Paper Towel Testing: Conducting Experiments

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Submitted by smileadmin on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 11:02

Source Institution

  • Lawrence Hall of Science

Full resource review in

Consumer's Guide

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Description

In this activity, learners design their own experiments for testing properties of different paper towel brands. A lesson plan helps educators guide learners in constructing "fair tests" of the absorbency and wet strength, and comparing performance to advertising claims on the packaging. One math worksheet is focused on calculating the cost per sheet of each brand. Spanish translations of the worksheets are provided, but not Spanish instructions.

Quick Guide

Materials List (per group of students)

  • 1 bucket of water or access to a sink
  • 1 large felt-tipped marker
  • 4 brands of paper towels (1 roll of each)
  • 12 pounds (5 or 6 kg) of small objects to use as weights
  • 1 or more calculators
  • 2 large sheets of butcher paper or a chalkboard
  • 1 medicine dropper
  • 1 plastic teaspoon and 1 8-oz. measuring cup (or graduated cylinders)
  • 1 6-8 oz. cup
  • 1 foil pie plate
  • 1 cafeteria tray
  • 1 large rubber band (can be used to hold paper towel during weight test)
  • copies of each of three data sheets (on pages 11-13 of PDF)
  • sheets of scratch paper
  • pencils
Subjects

Subjects

  • Mathematics
    • Algebra
      • Variables and Expressions
    • Data Analysis and Probability
      • Data Collection
  • The Nature of Science
    • The Scientific Process
      • Asking Questions
      • Conducting Investigations
      • Gathering Data
      • Formulating Explanations
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Components that are part of this resource

This resource is part of

Foreign Language Versions

By

Cary Sneider; Jacqueline Barber

Source Collection

  • Science After School Consumer's Guide

Rights

All Rights Reserved, UC Regents, ©1987

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