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Day Six, Assessment: Floater What-Ifs Students are presented with the following table of information, and asked to calculate the density of each material:  Material Volume Mass Density  Liquid A  50 ml  53 g  ?  Liquid B 50 ml 50 g ?  Solid object 50 ml 51 g ? Then they are asked to answer the following questions: 1. What will the solid object do in Liquid A? Why? (The object will float in liquid A as it is less dense. An equal volume of the object weighs less) 2. What will the solid object do in Liquid B? Why? (The object will sink, as it is denser.) Note: Liquid A is identical in density to Salt water. Students may note this and ask you if it is salt water. If you say yes, they are likely to respond to the questions about floating and sinking by saying "It will float because the water is salty." We wish to focus their attention on the density, however, not the substance itself, so it is best if the liquids are identified only by letter. This set of data can be slightly modified a presented a second times thusly:  Material Volume Mass Density  Liquid A  40 ml  35 g  ?  Liquid B 40 ml 40 g ?  Solid object 40 ml 37 g ?   Back to Day One Back to Day Two; Generating New Questions Back to Day Three: Magic Time Back to Day 4: Liquids of Different Densities Back to Day 5: Objects of Different Densities