Students' eyes are opened to the value of creative, expressive and succinct visual presentation of data, findings and concepts. Student pairs design, redesign and perform simple experiments to test the differences in thermal conductivity (heat flow) through different media (foil and thin steel). Then students create visual diagrams of their findings that can be understood by anyone with little background on the subject, applying their newly learned art vocabulary and concepts to clearly communicate their results. The principles of visual design include contrast, alignment, repetition and proximity; the elements of visual design include an awareness of the use of lines, color, texture, shape, size, value and space. If students already have data available from other experiments, have them jump right into the diagram creation and critique portions of the activity.

The goal of this task is to use geometry study the structure of beehives. Beehives have a tremendous simplicity as they are constructed entirely of small, equally sized walls. In order to as useful as possible for the hive, the goal should be to create the largest possible volume using the least amount of materials. In other words, the ratio of the volume of each cell to its surface area needs to be maximized. This then reduces to maximizing the ratio of the surface area of the cell shape to its perimeter.

Students teams determine the size of the caverns necessary to house the population of the state of Alabraska from the impending asteroid impact. They measure their classroom to determine area and volume, determine how many people the space could sleep, and scale this number up to accommodate all Alabraskans. They work through problems on a worksheet and perform math conversions between feet/meters and miles/kilometers.

Students learn about geotechnical engineers and their use of physical properties, such as soil density, to determine the ability of various soils to offer support to foundations. In an associated activity, students determine the bulk densities of soil samples, and assess their suitability to support foundations.

Students determine the mass and volume of soil samples and calculate the density of the soils. They use this information to determine the suitability of the soil to support a building foundation.

While learning about volcanoes, magma and lava flows, students learn about the properties of liquid movement, coming to understand viscosity and other factors that increase and decrease liquid flow. They also learn about lava composition and its risk to human settlements.

Students learn about porosity and permeability and relate these concepts to groundwater flow. They use simple materials to conduct a porosity experiment and use the data to understand how environmental engineers decide on the placement and treatment of a drinking water well.

The purpose of this task is for students to apply the concepts of mass, volume, and density in a real-world context. There are several ways one might approach the problem, e.g., by estimating the volume of a person and dividing by the volume of a cell.

Brush up on your math skills relating to the volume of rectangular prisms then try some practice problems to test your understanding.

Figure out the volume of an ideal gas at standard temperature and pressure (STP). [13:01]

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This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fifth graders about visually finding weight in compound units.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to give fifth graders an overview of comparison of weights (metric units).

"The volume of a cube can be developed by considering unit cubes, a single row (longs) of unit cubes or a single layer (flats) of cubes using this applet." This easy software makes it possible to easily construct a cube and take it apart. [Requires Java.]

This is an interactive site that enables the viewer to input different measurements in order to learn about surface area and volume for a rectangular prism and a triangular prism.

Colorful animation outlining the relationship between the temperature and volume of gas particles. See what happens when the number of particles and pressure remains constant and the temperature of the gas is altered.

Micropipettes are tools that allow scientists to measure and utilize very small volumes of liquid in the microliter to milliliter range. This scrollable introduces the parts of a micropipette and the proper use of this equipment in the lab.

This activity is an inquiry investigation where students gather data on why the Cartesian diver sinks or floats. They then develop a new question and then conduct a new investigation by changing one variable and repeat the altered experiment and record their conclusions.

This interactive exercise focuses on volume equations, measurement, and problem solving skills to compare the volume of 3D figures constructed from similar amounts of construction materials.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fifth graders about single object length (english units).

In this lesson, students calculate the beats per minute (BPM) of songs in different tempos. Media resources and teacher materials are included.