A 200 gram weight is placed in one of the containers of water and a 1,000 gram weight placed into the other container. Students should notice that the water levels have increased, students should also notice that the container with the 1,000 gram weight has the highest water level. Students are then informed that the change in water levels is called displacement . Students are then asked to construct a definition of the word displacement based on there observations. Students are then asked to theorize as to what lead to the different levels of displacement.
Most students tend to theorize that the heavier objects' weight lead to the higher water level.
Students are now ready to perform the following experiments to prove their theories. Have students form groups of 3 or 4 individuals, each group will conduct the following experiment. Once again, students should notice that the greater the weight in the container the higher the level of displacement. This observation may lead to the conclusion that the weight of an object effects the amount of water that a object displaces. Next, place each object into a an overflow container and measure the amount of water displaced.