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  • In this activity, students conduct a few simple activities to learn more about surface tension – a liquid’s thin ‘skin’.

    By the end of this activity, students should be able to:

    • talk about water molecules and the way in which they are attracted to each other
    • talk about how the various activities demonstrate surface tension
    • use equipment in a consistent manner.

    Download the Word file for:

    • introduction/background notes
    • what you need
    • what to do
    • student handout.

    Related activity ideas

    See the activity Observing bubbles and explore surface tension further – the curious force that holds individual liquid molecules together.

    Follow up with Investigating bubbles – in this activity students work as scientists as they experiment with bubbles.

    Useful link

    This short video on YouTube demonstrates the effect of soap on surface tension.

      Published 22 June 2014 Referencing Hub articles
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