Sink or Swim? - Ice Cube Science Experiment for Kids

Materials

Tall glass or jar
Vegetable oil (other cooking oils will do)
Ice Cube

Directions

Before beginning the experiment, ask each other if they think water is heavier or lighter than oil and then test to see!

Fill glass 3/4 full with vegetable oil

Place an ice cube in glass and watch what it does - Does it sink or swim?

As the water melts, watch what happens - Does is sink or swim?

What's Going On?

When water is frozen, molecules expand and take up more room than when they were liquid. Because both the ice cube and water weigh the same, but the ice cube is less dense it floats in oil.

Also Try.....

See if you can make ice cubes sink by filling a metal ice cube tray with water and then starting with the first cube add 1 drop of food coloring, 2 drops to the second cube, 3 drops to the third and so on until you have added 12 drops to the twelfth cube. Freeze ice cubes and repeat the experiment above, but see how many drops of food coloring it took to actually make the ice cube sink rather than float.