Classroom Activity Ideas
Primary (Age 5-11)
Opportunities for Science Lessons ~ Floating & Sinking/ Water Resistance & Up thrust
Activity One: PE/Swimming link ~ Children discuss movement in water (swimming lessons).
Activity Two: Look at how a marble ‘reacts’ when placed in oil, syrup and water. Discuss the properties of these materials and link to opposite forces – buoyancy upthrust power. Which material offers greater ‘upthrust’?
Activity Three: Make your own Endurance! Using Plasticine or any material which can quickly be molded and modified, children design and craft a mini Endurance individually or in teams. They then test the suitability of their design to see how many ‘men’ (marbles/paperclips) they can fit in their Endurance before it sinks. Whose was best – why? Develop this to investigating the affect that surface area has with floating/sinking (E.g Plasticine ball in water).
Here are case study examples of how Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition was used as a basis for a KS2 Science Unit linked to ‘Forces’:
Click on the link below for exemplar planning:
Planning KS2 New Curriculum – Antarctica
Science FORCES in ACTION PLANNING – Buoyancy (old National Curriculum)
Shackleton In Schools 