PAPER TOWEL EXPERIMENT Author: Beverly Johnson, Milam Ele., Odessa, TX Subject: Science Age: Fifth or Sixth grade students Time for lesson: Approximately an hour and a half. Teacher Presentation: Some modeling to start students out. Student Activities: Yes. Cooperative Learning Format: Students need to be in groups of 4. Objective: Students will experiment with different brands of paper towels to determine which paper towel is the best buy. A form for the experiment is included below. TAAS Math Objectives Covered (5th Grade): Obj. #1--Rounding Decimals, Obj. #4--Measurement TAAS Reading Objectives Reinforced (5th Grade): Prediction, Drawing Conclusions. Materials needed: 5 different brands of paper towels (Make sure one brand is Bounty, the other brands don't matter.), a form for each group or student, approximately 500 pennies per group, a meter stick for each group, a cup of water for each group, a calculator for each student (or group). Procedures: Fill in the form with the brand names of the towels you use. I made an overhead of the form & filled it in on the overhead. Also, fill in the price of each roll, the number of sheets, and whether it is a one ply or two ply. I suggest that you buy several cheap brands and try to have at least one brand that is a one ply, so the students can compare the difference in ply. Be sure to take one of the two ply towels & split the layers so the students understand what 2 ply means. At this time, I had the class make a prediction about which paper towel is the best buy. Most students will pick the towel with the most sheets & the cheapest price. After you fill in the prices, use the calculator to figure out the cost per sheet. The formula for this is: Cost of roll divided by the number of sheets = cost per sheet. When my class did this experiment, most of the answers were about 0.00845 per sheet. I had my class round this number to the nearest TENTH, so most of the answers were 0.01. (TAAS Math Objective #1) Now, the students need to put about a three inch space between their desks. I demonstrate this with a paper towel at one group so the other groups can watch. What you want is the corners of the paper towel on 4 different desks, with the center of the paper towel NOT being over a desk. Since I usually have groups of 4, two of the students will hold the paper towel while the other two drop the pennies. Before the students begin, have them wet the center of the paper towel with the water. Make sure that just the center & not the corners are wet. While 2 students are holding the paper towel, one student holds a meter stick next to the paper towel & the other student drops the pennies from 40 cm above the desks. The group needs to count the pennies as they are dropped. When the number of pennies breaks the paper towel, the amount is recorded on the chart. I suggest you put the Bounty paper towel in the middle, so the groups will get used to the procedure before they get to the Bounty. You can expect Bounty to hold approximately 400 pennies. Some of the cheap brands will hold only 40 pennies. After the groups finish the experiment, they can draw conclusions about their results. Evaluation: When my class does this experiment, I have each student fill out a form, for an individual grade and I also give each group a participation grade based on how the group worked cooperatively. If you need more information, please feel free to EM me. Enjoy! (BevJune) NAME________________________________ DATE_________________________________ PAPER TOWEL EXPERIMENT PREDICTION: I predict that the ___________________ paper towel is the best buy. One reason for my prediction is ____________________________________________. ===================================================================== BRAND NAME COST\ROLL # SHEETS COST\SHEET PLY PENNIES ===================================================================== ______________*_______________*_____________*______________*________*_________* ______________*_______________*_____________*______________*________*_________* ______________*_______________*_____________*______________*________*_________* ______________*_______________*_____________*______________*________*_________* ______________*_______________*_____________*______________*________*_________* My prediction about the paper towels was _________________________ (correct \ incorrect), because I predicted ____________________________ was the best buy. In our group, the best buy was __________________. The best buy in the class was __________________________________.