Why Do Ships Float? The Science of Density is a 5-paragraph passage on page 1 of this 4-page 5th grade reading. It covers mass and volume, steel being about 8 times denser than water, a hollow ship holding air, submarine ballast tanks and hot air balloons. A photo shows a cargo ship with a balloon above it. Eight questions follow, including a vocabulary item on chambers, a true or false and a clay boat design response. The key quotes the text for items 6 and 8.
RI.5.1
“Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.”
Question 6 needs a line from the passage as proof, and question 8 asks for evidence from the text to support the clay boat shape.
RI.5.4
“Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject area.”
Question 5 asks what chambers means in the sentence about ballast tanks, and the passage defines density, mass and volume in context.
Five paragraphs that run from a steel bolt sinking to a balloon rising, with ships, submarines and hot air balloons in turn.
Questions 1 to 4 are multiple choice on what density compares, how many times denser steel is than water, why a ship floats and how a submarine rises. Question 5 asks what chambers means.
Question 6 is a true or false on hot and cool air that needs a quote. Question 7 asks about a hole in a ship's hull. Question 8 asks how to shape a ball of clay into a boat that floats.
Letters for the multiple choice, a quoted line for question 6 and model answers for questions 5, 7 and 8.
Bolt and ship
Ask students to predict, before reading, whether a steel bolt and a steel ship float. Then read the first two paragraphs to see why both answers are right.
Clay boats
Question 8 sets up a real test. Give each group a ball of clay and a cup of water, and let them try the shape they described.
Find the quote
Question 6 needs a line from the text as proof. Have students underline the sentence on page 1 before they write.
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