Find out more about the children's experiences and ideas about floating and sinking by asking:
‘What objects can you think of that sink to the bottom of the water tray?'
'What objects stay afloat?’
Together, look at the range of different objects. Encourage the children to handle the objects in
turn and to predict whether they think the objects will float or sink.
Ask questions such as:
'What is it made of?' 'Will it float or will it sink?' Can you think why?' 'Do you think bigger things
always sink?’
Help the children to test each of the objects in turn to see if they float or sink.
Ask questions such as:
'Was your guess right?' 'Do some objects always float?’
You can record the results of the children's investigation either by drawing the objects on two
charts labelled 'objects that sink' and 'objects that float', or simply by placing the objects in
separate trays.
Like what you’ve read? Keep an eye out for our upcoming series of articles and information about
STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics), as well as our conference on the
18th November in collaboration with TTS & NMC.