Task 12

Materials and tools for a working group:

tools designed by pupils, spirit level

What the pupils have learned in their previous tasks can be used to solve the problem 12. The research question is: How can water be used to determine whether an object is stored horizontally or not. The task of the pupils is to propose an exact process that uses the properties of water and how it is exposed to the force of gravity to create a tool that can be reused to determine if the surface being examined is horizontal or not.

As in similar tasks, pupils also present their ideas and discuss them. They can further customize their suggestions and discuss the tools they need to implement. They will be provided by the teacher or brought by the pupils. Another good option is to prepare a homework tool.

Using their water-based tools, pupils try to find out in the classroom which school tables are placed horizontally and which are not. Each group carries out observations with its own instrument. In order to be able to compare the results in the end, the pupils create a scheme of storing the benches in the classroom and number them in the same way before realizing the research. To see if their school table positioning tool is working or not, they will use a formal tool for each table to familiarize themselves with the spirit level. Finally, they evaluate whether their tool works or the results are obtained by a spirit level and their own tool different.

Finally, the pupils try to balance the school tables that they found to be not horizontal. They justify their alignment procedures and check their posture with a spirit level during alignment. Then the teacher leads the pupils to reflect on why it is good to have a table placed horizontally. The teacher can also develop this topic to other objects, such as building a home, storing a washing machine, or a hob in the home.