Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Mass, weight, and density

If I could go back in time, I probably would skip this week of science. I wanted to give the kiddoes some concept of what mass is before discussing Newton's second law.  Honestly, I probably could have just let them think it's the same as weight and moved on.  I don't think they really got much understanding out of our discussion or demonstrations.

However, there was one big bonus to my search for content for this unanticipated week of learning; this was the week I was introduced to Mr. Edmonds' science songs on youtube.  Believe me, I had a hard time finding resources on the differences between mass & weight suitable for my kiddoes' age range. "Mass vs weight" quickly became a favorite song around the house.  During our additional discussions, we did also listen to "Density," but it did not take off nearly as well in my house (I loved it, being a Wicked fan, but for the kids it was not easy to recognize or catchy enough.)

We started off trying to get an idea of the difference between mass and weight, which of course led to a conversation about weight on other planets compared to Earth.  The kids got real kick out of that discussion.

The week would have been awfully short if we had left things there, so I threw in some fun activities related to density.  We observed different liquids creating layers in a glass.  We tried different items to see what would float or sink.  We measured how much water was displaced when a heavy but small item sinks compared to a light but large item (bringing the discussion back around to the difference between weight and mass).

And of course, I got no pictures of science this week, so I'll leave you with a couple pics from our continued time playing with water: air takes up space!


The boys had a little trouble keeping the cup straight so the air didn't escape, but they had a lot of fun trying.


This was not part of our lesson or a planned activity, but there's always time for a little extra learning fun, especially when the kiddoes request it!

--Little Miss Crazy

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