Conservation of Mass Lab

During science, our class has studied various physical properties of matter. One of our labs focused on measuring mass and students used a pan balance to find the mass of several objects including a linking cube which has a mass of 3.6 grams.

Another lab was designed to give students some experience in measuring volume using both a ruler and displacement (water in a graduated cylinder). Students found that the volume of a linking cube is 5 cubic cm.

During math, our work has been with fractions, decimals, and percents. Students have worked on reading all the representations correctly, equating all three, and determining the amounts based on visual and actual models.

As a culminating activity, students were asked to build a structure using exactly 50 linking cubes. Many of these completed structures are shown in the above slideshow. After creating a 50 cube structure, the mass of the completed structure was determined and compared to the original mass of 50 individual cubes. Each student also found the fraction, decimal, and percent equivalents for each color used in their structure. Through this experience, the students learned that the mass of 50 individual linking cubes is the same as the mass of all 50 cubes connected together in an arrangement- supporting the Law of the Conservation of Mass. This law, also known as principle of mass/matter conservation, is that the mass of a closed system (in the sense of a completely isolated system) will remain constant over time. Mass cannot be created or destroyed, although it may be rearranged in space, and changed into different types of particles (or in this case, designs). The students really enjoyed themselves as they participated in this particular learning experience.

Happy Sciencing and Mathematizing,
Mr. Pinchot and Mrs. Phillips