As we continue with our science unit on water we have had fun investigating floating and sinking.
Most of the ideas have come from this book.
We started by talking about water displacement. We filled a jug with water and marked the waterline on the side with a marker pen and then dropped in plasticine balls. The children could clearly see the water level rise.
We tried to get the plasticine to float on the water instead of sinking by investigating different shapes. We found out that changing the shape affects how quickly or slowly it sank. Following on from this we discussed how metal ships are very heavy but because of the way they are shaped they stay afloat.
We then enjoyed making our own boats from the contents of our recycling box and loaded them with Duplo people to test how much weight they could hold before sinking.
The children found it interesting that this toy panda sunk when they dropped it into the bath, but when it was placed onto a plastic plate, it floated!
We also discovered that boats made from tin foil were very good at carrying cargo.
Lots of water was mopped up following these experiments!
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