EVENT ONE: The Balance Beam – A Penny for your Thoughts!
Materials: pipette (dropper), penny, water, towels
Goal: To get as many drops of water on a penny as you can!!!
Procedure:
1. Predict how many drops you can get on a penny, before it runs over. Record your
prediction.
2. Holding the dropper straight up and down, close to, but not touching the penny,
count as you place FULL drops on the penny.
3. Stop when the water spills off the side of the penny.
4. Record the number of drops on your score sheet.
5. Wipe up area, dry penny, leave station like you found it!!
EVENT TWO: Backstroke – Clipping Along!
Materials: cups, water, paper clips, plastic forks, paper towels
Goal: To “float” as many paper clips on a water surface as possible.
Procedure:
1. Use a plastic fork to place a paper clip on the surface of the water in the
plastic cup without the paper clip sinking to the bottom.
2. Repeat for as many paper clips as you can.
3. Compare your number with your partner, and record the number on your
score sheet.
4. Clean up area.
EVENT THREE: Parallel bars (or sometimes known as pH bars!!)
Materials: beakers containing clear liquids, pH strips, ruler
Goal: To determine if a liquid is water by testing the pH.
Procedure:
1. Two beakers are marked A and B.
2. Rip off about 3 cm of the paper and dip into liquid A. Repeat with a
separate paper for liquid B.
3. Using a separate pH strips for each liquid, test the pH of each liquid and
determine the pH using the scale provided.
4. Record your results.
5. Clean up by disposing of your pH strips and wiping up any spills.
EVENT FOUR: Synchronized Swimming – Solve and Dissolve
Materials: water, beakers, salt, sand, stirrers
Goal: To understand how substances dissolve in water.
Procedure:
1. Pour water into two beakers. Place a small amount of salt into one beaker
and a small amount of sand into other. Stir both for at least 30 seconds.
2. Record qualitative (not numerical data) results on your data sheet.
3. Clean out both beakers and rinse and dry both stirrers and return them to
the table.
EVENT FIVE: Slalom – Weaving In and Out!
Materials: 2 brands of paper towels in strips, tall beakers, tape, pencils, ruler,
colored water
Goal: Compare and observe the absorbency of paper towels to water
Procedure:
1. Tape one end of one of the paper towel sample strips to the middle of a
pencil.
2. Pour a small amount of water into a beaker.
3. Place the pencil over the mouth of the glass so that the towel is just
touching the surface of the water. (see diagram)
4. Let the towel absorb water until it stops rising.
5. Remove towel and measure distance (in cm) the water moved.
6. Record distance on your score sheet.
7. Repeat with the other brand of paper towel.
8. Clean up area by throwing away used towels and wiping up any spills.
EVENT SIX: High Dive – Float or sink?
Materials: beakers, water, forks, paperclips, dropper of detergent
Goal: Observe how detergent changes the property of surface tension in water.
Procedure:
1. Pour water from the beaker into a clean beaker.
2. Just like you did in the second event, you are going to use the fork to “float”
a paper clip on top of the water.
3. While the paper clip is “floating” on the surface, add a drop of detergent to
the water (not on top of the paper clip) and observe the results.
4. Clean up your area and leave it as it was when you arrived.
EVENT SEVEN: Long Jump – Go for the Distance!!
Materials: Two cups, water, cotton string, meter stick/measuring tape, tape
Goal: To observe water traveling along a string for a certain distance.
Procedure:
1. Fill one cup, half-full with water.
2. Place one end of the string in the water.
3. Place the other end of the string above the empty cup.
4. Pour the water down the string into the cup. After some practice the water
will “travel” down the string into the other cup.
5. Continue to increase the distance between the two cups and see if you can
still get the water to travel down the string.
6. Your score is the longest distance the water traveled down the string into
your partner’s cup.
7. Record your distance on your data/score sheet.
8. Clean up area by wiping any spills/mopping and throw all used towels in
trash.
THE WATER OLYMPICS LAB
Name___________________________________
Period______________
Water Property Definitions:
1. Adhesion- when water molecules stick to other molecules
2. Cohesion- when water molecules stick to other water molecules
3. Surface Tension-when both adhesion and cohesion work together to form a “tight skin” on the surface
of the water
Molecular Properties that Cause Water Properties:
Hydrogen Bonding- the temporary bond that forms between water molecules because of the polarity
(opposite charges on the molecule)
Polarity- an imbalance of electrons in a molecule that causes it to have “magnetic-like” properties
Pre-lab Questions:
1. Draw a water molecule. Label each element, show the covalent bonding of the electrons, and indicate
the charge on each part of the molecule.
2. Describe what we mean when we call water a polar molecule.
3. Draw two water molecules showing hydrogen bonding.
Data Collection & Analysis:
Event 1- The Balance Beam
Prediction: ____________ Number of Drops You were able to get on the penny: _______________
What property (or properties) of water was demonstrated with this activity?
Event 2- The Backstroke
Number of Paper Clips you were able to “float”:_____________________
What property (or properties) of water is demonstrated in this activity?
How is this property an advantage to living organisms?
Event 3- The parallel bars
Liquid A pH _________________ Liquid B pH __________________
How do you know?
Which liquid is water? __________
Event 4 – Synchronized swimming
Describe what happened in the beaker with salt and water:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Describe what happened in the beaker with sand and water:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Explain what happened in both beakers in terms of water properties:
Event 5- Slalom
Distance paper towel brand A traveled: ____________ Distance paper towel brand B traveled: ____________
What property (or properties) of water was demonstrated in this activity?
Event 6- High Dive
What property caused the paper clip to float?
How did the dish liquid affect this property?
Event 7 – Long Jump
What was the length of string the water traveled?
What property (or properties) of water was demonstrated in this activity?
Lab Assessment for Water Olympics
Name: ______________________________
Finish the paragraph using terminology associated with water’s properties.
Water molecules are formed by a sharing of electrons between two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of
oxygen. This type of bond is called a ___________________ bond. Due to the unequal sharing of electrons
between the atoms, the oxygen end of the molecule is slightly _______________________ and the hydrogen
end of the molecule is slightly _________________________. Because water molecules have these opposite
charges at their ends, we can call water a ____________________ molecule. Because of these two properties,
a more accurate description of the bond between the atoms in a water molecule is a ___________________
__________________________ bond.
The attraction between the positive end of one water molecule and the negative end of another water
molecule is called a _________________ bond. The property of water demonstrated when one water bonds
to another water is called ______________________. Water can also bond to other molecules which have a
charge. This property of water is called __________________________. When cohesion and adhesion work
together in a closed in area like a pond, a tight skin layer forms at the surface. This property is called
___________________________________. Water’s polarity also makes it a fantastic
__________________________ . When charged solutes are placed in water, the attraction between the water
and the molecules pull them apart and surround them.
Finally, water is the perfect nursery for life. Living things thrive in watery environments with a pH in
the neutral range. ________________ are substances in the low number range of the pH scale, while
_______________ are the substances in the high number range of the pH scale. Pure water falls in the middle
of the scale with a pH of exactly __________.
Conclusion Questions
Answer the following questions in complete sentences.
1. Explain cohesion and provide a detailed account of cohesion occurring in the Water
Olympics lab.
2. Explain adhesion and provide a detailed account of adhesion occurring in the Water
Olympics lab.
3. Explain surface tension and provide a detailed account of surface tension occurring in
the Water Olympics lab.
4. Explain one property of water that was not a part of this lab.