Celebrate Presidents’ Day by experimenting with coins!
What you need:
Cups of water
Pipettes
Coins
What you do:
Have students collaborate in teams. Pass out one of each coin to each group. Each group should have a cup of water and a pipette. Instruct the groups to lay their coins on a flat surface. Next have the teams predict how many drops of water they think will fit on each coin before the water spills over. Remind them to record their predictions. Then have students test their prediction, one coin at a time. Students write the actual answer next to their prediction. They could create a T-chart to help them stay organized.
Science:
Surface tension: water molecules are pulled inward (negative ends are attracted to positive ends like a magnet). Gravity causes the water to spill over.
