Valentine Candy Heart Measurements Lab
Learning to use a scale and balance is important in the study of science. As your student progresses through their school career, it will become evident how crucial it is that they learn how to measure and use scientific measuring tools appropriately. This is especially true if they want to pursue a profession in science or medicine. However, learning to use a triple beam balance is just one of the many skills students learn in general science along with estimating and predicting. The Valentine Candy Heart Measurements Lab is a hands-on learning lab designed to teach kids these valuable skills. Be sure to check out our full line of Science Curriculum including our SI Units Unit which will help you teach scientific measurements.
Don’t forget to check out our collection of Valentine Printables & Activities including our other Valentine Labs!
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Lab Materials List
In this lab investigation, your student will need 10 conversation hearts, a lab sheet print-out, and a triple beam balance. I would encourage you to let your student try measuring the mass of random objects before asking them to predict the mass of the candy hearts. If you let them investigate mass first, they will be more successful in their predictions. However, if time does not permit this, than go for it anyway!
How to conduct the Valentine Candy Heart Measurements Lab
Before your student measures the first candy, have them predict what they think the mass of the 1st heart will be. Not only will your student practice using a triple beam balance and configuring mass, but they will learn to adjust their predictions based on learned information. For example, a student may predict that the first candy heart will be 5 grams. But then after measuring its mass, it is actually only 3 grams. Consequently, the student will hopefully adjust their predicted mass for the next candy heart plus the mass of the first.
Walk them through the process and stick around until they feel comfortable completing the task. For younger students, your presence may be needed for the duration of the lab. Students may have a difficult time at first understanding that their predictions will increase since the number of hearts they are measuring at once increases from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4, etc. Once your students mass measurement chart is complete, guide them through the discussion questions encouraging critical thinking and explanation of their answers.
Food for thought...
Looking for a more permanent science curriculum? Even though we pursue various science units that encompass labs and such, we also use a science textbook each year. Some might say that our science units supplement our textbook, while others would say the opposite to be true. The labs, experiments, graphic organizers, videos, and other activities bring the textbook information to life.
We use Abeka Science textbooks. I love that they incorporate God and His sovereignty into their curriculum. When I taught in the public school system, I noticed that many of my students were lacking in vocabulary. This made it difficult for them to understand the why behind many of our investigations. Unfortunately, they were deficient in their background knowledge. Our science time would be lacking too if it weren’t for the rich vocabulary and science language that we find in our science textbooks and readers. If you are interested in shopping for a full-time science curriculum or even just a textbook to guide you, click on the following link! Happy homeschooling!
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