Observing water’s thin ‘skin’
In this activity, students conduct a few simple activities to learn more about surface tension – a liquid’s thin ‘skin’.
Water’s thin elastic layer
Surface tension is when the surface of a liquid acts like a thin elastic layer. Surface tension causes water to form drops and spheres.
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.
