Density and Viscosity

This fall, the five seventh and eighth graders have been exploring the similarities and differences between density and viscosity. We started by defining the terms: demonstrate, model, interpret, density, viscosity and environment and then watched a video on determining the different densities of oil, water and syrup. Students asked ten questions of the video, they then shared their questions and narrowed them down to the two they were most interested in figuring out. Students then voted on one to figure out together as a class. In two groups, students went about testing their hypothesis and creating an experiment to support their ideas and findings.

 After students presented, analyzed and revised their ideas we moved on to creating an experiment to test viscosity of water, syrup and vegetable oil. Within experimenting and gathering data, students were expected to write up their lab report and explain their choices.

Our final experiment involved using what we have learned about density and viscosity to create acrylic pouring pictures.  Layering our paint from most to least dense and tilting our canvas to take advantage of how viscous our acrylics are.