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. [Activity is publicly available through a web crawler capture on Archive.org.]

Quick Guide

Preparation Time:
Under 5 minutes
Learning Time:
10 to 30 minutes
Estimated Materials Cost:
$1 - $5 per student
Age Range:
Ages 6 - 11
Resource Types:
Activity, Experiment/Lab Activity
Language:
English, Spanish

Materials List (per student)

  • small paper cup
  • pencil or hole punch
  • helium balloon with ribbon attached
  • scissors

Keywords

Subjects

  • Physical Sciences
    • Motion and Forces
      • Gravity
    • States of Matter
      • Gases
    • Structure and Properties of Matter
      • Elements and Periodic Table
      • Mass and Weight
      • Volume and Density
  • The Nature of Science
    • The Scientific Process
      • Asking Questions
      • Conducting Investigations

Audience

To use this activity, learners need to:

  • see
  • touch

Learning styles supported:

  • Involves hands-on or lab activities

Other

Foreign language versions of this resource:

This resource is part of:

Access Rights:

  • Free access

By:

Rights:

  • All rights reserved, WGBH Educational Foundation, 2003

Funding Sources:

  • National Science Foundation, 0229796
  • Corporation for Public Broadcasting
  • PBS