Testing a Theory

Testing a Theory

My daughters and I tested a theory on floating objects for fun. We gathered several different objects and weighed them. Once we gathered all this information we categorized them into two different groups, “will float” and “won’t float”. We then took all of our items, a clear bowl of water and went outside; just in case we made a mess. We sat the bowl down on a smooth, flat surface and one at a time we took each item and put it in the water to see if it would float or sink. The first item was a tennis ball, which was in our “won’t float” category. The girls were surprised to see that it did indeed float. We recorded what happen and moved to the next item. We then tried a boiled egg from our "will float" group. It did indeed float like they had thought. The orange was next. We thought it would sink because it felt a little heavy, but it didn’t. After trying all of the items we then wanted to know if we took some of the items that didn’t float and tied them to an item that did, would it float. We found that with some of the items that sank pairing them with an item that float did make them float also. At the end of our experiment that looks can be deceiving and that certain items are strong enough to still float with added weight.

Our research was similar to methods used by psychologists because we tested our theory on what would happen with items that had different characteristics, recorded it. We then tested what would happen if a variable of that item was changed. And finally came to a reliable conclusion with data to accredit it. I wouldn’t change anything about our experiment, because I don’t believe our results would have changed.