Students will practice their measurement skills using a graduated cylinder to determine volume and a triple beam balance to determine mass.
Students will determine the density of water by completing 10 trails and finding an average.
I use this lab to tie their measuring skills together and introduce the concept of density. We then do further explorations of density and practice using the formula.
This lab is a modified version of the lab posted at Middle School Chemistry – for further details about the lesson, please click on this link.
Here is nice video that gives a general overview on how to use the TBB:
3/28/18, updated again 10/7/18
OHAUS is no longer providing the free online tutorial for this activity – I will post alternatives as I find them.
Image: Ohaus Scale Reading Exercise
Reading a Triple Beam Balance Worksheet (pdf) and Ohaus website (link)
This is a great interactive tutorial from Ohaus (link). Using the tutorial prior to using the triple beam balance in class significantly improved the student’s understanding of how to find, read, and record the mass of an object to the nearest 1/10th of a gram.
For the tutorial, each student works at their own pace and is given immediate feedback for each answer they submit. The problems are randomly generated and each student has a slightly different experience, as opposed to having each student answer the same set of problems. Students will also review place values for 100s, 10s, 1s, and 1/10ths. (Values for the 100ths place may appear in the answers, but students will only be assessed up to the 10ths place)
Next Generation Science Standards, Science and Engineering Practices (SEP)
(SEP2) Practice 2 – Developing and Using Models
(SEP4) Practice 4 – Analyzing and Interpreting Data
(SEP5) Practice 5 – Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
Middle School Science Blog 