Science Experiment: Density in Nature

Yesterday, Alexis performed a science experiment, regarding the density of nature, from her Apologia science book.  My son took the photographs and edited them for this post. (Thanks, Son!!)

Any of these photos may be clicked to enlarge.

Materials: Vegetable oil, water, syrup, a grape, a rock, an ice cube and a piece of cork.

First, Alexis poured the water into the glass, followed by vegetable oil and then syrup. She documented what she saw.

She then dropped each of the items into the mixture.

Ice cube, grape, cork, rock

The Results: The rock "hit rock bottom", as Alexis said. The grape floated on the syrup. The ice floated on the water. The cork floated on the oil.

Alexis then documented the findings in her Apologia General Science Lapbook Journal.  I don't have a photo of the journal sheet; but the findings are that the atoms in the water were packed more tightly than the atoms in the oil, so it could pass right through the oil. The atoms in the syrup were more tightly packed than both the water and oil therefore it passed right through to the bottom.  

As well, the atoms in the cork were so loosely packed that they could not squeeze through the atoms in the water, oil or syrup. It just floated on top.  The atoms in the ice cube were packed densely enough to pass through the atoms of the oil but not the atoms in the water. Thus, it floated on the water. The grape passed through the oil and the water but couldn't pass through the syrup. And finally, the rock "hit rock bottom" as Alexis said. It passed through all of the liquids.

And that was this week's experiment. 


Have you done any cool experiments lately? What did your child learn? Did you make any discoveries of your own?


Happy Homeschooling!