Labor 3
By Devan Jones
My objective is to explain buoyancy, Unit 4 objective 3 Explain the buoyancy force on an object immersed in fluid. I got the idea for this tool from Joseph Stepans book, Targeting Students’ Physical Science Misconceptions Using the Conceptual Change Model. When using this tool you would want to first ask the class what they think density and buoyancy really is. Ask the class were you see density and buoyancy in everyday situations. Some of the students may say things such as, for an object to float it must contain air, or, when you change the shape of something you change its mass. All of these answers are great! This tool will help to sort out some of the students ideas of what density and buoyancy are.
Once the students have an idea of what buoyancy is I will split the class up in to small groups. Then, I will give each group a tub of water and a ball of clay. You will ask the students to make a boat out of the clay. After this, the students will be asked to write their predictions on what they think will happen to the clay boat when placed in the water. You may also want the students to write what they think will happen to the water after the boat has been placed in it. The students will have to take in to account the mass of the object and if the object has air in it or not. You can then ask them to place the boat into the water and record what they found. The student should find that with this project the clay boat is very buoyant. This is because buoyancy force is the upward force that keeps things afloat. The buoyancy force is equal to the weight of the water the boat displaces. When working with elementary students you should start with simpler principles. These simple principles should be things like dimensions and shape. Students should realize that the clay and heavy things in general, sink unless shaped a certain way. Such as with this activity, with the clay being formed into a boat. They should also begin to understand that the reason for this is the empty space in the shape. This project can also be used for more advanced students, you just need to add more difficult objects and ask for more in depth predictions.
When all of the students have had a chance to do the activity they should think beyond what they just witnessed. Ask your students to think about what if they had used a different liquid for the experiment. Would they have had the same outcome if they had used syrup or honey instead of water?
This tool can be used with grades third and above. Although this tool is rather simple the concepts behind it are difficult for younger learners to grasp. If you wanted to use this tool with older students you can make it harder and more in-depth. You would not want to do this activity with younger students. This tool would be used when talking about fluids. Before using this tool you would want your students to understand the concepts behind density, relative densities of liquids and solids, buoyancy, mass, volume and displacement, liquids and solids all are. These all are very important when using this tool.
This tool is a great way for students to understand buoyancy. They see that the clay boat will float in the water. This tool also gives students hands on experience, instead of just reading about the assignment in a book. This tool is effective will all ages of student and all types of learners. This tool is simple enough for disabled or mentally challenged students to take part in as well. There are no real physical demands for using this tool. All grades will benefit from this activity; the teacher will just have to make it harder or simpler depending on ages of students. This activity is great for all learners because it can be very hands on, for hands on and visual learners. Or it can be more researched and read about for learners like this as well. This tool is a low cost tool; all you need is a tub, some water and a clay ball. Most of these items schools already have so the preparation work is kept to a minimal for teachers. This tool is a great all around tool that benefits all types of students and teachers. What could be better than that!