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Oil and Soap
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Learners investigate the properties of the liquids in two bottles. One contains layers of oil and water, and one contains oil, water, and soap.

Turning the Air Upside Down: Convection Current Model
Learners see convection currents in action in this highly visual demonstration. Sealed bags of colored hot or cold water are immersed in tanks of water.

Layers of Liquids
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Learners pour equal amounts of coffee, mineral oil, corn syrup, and alcohol into a beaker. The liquids resolve into stacked layers, and learners can infer which liquids are the most and least dense.

Changing the Density of a Liquid: Heating and Cooling
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Learners investigate how the temperature of water affects its density.

Boats Afloat
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In this activity, learners discover what buoyancy is and determine the characteristics that make an object buoyant. Learners design, build, test, and evaluate boats made from a variety of materials.

Changing the Density of an Object: Adding Material
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Learners see that a can of regular cola sinks while a can of diet cola floats. As a demonstration, bubble wrap is taped to the can of regular cola to make it float.

Glitter Globe
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This activity shows learners (with adult supervision) how to make a Glitter Globe, a fabulous toy that shimmers when you shake it.

Convection Demonstration
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In this quick activity (located on page 2 of the PDF under GPS: Balloon Fiesta Activity), learners will see the effects of convection and understand what makes hot air balloons rise.

Liquid Lava Layers
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In this activity, learners explore the concepts of density and basic chemical reactions as they create a homemade lava lamp effect using water, oil, food coloring, and Alka-Seltzer tablets.

Big Things Come in Little Packages
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As a group, learners investigate three packages which are all the same size and shape, but have different contents. One is filled with foam, one is filled with wood, and one is filled with metal.

Float Your Boat
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In this physics activity, learners will explore buoyancy.

Design a Submarine
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Learners act as engineers and design mini submarines that move in the water like real submarines.

Liquid Layers
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Experiment with liquids of different densities and create liquid layers. For example, oil and water have different densities: oil floats on water because it is less dense than water.

Gassy Lava Lamp
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In this activity, learners use oil, water, food coloring and antacid tablets to create a bubbling lava lamp. Use this activity to introduce concepts related to density, hydrophobicity vs.

Milli's Super Sorting Challenge
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In this activity, learners separate materials based on their special properties to mimic the way recyclables are sorted at recycling centers.

Balloon Flinker
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In this activity, learners make a helium balloon "flink"--neither float away nor sink to the ground. Use this activity to introduce physics concepts related to gravity, density, and weight.

Test Density with a Supersaturated Solution
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Learners create three solutions with different levels of salinity. They compare the density of these solutions by coloring them and layering them in a clear plastic cup and in a soda bottle.

Dancing Raisins
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In this activity, learners will explore density and it's relationship with mass.

Pie-Pan Convection
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It's difficult to see convection currents in any liquid that's undergoing a temperature change, but in this Exploratorium Science Snack, you can see the currents with the help of food coloring.

Ocean Currents
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In this activity, learners will explore how density is affected by temperature and how that can create currents.