Science Projects on Mass

Laboratory activities make scientific concepts more concrete for students.

Mass refers to the amount of matter contained in an object. Students in earth science, physics, chemistry and biology courses must be familiar with the concept of mass and how it is calculated. Hands-on lab activities make calculating mass more engaging and concrete than worksheet activities. The activities in this article are appropriate for high school or advanced middle school students.

Atomic Mass Activity

Pair up the students and provide each pair with various types of dried grains or small vegetables such as rice, beans, peas or oats. Have the students measure the mass of three identical empty cups. Ask the students to choose three different food types from the grains and other foods provided. Instruct the students to choose a number of grains for their experiment; they may choose any number they wish, but they need to use the same number for each type of grain. Tell students to count out that number of each of their three types of grain placing each type into a separate cup; have them hypothesize which grains will have the greatest and least mass. Have students measure the mass of the grains in the cups and subtract the mass of the empty cups to calculate the mass of the grains. Instruct students to calculate the relative or atomic mass: identify the grains that are lightest and divide the mass of each grain type by the number of grains. Have students record all these amounts in a data table. Discuss the differences based on the number of grains used. For a printable worksheet to accompany this activity, see article References.

Lincoln Penny Lab

For this experiment, each pair of students will need a graduated cylinder, a calculator, a triple-beam balance, a copper sample and a container of 10 pennies. Have students find the mass and volume of the copper sample and calculate its density from those measurements (as they should know that density=mass/volume). Tell students to record all of the measurements. Instruct the students to arrange their pennies from oldest to youngest; have the students find and record the mass of each penny. Instruct the students to use the density of copper they found previously (using the sample) and the mass of the pennies to determine the volume of each penny. Students should realize that the volume calculations are incorrect. Discuss why, even though the pennies are identical in size, the volume measurements should be so different. The difference is due to the different amount of copper each penny. For a printable copy of this lab, see article References.

Hey Gumshoe Experiment

Have students bring in a pack of their favorite gum. Tell students to weigh a piece of the gum (without the wrapper) using a triple-beam balance. Instruct students that they will chew their gum and measure the change in the mass after chewing. Students will need to time their chewing sessions with a stopwatch. Have students hypothesize how chewing will affect the mass of the gum, then record and graph the changes they observe.

Hershey Bar Activity

Give each pair of students a standard Hershey bar; have measure the mass of the entire (unwrapped) bar. They should then hypothesize as to the mass of half of the bar. Tell students to break the bar in half and measure the mass of each half. Instruct the students to repeat the procedure with quarters and then individual bar sections. Discuss whether or not their hypotheses were correct. You may want to have the students calculate and record the volume and density for each size of section. For a printable worksheet for this activity, see article References.

References

• Northwestern University: What is Mass?
• Atomic Mass Activity
• Lincoln Penny Lab
• Hey Gumshoe Experiment
• Hershey Bar Activity