Dontcha Love Density?!

We are right smack in the middle of the best unit EVER, both to teach AND to learn about - Properties of Matter! Love.

I've been working hard on getting a really nice packet together for TpT. It's gonna be HUGE - jam-packed with experiments, record sheets, teacher notes, slides for student notes, quizzes, informal assessment ideas, and learning targets. Fun stuff! Should be about 50 pages once I'm done and I CANNOT WAIT to share it. I am SUPER excited about next week because we are diving right into chemical reactions - and I have some really good stuff to share. For now - I wanted to offer a sneak peek FREEBIE from my Properties of Matter packet.

We made density columns this week and I did not anticipate it being as popular as it was! The kids LOVED it and were so excited that it actually worked. There are all kinds of "recipes" out there for density columns. But the main point to creating density columns is so students get a sense of what density is. Instead of just giving kids the densities for each of the liquids, I had them calculate it for each of the 4 liquids that we used. In our density columns, we used:

Water (with food coloring)
Alcohol (with food coloring)
Dawn dish soap
Corn syrup

And the students ACTUALLY calculated the density for each. It's simple! Just ask my students. All we needed was a beaker, a balance, and our brains. To calculate density of a liquid, all you need is the volume and the mass. You place the beaker (with the liquid) on the balance and record the mass. Then, empty the beaker and find the mass of JUST the beaker. Subtract that number from the mass of the liquid and the beaker combined and you have the volume of the liquid. Find the mass of the liquid by simply looking at the beaker! Then it's easy:

Density = Mass {DIVIDED BY} Volume

Viola! You have the density.

We used this simple sheet to record the density of each liquid before we started building our columns. Click the pic to download this FREEBIE!!

Here are a few fun pics of our density columns. So much fun!! 

Alright! That's it for me this week. Looking forward to getting my MATERNITY LEAVE PLANS DONE this weekend and sharing a few tricks and tips for taking standardized tests. 

6 weeks and counting for my little Olive's arrival!

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