Do you think the big pumpkin will float?

Do you think the big pumpkin will float?

This was the big question of the day before centre time. Most students in the class thought that the big pumpkin was not going to float. We talked about how in science it doesn’t matter if your prediction is right or wrong, the most important part is that you asked the question in the first place. If you ask a question you can be a scientist!

The students LOVE answering these questions

To do this activity I donned my lab coat and had students come over to the centre in groups of seven. I wanted to do this in smaller groups in order to give the children more interaction with each other and the experiment. We passed each item around the circle, after holding it for a couple seconds the students told me if they thought it would float or sink. Each student got to hold the object and make a prediction before we dropped it into the water. Some ideas and comments:

“little things are light and they can float”

“this one is heavy”

I decided not to use the water table for this activity- instead I used a large rubbermaid bin as I thought this would give students more room to see in. Before I put each item in I asked the students “Does it matter if we’re right or wrong?”, the answer I got each time was a resounding “NO!”. Then I asked “What’s the most important thing?”, the answer I got was “That we ask a question!”. I thought the students really understood this in a surprisingly mature way. There are even some graduate students who have a hard time wrapping their heads around this idea so I was ultra impressed that my students understood it so simply and clearly.

One of the most interesting observations was the long and skinny gourd, after hitting the surface of the water it would start to sink, change direction and then float back up.

We tested all seven of the pumpkins and gourds. My SA took several pictures

Spoiler alert: All the pumpkins and gourds float!