Volume and Mass

Today we practiced finding the mass and volume of different objects. First I asked the students to come up with some way to organize their information in their journals. Most eventually ended up with a table. To find the volume, we measured the water displacement after the object was placed in a graduated cylinder of 200 mL of water. To measure the mass, we used a triple beam balance. The most challenging object with regards to mass was the ball, which wouldn't stop rolling off the triple beam balance. Eventually the students realized they would need something to hold it. They chose a beaker, and figured out how to measure the mass of the ball without including the mass of the beaker - measure the mass of the beaker separately, measure the mass of the beaker and ball together, then subtract the mass of the beaker.