Apr 17, 20202 min read

Does Farting Make You Weigh Less? Let's Play With Density!

Updated: Apr 21, 2020

Does farting make you weigh less? Before we get started, think about it, and share your guess (or hypothesis) with someone near you. Can you explain why you think this?

What does this have to do with density!?

What you will need:

A large container of water (preferably clear) - a bowl, storage container, etc.
Several household items of different shapes and sizes that wont be damaged by water (ex. can of pop, doll or figure, silverware, piece of food, etc.)
tinfoil
a towel or paper towel to clean up any splashes
hypothesis tracking sheet (see bottom of post)
videos below

Today, we will be watching an AMAZING video by past NASA engineer and YouTuber, Mark Rober. He has many educational and super fun videos explaining science for everyone!

Tips for Parents:

Feel free to pause the video to discuss any ideas your child may have - if they have a question, have them form a hypothesis about the answer! If they have an idea of something they want to try, try it!
If your child has trouble using the recording sheet, it's okay if you help fill it out. Today our focus is their hypothesis regarding density!
Remember inquiry-based learning: ask lots of questions! (what do you think would happen if? why does this make a difference? which do you think will change? how can we change it so this happens?)

Start off with an introduction video by Sara to learn about our goals for this STEAM class.

Now watch this great video by Mark Rober, and follow along with your own experiments! (You only need to watch the first 22 minutes for today's purposes, but feel free to watch the whole video!)

Activity and Questions:

What were you surprised about in the video? Why?

On your recording sheet (below), write down all of the items you would like to test. Now, write in your hypothesis about whether it will sink or float.

Test all of your items, and record if they sink or float.

By creating a tinfoil surface, or boat, like Mark did, can you make any of your items that sunk, float?

Curriculum Connections:

Grade 1: Understanding Structures and Mechanisms: 2.3 investigate, through experimentation, the properties of various materials; 2.4 use technological problem-solving skills, and knowledge acquired from previous investigations, to design, build, and test a structure for a specific purpose

Grade 2: Understanding Matter and Energy: 2.4 use scientific inquiry/experimentation skills to investigate liquids and solids in terms of their capacity for buoyancy (e.g., wood floats, coins sink) and/or absorption; 2.5 use technological problem-solving skills, and knowledge acquired from previous investigations, to design, build, and test a structure that involves interactions between liquids and solids

Actual discussions about density and buoyancy are in Grade 8, so feel free to REALLY explore some of the concepts introduced here with older kids.