05/09/2024
Water has a calming effect on most people and it's a great lesson topic. You can do many great hands-on introductions with water (water experiments have quick and easy cleanups).
Here are some topics you can cover. Ad-free video content on TV4Education is available to stream now in your lessons.
Recycled Water
Extreme Weather
Drought
Growing Plants
Water and the Human Body
🖇️🌊1. Surface Tension: Floating Paperclip
Materials: Water, bowl, paperclip, and tissue paper.
Steps:
Fill a bowl with water.
Gently place a small piece of tissue paper on the surface.
Carefully place a paperclip on top of the tissue paper.
After a few moments, the tissue will sink, but the paperclip will float due to surface tension.
Concept: This demonstrates surface tension—the cohesive force that allows the surface of water to resist external force.
🚿🔴2. Water Absorption: Capillary Action
Materials: 2-3 clear glasses, water, food coloring, paper towels.
Steps:
Fill two glasses with water and add different food colours to each (e.g., red and blue).
Place an empty glass between them.
Twist two paper towels and place one end in each of the coloured glasses, with the other ends in the empty glass.
After some time, the water will travel up the paper towels and mix in the middle glass.
Concept: This demonstrates capillary action, showing how water moves through narrow spaces against gravity, important for plant life.
🥚🌊3. Water Density: Floating and Sinking
Materials: Two glasses of water, salt, and an egg.
Steps:
Fill one glass with plain water and the other with salt water (dissolve several tablespoons of salt).
Gently place an egg in the plain water (it will sink).
Place another egg in the saltwater (it will float).
Concept: This illustrates how the density of water changes with the addition of salt, showing that denser liquids exert more buoyant force.
Each experiment visually introduces different properties of water—surface tension, absorption, and density.
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