures of items

________________________________________________________________________

What items I think will float

________________________________________________________________________

What items I think will sink

________________________________________________________________________

Items that did float

________________________________________________________________________

Items that did sink

________________________________________________________________________

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