Cohesion Lab
In this lesson, students use inquiry-based strategies to explore the concept of cohesion. It's a great hands-on way to see cohesion in action.
This lesson plan was found at http://www.lessonplansinc.com/lessonplans/water_cohesion_lab.pdf
This lab would be used to enrich what the students already know about the properties of water.
Students will work in pairs with the following supplies: pipettes, pennies, small beakers of water and some graph paper.
Students take turns filling the pipette and slowly dropping water on the penny until it no longer fits and spills over. The students need to keep track of how many drops they recorded on their 3 trials.
The pairs fill out a data table with each others results and come up with an average for each student.
In pairs they construct bar graphs illustrating their results and answer the analysis and conclusion questions.
The pairs report their averages to me and together we graph the class data.
To accommodate students, you can allow them extra time to complete the graph or analysis questions. They can have their partner record their results or preform the dropping of water if they are unable. They can also only graph one set of data.
