Learning Objectives/Lesson Goals | Students will explore different ways that pressure affects different things by trying to blow up balloons under water, feeling how pressure feels under water and how pressure affects animals in the deep ocean. |
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WHERE | Classroom or Outside |
WHO | Classroom Volunteers |
MATERIALS |
- 2 empty cartons with pencil holes poked at 2 inches from the bottom and 5 inches from the bottom
- 2 large tubs
- Tape
- Large pitcher for pouring in water
- Balloons attached to 12” of tubing
- Large tub of water
- Sharpies
- 4 Black Plastic Garbage Bags
- 4 Deep Containers
- 4 1.25 litre clear plastic bottle with lid
- Water
- Cup
- Blu-tack or plasticine
- 4 Small take away soy sauce fish container or plastic pipette
- Food dye
PREPARE THE DIVERS AHEAD OF TIME: Empty the soy sauce fish container or cut the long tube off the plastic pipette. Fill the cup with water. Fill the fish half way with water coloured with food dye and test if it floats. The fish should float so the tip of the tail is just out of the water. Adjust the level of the water or add some plasticine around the mouth of the fish to reach this level. Fill up the clear plastic bottle with water. Place the fish into the bottle and top up the bottle with water so it is completely full and screw on the lid of the bottle.
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ACTIVITIES | Instructions for each activity
- Gather students together
- Watch VIDEO about how pressure affects us as we dive deep into the water.
- Show the Density Column and talk about how at each level the pressure increases which is why so much of the deep has not been explored.
- Tell the students that they will be doing some “experiments” to explore how pressure affects us and the animals in the deep ocean. Explain the different stations. Students can rotate through at their own pace
- Lungs Under Pressure
- Students should write their name on their deflated balloon with sharpie.
- Blow up the balloon through the tube a few times. Remove your mouth from the tube so the tube is open. What happens to the balloon?
- Blow up the balloon just a little bit, so it is just filled with air without the balloon stretching. Place the balloon under the surface of the water in the pool while holding onto the end of the tube so the tube is open. What happens to the balloon?
- While the balloon is under the surface of the water, try to inflate the balloon. What do you notice? Can you explain why?
- Is there a depth of water that you reach that you can no longer blow up the balloon? What depth of water is this? How does this relate to the human body and how humans can survive in deep oceans?
- Even More Pressure In The Deep
- Ask students if pressure comes from above, below or all around?
- Put arm in plastic bag
- Immerse hand in a deep container filled with water
- Where do you feel Pressure
- Discuss:
How do these animals survive such forces?
- Waters and most oils don’t compress under pressure
- Fish and animals of the deep do not have spaces in their bodies for gas that will be crushed by pressure
- More Pressure in the Deep
- Tape the holes closed in the cartons
- Fill the ½ Gallon carton with water
- Remove the tape and Ask:
- As the water shoots out, how does the flow change? (It slows down because there is less pressure).
- Which hole squirts farthest? Why? (The bottom hole squirts out farther because there’s more pressure the deeper you go.)
- Fill the quart container with water and repeat to demonstrate that depth not volume creates greater pressure.
- Cartesian Diver
- Squeeze the bottle. The fish should sink to the bottom of the bottle. Let the bottle go and the fish should rise to the top of the bottle. Why does this happen? How is it the same as how some fish move up and down in the ocean water?
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RESOURCES | Sea Searcher’s Handbook: Monterey Bay Aquarium
https://www.questacon.edu.au/sites/default/files/assets/outreach/travelling-exhibitions/deep-oceans/assets/docs/Deep-Oceans-Education-Kit-NSW-Curriculum_WA.pdf
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