Science Year 5
Properties of Materials – Block 5PCM
Session 3
Resource Pack
© Original resource copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.
We refer you to our warning, at the foot of the block overview, about links to other websites.

• Card
• Cartridge paper
• Brown paper
• Printer paper
• Kitchen roll
• Tracing paper
• Wrapping paper
Range of ‘papers’ for testing
Paper under a microscope

Questions to develop ideas for testing paper strength
• What do you think will happen to paper when it is pulled?
(eventually rip)
• What could you use to weight the paper in order to test its strength?
(something uniform and heavy like marbles)
• What equipment could you use to help ‘measure’ the strength of paper?
(digital scales to measure the weight of the marbles)
• How could you ensure any test was fair in terms of the size of paper used?
(all cut to the same size)

Sticky-note investigations (after Goldsworthy and Feasy, 1997)
Place filled in sticky-notes on the blank boxes to help organise thoughts - the sticky-notes can be moved as the investigation plan progresses
Thing I could change/vary
Thing I could observe or measure

I will change
I will observe
I will keep these things the same

The paper types that I think will fulfil the success criteria for this test
The paper types that I think will not fulfil the success criteria for this test

Paper type What I observed

Paper type What I observed

Guidance for investigation
Equipment
• Marbles (or equivalent)
• Yogurt pots
• Paper clips
• String
• Paper types (cut into strips)
• Digital scales
• Vegetable oil
• Pre-made paper coated in a PVA glue/water mix
• A range of sample take-out packaging
Investigation guidance
• Ensure all paper to be tested is the same size and shape (strips is probably the best, e.g. 25 x 10 cm).
• Make a hole at either end of the strip (with a hole punch) – make sure they are in the same places on each strip.
• Using a hook (use unwound paper clips) and a yogurt pot with holes and string to form a handle, make a hanging ‘bucket’.
• Add marbles into the pot, one by one, until the paper rips. Count how many marbles the paper could ‘hold’ and record. (N.B. place the marbles in gently to prevent the paper ripping out of ‘drop shock’).
• Weigh the marbles for each test and record.
• By repeating the experiment with the other end of the strip chn will get a more accurate ‘overall’ result – they can re-test with another strip if their results are very different.
• Encourage chn to plot the weight each paper can hold on a graph (they will need to choose the correct form – a bar chart) in preparation for their
‘paper presentation’.
• Repeat for all other paper types.