Sink or Float?

Eight illustrated cards, and every one shows the object right in its fluid - a cork bobbing at the top of a glass, a nail sunk to the bottom, oil layered on water, a log on a lake, and the same egg sinking in plain water but floating in salt water. Students decide float or sink by comparing each object's density to the fluid around it. It is the perfect capstone for a density unit, and it drills the misconceptions directly.

What's Included

• 1 student page: 8 illustrated cards (4 float, 4 sink) plus a Sum It Up fill-in with word bank
• 1 teacher key page with the answer and a one-line density reason for every card, plus a Big Idea box
• Letter-size PDF, no prep

How It Helps You Teach

• Directly practices TEKS 6.6D: compare the density of substances relative to various fluids
• Built to break misconceptions - a heavy log floats (heavy is not the same as sink) and a tiny pebble sinks (small is not the same as float)
• The salt-water egg pair shows the same object float in one fluid and sink in another - "relative to the fluid" made visible

Pair It With

Part of a Density set: Context Clues, Inferences, Science in the News, Sink or Float?, and a Reading in Science with worked density calculations. Check out our library for the rest.

Standards: TEKS 6.6D. Part of the Daily Science series by Workybooks.