Sponge Lab
Problem:
Will a
natural sponge or a synthetic sponge absorb more water?
Objectives:
- to determine if natural sponges or
synthetic sponges are more absorbent.
- to use statistical methods to compute
data. .
Hypothesis:
- What sponge type do you predict will
hold more water? Explain why you think
that.
Materials:
Sponge samples: natural and synthetic
(man-made)
Balance
scales
Water
Procedure:
- Weigh the dry natural sponge sample to
the nearest gram. Record in Table 1.
- Weigh the dry artificial sponge sample
to the nearest gram. Record in Table 1.
- Place the natural sponge into a beaker
of water until fully saturated. Take out, let excess water drip
off. Weigh to the nearest gram. Record in Table 1.
- Repeat for artificial sponge.
- Find the perecentage of absorbancy: Divide the
Saturated mass by the Dry mass. Multily 100X=%
- Record your information
Observation
Table 1 : Percentage of Sponge Absorbancy.
|
Dry Weight in
grams |
Saturated Weight in
grams |
Saturated/Dry x 100 =
% |
| Natural Sponge |
|
|
|
| Artificial Sponge |
|
|
|
Table 2 : Class
Percentage of Sponge Absorbancy.
Sponge Absorbancy
|
Natural Sponge |
Artifical
Sponge |
|
Table 1 |
|
|
| Table 2 |
|
|
| Table 3 |
|
|
| Table 4 |
|
|
| Table 5 |
|
|
| Table 6 |
|
|
| Table 7 |
|
|
| Table 8 |
|
|
| Totals |
|
|
| Average Absorbancy |
|
|
Conclusion:
Were you correct or incorrect? What did you
find out?
TEACHER'S NOTE:
For the sponge samples, cut up ordinary household sponges into approx 1
inch squares, do the same to natural sponges. There is a
significant difference in data if you use a dry sponge as opposed to a
damp sponge used by the previous class. So if you use the same sponges all
day, period 1's data will be very different than period 8.