Water!

Water is an amazing element with many attributes.

One of these attributes is it's ability to have things float, or sink.

We created a hypothesis -a guess, or a statement our experiment will answer.

Our question- will this item sink or float?

Morah Katie: Do you think the straw will sink or float?

Children: Float!

Morah Katie: Let's try it!

All of us: It floats!

Morah Katie: What about the pipe cleaner? Will it sink or float?

Children: Float!

Morah Katie: Let's try it!

A shocked "wow!" The pipe cleaner SANK! even though it is light.

Morah Katie: Wow, that's a surprise! From the the looks of it, the pipe cleaner is heavier than the water it displaced!

Levi: Wow

Tori: It dropped to the bottom!

Noah: It doesn't float!

Morah Katie: Why do things float?

Levi: They are lighter than water.

Morah Katie: Why would something sink?

Ben: It is heavy.

Morah Katie: If something is lighter than water, it floats. If something is heavier than water, it sinks.

We observed what occurred as each item was placed in the container of water.

After we made our observations, we kept track of our results by sorting the items under labels.

The Orange!

Shalom: The orange won't stay down unless I press it down. It keeps jumping up.

We discovered that an orange will float.

But what would happen if we peeled the orange?

The votes were split 50/50 for sinking/floating.

As it turns out...

a peeled orange sinks!

Why does a peeled orange sink? Density!

Morah Katie: We can think of density as how crammed full of stuff something is.

Morah Katie: This cup of beads is full, can you see any space between the beads?

Children: No

Morah Katie: This cup of pom poms is full of pom poms, can you see space between them?

Children: Yes.

Morah Katie: I'm going to seal the cups with duct tape, and label them.

Let's see it they will sink or float.

The cup of fully packed beads dropped to the bottom of the container.

The more densely packed cup weighed more than the water it displaced, the less densely packed cup was lighter than the water it displaced.

We discovered that an orange with it's peel will float because the peel is like a life jacket full of air keeping the orange floating.

Without the peel, the inside is more dense and sinks.

We had a taste test of fresh water vs salt water.

fresh water

salt water

Fresh water won by a landslide.

We have a wonderful new addition to our playground!

A delightfully wonderful playhouse!

We are all so grateful for this lovely new house.