Bringing the Topic of Specific Gravity Into the Classroom

Ted Taylor
Ted Taylor
High School Educator
Bangor High School

Ted Taylor teaches Earth Science, Chemistry and Environmental Studies at Bangor High School in Bangor, Maine. He is a Professional Maine Geologist and holds a B.A. degree from Colby College and an M.S. degree from Lehigh University, both in Geology, and a Maine Teaching Certificate with a Physical Science endorsement. He focuses on teaching the scientific process through inquiry and real-world applications.

Webinar Clip
Incorporating useful and meaningful ocean sciences content into a high school earth science classroom can sometimes be a challenge. In this clip, Mr. Taylor presents a host of educational resources and activities that educators can make use of to enhance their own curriculum. Students can conduct a series of experiments to observe how water density changes with the addition of salt; these lessons tie to other units on minerals and in this way brings multiple concepts together.

Full webinar: How Do We Teach Ocean Concepts in the High School Earth Science Classroom?

Click here for a transcript of this clip (PDF, 47.5 KB).

Resources
Applicable Science Standards
  • Asking Questions and Defining Problems Asking Questions and Defining Problems. A practice of science is to ask and refine questions that lead to descriptions and explanations of how the natural and designed world(s) works and which can be empirically tested.
  • Analyzing and Interpreting Data Analyzing and Interpreting Data. Scientific investigations produce data that must be analyzed in order to derive meaning. Because data patterns and trends are not always obvious, scientists use a range of tools - including tabulation, graphical interpretation, visualization, and statistical analysis - to identify the significant features and patterns in the data. Scientists identify sources of error in the investigations and calculate the degree of certainty in the results. Modern technology makes the collection of large data sets much easier, providing secondary sources for analysis.
  • Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions. The goal of science is the construction of theories that provide explanatory accounts of the world. A theory becomes accepted when it has multiple lines of empirical evidence and greater explanatory power of phenomena than previous theories.