Lesson 8 of 8 · Crosscutting Concepts

Experiment⭐ 30 XP

Scale Changes What Matters

🧪Lab Brief #8

Crosscutting Concepts.

🎯 Your mission

Set it up. Test it. Be amazed.

⚡ The twist

Nature loves to surprise the careful watcher.

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Mind = Blown

🔬 The more you look, the more nature shows you.

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Make a hypothesis first

Before you start: write down what you think will happen, and why.

What You'll Learn

An ant can carry many times its own weight and fall from any height unharmed; an elephant can do neither. Strength scales with area but weight scales with volume, so as size grows, weight outruns strength.

Key Words

Tap a word to see its definition.

Materials Needed

centimetre cubes
calculator
notebook

Safety First

Small cubes are a choking hazard — keep them away from young children.

Steps

Step 1 — Read

Read the explanation above and note the two key terms before you start.

Step 2 — Do

Build cubes of side 1, 2 and 3 units from centimetre blocks. Calculate surface area and volume for each, tabulate the ratio, and use it to explain why large animals need proportionally thicker legs.

Step 3 — Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 — Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Check Your Understanding

Question 1

1 of 2

Doubling an object's length multiplies its volume by:

How sure are you going to be?😐 maybe

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Where you see this in real life

This shows up in your everyday life more than you'd think.

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Stretch Challenge

Try this in real life this week.

Try one experiment in real life this week — even a tiny one.

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For the dinner table

“What's the most surprising thing you learned today?”

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Next Smart Experiment

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