Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes

Tune in: What will change?

20 minutes

Find out: Experiment time!

20 minutes

Reflection: What did we learn?

Tune in: What will change?

Step 1.

Explain to students that you are going to test whether twisting and folding a piece of paper towel changes its property of absorbency.

Step 2.

Have students write their predictions in the Student Worksheet.

Find out: Experiment time!

Step 1.

Stick a piece of masking tape lengthwise down the outside side of your jar.

Step 2.

Fill the jar with water and mark the level of water on the tape with your marker.

Step 3.

Rip off one sheet of paper towel from the roll and dip it into the water in the jar until it is entirely wet. If you accidentally drop the sheet, carefully pour the water into another jar before retrieving the paper, then return the water to the original jar.

Step 4.

Mark the new water level on the tape with the title 'Experiment 1'.

Step 5.

Now grab another single sheet of towel. This time, fold the towel four times into a tight little square.

Step 6.

Dip the square into the water in the jar until it is entirely wet.

Step 7.

Mark the new water level again on the tape. Is it different from Experiment 1?

Step 8.

Now grab another single sheet of towel. This time, scrunch the paper up, into a cylinder so you can still hold it.

Step 9.

Dip the scrunched paper into the water in the jar until it is entirely wet.

Step 10.

Mark the new water level again on the tape. Is it different from Experiment 1 and 2? It shouldn't be!

Reflection: What did we learn?

Folding or scrunching the paper does not change the way they soak up water. We have changed some parts of the paper towel, the size and shape, but we have not changed their material composition. There is just as much of the same type of paper still present, even though we have changed how it looks.

Water Absorption Experiment

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