Water Investigation 1, Part 3 Water on a Slope

Water on a Mountainside What might happen to a raindrop that falls into a stream flowing down a mountain side?

Equipment you need: Tray Wax paper Dropper Plain water Textbooks – 3 per group Paper towel

Slope Activity Create a slope by propping one end of a tray on 2 books. Lay your waxed paper on the tray to create a smooth surface. Use droppers to drop water on the waxed paper. OBSERVE the behavior of the drops. Return the water to your cup when it collects in the bottom of the tray.

Have you tried this? Drop drops on top of each other. Drop drops from different heights. Compare the speed of different sizes of beads on the slopes. Find out if one bead can chase and catch another bead.

What did you observe?

Water-Dome Races If you had a race between two water domes, which one would get to the bottom of the slope first?

Dome Race Procedure Prop one end of the tray on a book. Hold up the other end of the tray so it is level. Make several water domes of different sizes across the book end of the level tray. The domes will contain, one drop, two drops, three drops, and so forth. Lower the other end of the tray and observe.

What did you observe? Which domes were the slowest? Which domes were the fastest?

What will happen now? What do you think would happen to the speed of the water domes if you increased the slope of the tray?

Vocabulary to highlight A SLOPE is a slanted surface. FLOW describes the movement of liquid over a surface.

What new properties of water did we identify? Water flows down a slope. Bigger domes of water move down a slope faster. Water flows faster down a steeper slope.

Let’s read Which Way Does it Go? Science Stories Let’s read Which Way Does it Go?