Name: Lauren Best, Hannah Reed

Title of Unit: Titanic

Title of Lesson: Sink or Float
Grade Level: 4th
Goal: Students will develop an understanding of why things sink or float.
Objectives:
1. The students will
be able to make
valid predictions of
whether items will
sink or float
2. The students will
be able to apply
their knowledge of
density to identify
why specific items
sink while others
float.
3. The students will
be able to explain
what density
means.

Standards:
PA Academic
Standards (Science):
Science as Inquiry:
- Distinguish
between scientific
fact and opinion
- Understand that a
specific
investigation
involve asking and
answering
questions and
comparing the
answer with what
is already known

Formative Assessment:
1.-2 Students will be
working on a
worksheet making
predictions and
verifying whether or
not objects sink of
float.
3-4. Students will be
constructing
aluminum foil boats
and testing to see
whose can hold the
most marbles without
sinking.

Content Knowledge:
Prior: Students will be familiar with the story of the Titanic. The students
know the history behind the sinking of the ship.
Current: Students will gain a better understanding of density. They will be
able to determine through density whether an object will sink or float. They will
connect the things they learn in this lesson to the reason for the Titanic sinking.
Future: Students will be able to calculate the density of an object to
determine whether it will sink or float.
Procedures:
Lesson Beginning:
-

Teacher: Good morning, class. Somebody refresh my memory,

what have we been talking about the past couple of days?
o Students: The Titanic
Teacher: Who can tell me something they have learned so far
about the Titanic?
o Students: varied answers

Teacher: Today we are going to continue talking about the Titanic.

Our mission for today is to investigate what objects float, and what
objects sink. What do you think the Titanic had in common with the
things that will sink?
o Students: varied answers
Teacher: Sink or float is Station 1. In Station 2 you will construct
your very own boat made out of aluminum foil. The challenge here
to see how many marbles your boat can hold before it sinks.
o Show students an example of a previously made foil boat.

Lesson Development:
-

Teacher: In Station 1, we have all different kinds of objects on the

table. We are going to predict if the items will sink or float. Some of
the objects we have are: apples, bananas, an onion, eggs (boiled
and raw), pencils, cotton balls, etc.
Teacher: You all have a worksheet that looks like this (the one
projected on the SmartBoard), we are going to fill one out to show
you an example. Do not write this one down on your paper!! Before
we do the first example together, lets talk about a couple of
science vocabulary words. What does the word prediction mean?
o Students: varied answers
Teacher: Prediction means to use your current knowledge and
make an estimation as to what is going to happen. What about
observation?
o Students: varied answers
Teacher: Observation: an act or instance of viewing or noting a fact
or occurrence for some scientific or other special purpose.
Teacher: We are going to do the first item together.
Teacher: What do you think will happen when we put the raw egg
in the water? The boiled egg?
o Students: It will sink/float
After students have made predictions we will drop the eggs in
water, and observe what happened to the eggs.
Raw egg in shell: Sink
Boiled egg in shell: Sink
Teacher: What happens if I do this?
Promptly crack the raw egg into the non-see-through container.
Teacher: Do you think that the shell made a difference as to
whether the raw egg sank or floated?
o Students: varied answers
Cracked Egg: Sink
Teacher: We can determine whether objects will float or sink based
on their densities. Density = mass divided by volume.
Teacher: What is mass/volume?
o Students: varied responses
Teacher: The density of water is approximately 100 kg/m 3. We
know that the reason things float in water is because the density of
those objects is less than the density of the water.

Teacher: We made our own boats yesterday; one of us was very

successful, the other way not so successful. In Station 2 you are
going to make your own Titanic. We challenge you to make the
sturdiest boat out of foil, we wouldnt want your passengers
(marbles) to sink!
Teacher: Now we are going to break up into 2 groups. Group 1 will
be at Station 1 first, and Group 2 will be at Station 2 first.

Station 1:
-

Teacher: We have these objects on the table to test. What items

would you like to test?
o Students: choose objects to test
Allow students to choose from the objects on the table which ones
to test. Ask the students to predict before they observe.
Teacher: Do you think (item) will sink or float? If it floats does that
mean it has a greater density or less density then water?
o Students: sink/float; greater/less
Test several objects, several items
o Items to test:
Onion: Float
Banana: Float (unpeeled) HALF( Pealed) *If you break
the banana in half, one half will SINK while the other
half FLOATS
Apple: Float
Pencil: Float
Marble: Sink
Penny: Sink
Paper Clip: Sink
Crayon: Sink
Rubber Band: Float
Cotton Ball: Sink
Q-Tip: Float
Orange: Float (unpeeled) Sink(Pealed)
Aluminum Foil Ball: Float
Marsh Mellow: Float
Starburst: Sink

Station 2:
-

Teacher: Now we are all going to construct our own Titanic. You are
all going to receive a piece of aluminum foil. I want you to construct
a boat out of your piece of foil.
Teacher: You dont want your Titanic to sink. What are some
things you might to in order to prevent this from happening?
o Students: varied responses
Give students time to construct their very own Titanic.
Have the students float their Titanic in the water provided.

Teacher: Great, your boat is floating, now lets add some

passengers.
Add marbles to the boat and see how many each boat can hold
before in sinks.
Why do you think when we add marbles to your boat sinks?
o Students: It adds mass, but the volume doesnt change,
therefore the density increases.
We want the students to understand that by adding marbles we are
increasing the density of the object, which will eventually make the
density of the boat greater than the density of the water. Finally the
boat will sink.

Lesson Ending:
-

Teacher: What do we know happened to the Titanic?

o Students: it hit an iceberg and sank in the ocean.
Teacher: The captain of the ship didnt swerve enough to miss the
entire iceberg. Why do you think he might have misunderstood how
large the iceberg was?
o Students: varied responses
Teacher: We want to show you why the captain of the titanic didnt
realize the iceberg was so big.
Place an iceberg (see materials) in the water and show them that
it is hard to see the size of the iceberg simply based on what is
above the water.
Teacher: Icebergs are mostly made up of snow that has been
compresses or pushed together, and has formed frozen water
masses. This is the same kind of thing as when you make a
snowball. When you pack the snow together it gets much harder. As
water freezes, its density decreases. The density of icebergs are
just a little bit less than that of fresh salt water, which allows them
to stay just above water.

***IF TIME ACTIVITY

-

Teacher: For the next (15) minutes, you are going to be asked to get on the
laptops and go to the website posted on the board. You need to answer as
many of these questions from the worksheet as possible.
Allow students to explore The History Channel website. Ask the students if
they can find any new, and interesting facts about the Titanic.
They will also be filling out a worksheet to go along with this to make sure
they are using it wisely and properly.

Materials: -

handouts (attached)
Several bins filled with water

Aluminum foil
Marbles
Iceberg *a balloon fill with water and frozen
SmartBoard
Objects to test:
Onion
Banana
Apple
Pencil
Marble
Penny
Paper Clip
Crayon
Rubber Band
Cotton Ball
Q-Tip
Orange
Aluminum Foil Ball
Marsh Mellow
Starburst

References:
http://www.teachingwithamountainview.com/2015/03/titanic-lessonsexperiments-activities.html
http://www.history.com/interactives/titanic-interactive
Mode: independent, whole group, large groups
Special Adaptations: Students will be divided into groups based on behavior, and
academic levels.
Anticipated Difficulties: Students may have trouble predicting BEFORE they
observe what happens to the objects. Students may also struggling understanding
what density is. Some of the boats may get puncture wounds, causing the
experiment to be deceiving. Students might struggle with the concept of some
larger objects are less dense than smaller ones.
Reflection: