How will you store your favourite things?
4
Exploring volume
If the favourite items are solid objects impervious to water, then children can find out how much room they take up by using the displacement of water method. Here are two ways that children in your class might try.
Fill a measuring cylinder up to the 50 cm3 mark and carefully slide the objects into the cylinder avoiding any splashing. Read off the new volume and subtract 50 cm3. The result will be the volume of the objects.
If the objects are too large to slide into a narrow measuring cylinder then fill a jam jar or other similar container completely full with water. Carefully add the objects to the water and collect all the water that overflows into a measuring cylinder. This will give the volume of the objects. You can use a measuring jug, but the scale is much less accurate.
Now that the children have a volume for their treasures they can try to work out the sizes of a cube or similar geometric form that has the same or slightly larger volume.
Beware of solid objects that are hollow e.g. shells. The volume of water displaced will be the volume taken up by the solid parts of the shell - this will not include the volume of the space inside the shell that is occupied by air.