Knowledge and Skills Statement
A density chart like the one below could be used to help students understand the relationship between mass and volume and whether an object sinks and floats without using a calculation. If an object has a density that is less than the substance it will be placed in, it will float. If the object has a density that is more than the substance it will be placed in, it will sink.
Substance | Density |
---|---|
Ethyl Alcohol |
0.79 g/mL
|
Vegetable Oil | 0.91 g/mL |
Water | 1.0 g/mL |
An object with a density of 0.8 g/mL will sink in ethyl alcohol, but float in vegetable oil.
Research
Benedis-Grab, Gregory. “Sinking & Floating: A Graphical Representation of the Concept Density.” Science Scope 30, no. 2 (October 2006): 18–21. https://www.proquest.com/docview/225971253?sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals.
Summary: A classroom of students predicts and tests whether various objects will sink or float. After recording their data, they measure the mass and volume of the objects and graph their density. Students develop an understanding of the density of water and an object's relative density compared to it. Students further investigate the relative density of the same objects with various other liquids.