Unit 2: The Chemistry of Life

Daysheet 18: The Amazing Properties of Water Lab

Name: ____________________

Biology I
Date: ___________

BELLRINGER:
1. Draw a picture of a water molecule:
Label the hydrogen and oxygen atoms
Label the positive and negative charges

2. How do the oxygen and hydrogen atoms bond together?

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3. Why does the oxygen have a negative charge and the hydrogens a positive charge?

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4. What do we mean when we say water is polar (has polarity)?

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5. When your two water molecules are together, which parts can stick (are attracted) to each other?

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Station 1: Adhesion
Instructions:
1. Observe the graduated cylinder that is filled half way with water.
2. Is the level of the water straight across or does it dip in the middle?
3. Draw a picture of what you see at the water level below:

4. Look on the reading at your table for a definition of adhesion. What evidence does
a meniscus provide for adhestion?
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5. Develop a hypothesis for why the line on the test tube looks like it does above:
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6. Look on the reading at your station for a definition of capillary action:
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Life connection:
7. Plants absorb water in their roots, and need to transport that water up through their
stems to the leaves. How could adhesion help them to do this?
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Station 2: Cohesion
1. Hypothesize: How many drops of water will fit on a
penny before they fall off??
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2. Use the dropper to place water on top of the penny and count how many drops it
can hold without the water falling off.
3. How many drops can fit?
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4. Did the drops on the penny stick together or spread apart?
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5. Look on the reading at your station for a definition of cohesion. What evidence
does the penny experiment provide for cohesion?
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6. What is responsible for waters cohesion?
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Life connection:
7. Plants absorb water in their roots, and need to transport that water up through their
stems to the leaves. How could cohesion help them to do this?
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CLEARN UP: DRY OFF PENNY AND PLACE ON PAPER TOWEL

Station 3: Ice
1. Do solids usually float or sink when placed in water?
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2. Develop a hypothesis: Will ice float or sink when you put it in water?
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3. Fill a beaker with water.
4. Place a penny in the water.
5. Does it float or sink?
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6. Place a few pieces of ice in the beaker.
7. Does the ice float or sink? Record your observations below:
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8. Look at the reading at your station and answer the following question in your own
words: Why does ice float on water?
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Life connection:
9. How would living things be affected if ice did NOT float on liquid water?
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CLEAN- UP: REMOVE ICE FROM WATER AND PLACE BACK IN ICE BEAKER!

Station 4: Solute and Solvents

1. Hypothesize: What happens when you add salt to water?
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2.
3.
4.
5.

Fill one beaker with water.

Measure one spoonful of salt.
Stir with a stirring stick.
Record observations about the salt and water below:

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6. Look at the reading at your station; what are the definitions of the following terms:
Solute:
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Solvent:
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7. Is water a solvent or a solute? ____________________________________
8. Is salt a solvent or a solute? ______________________________________
9. Look at the reading at your station and answer the following question in your own
words: Why is water the universal solvent?
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Life connection:
10. Materials (like nutrients and oxygen) have to move all over your body. How do
you think materials move from one place to another in the body?
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CLEAN-UP: DUMP SALT WATER IN SINK CLOSET AND
REFILL WITH FRESH WATER!

Station 5: Surface Tension

1. Hypothesize: Can a paperclip float on water?
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2. Fill one beaker with water.
3. Drop a paperclip into the water.
4. Record observations about what happened below:
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5. Use the plastic fork to gently lay the paperclip of the surface of the water.
6. Record observations about what happened below:
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7. Look on the reading at your station for a definition of surface tension. Write a
definition in your own words of surface tension:
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8. What property of water causes surface tension?
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9. Place some drops of water on a penny. Stick a toothpick in soap and then stick the
toothpick in the center of the water. Parts of soap are nonpolar. Describe what you
think is happening below:
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Life connection:
10. Why do you think surface tension important for some organisms?
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Station 6: Heating and Cooling

1. Hypothesize: Which will heat up faster water or wood?
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2. Press play, and let the clock go until the hour-hand (the shorter hand) is pointed at
the 3, and the minute hand (the shorter hand) is pointed at the 12 (if you do not get
it exactly dont worry!) This is 3:00pm. The hottest time of day.
Click the weather probe box. A small weather balloon will appear. Drag the
weather balloon over the land and then over the water. Record the temperature of
each below:
Land: ______________
Water: ________________
3. Water has a high heat capacity. This means that it heats up and slows down very
slowly. What evidence of this property do you have at your station?
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4. Why do you think waters high heat capacity is important to aquatic organisms
(organisms that live in water)?
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5. Why do you think waters high heat capacity is important to humans?
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6. What do you think would happen if water did not have a high heat capacity (if it
heated up and cooled down quickly)?
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Conclusion Questions:
1. Imagine you repeated this lab using oil, which is nonpolar. How do you think what you
observed would change for each of the following stations:
Station 1: Adhesion:
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Station 2: Cohesion
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Station 4: Solute and Solvent
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2. Write one paragraph using the following role, audience, form, and topic:
Your Role = You are a water Molecule!
Your Audience = Living Things!
The Form = Persuasive Speech!
The Topic = You feel underappreciated by living things. Talk about why you are so
important to life and why living things should appreciate you more!
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HW18: The Properties of Water

Name: __________________________
FLIP
The Water Molecule
Waters scientific name is H20. This means
one molecule of water has 2 atoms of
hydrogen and 1 atom of oxygen.
Water is polar. This means that parts of the
molecule are slightly negatively charged and
parts of the molecule are slightly positively
charged. In water, the oxygen atom has a
small negative charge, and the hydrogen
atoms each have a small positive charge.

Waters polarity causes it to have lots of

unique properties. For example, water
molecules stick to each other. This is called
cohesion. Cohesion occurs because the
positively charged hydrogen atoms are
attracted to the negatively charged oxygen
atoms. You can see this property of water in
action of the surface of lakes and ponds. The
water molecules are attracted to one another,
so they stick together, forming a thin layer on
the surface of water that some insects can
walk on! This is called surface tension.

Because water is polar, it is also attracted to

lots of other substances besides water. This
property of water is called adhesion.
Cohesion and adhesion are both necessary to
helping water move up the stem of plants
against gravity. Adhesion causes water to be
attracted and pulled up the plant stem, and
cohesion helps the water molecules stick
together as they are pulled up towards the
leaves. This combination of cohesive and
adhesive forces is called capillary action. If it
werent for cohesion and adhesion, plants
could not get the water they need to make
food and grow!

Biology I
Date: _____________________
FLOP
1. On the water molecule below, label
the hydrogen atoms and the oxygen
atom

2. On the water molecule above, label

which parts are negatively charged, and
which parts are positively charged
3. On the two water molecules below,
draw dotted lines ------ between the
parts that are attracted to one another

4. What causes surface tension?

5. What is the difference between
cohesion and adhesion?

6. Why are cohesion and adhesion both

important to plants?

Because water is polar, it is can dissolve a

wide variety of substances. In fact, water is so
good at dissolving different things, we call it
the universal solvent. When water
dissolves something, it breaks it up into such
tiny pieces that we cannot see it anymore
but its still in the water! This property of water
is extremely important to living things. Most of
lifes chemical reactions take place in water. In
humans, water makes up most of our blood,
and helps dissolve and transport nutrients all
over our bodies.

The last really amazing thing about water is

that it is less dense as a solid than a liquid.
This means that when water freezes, the
molecules inside expand and become more
spread out. Living cells are mostly made of
water. If they freeze, the water molecules
inside will expand and could cause the cell to
burst! This is part of the reason why most
living things must have adaptations to
maintain a stable body temperature.
You can see that water is less dense as a
solid than a liquid anytime you put ice in a
glass of water the solid ice floats! This
property of water is really important to living
things. If ice did not float on top of lakes and
ponds in the winter, it would sink to the bottom
and either freeze or crush all the fish and other
organisms underneath! Ice is also an
important habitat in the arctic polar bears,
penguins, and seals all rely on floating ice for
their home.

Water dissolves many substances. This

occurs because water has
A. surface tension
B. specific heat
C. polarity
D. cohesion

8. Why do the cells of most living things

burst when they freeze?

9. What property of water do you think

is the most important to living thing?
Why?

Station 1: Adhesion
Because water is polar (has positive and negative sides), water is adhesive.
Adhesion means that water likes to stick to other substances. For example, when you put
water in a graduated cylinder, the water molecules adhere (stick) to the glass sides of the
cylinder, forming a meniscus.
Adhesion is important for capillary action. Capillary action is the ability of water
to move up a small tube against the force of gravity. Capillary action is extremely
important in plants. Plants absorb water from the ground into their roots, and then must
transport that water all the way up the plant to the leaves against the force of gravity.
Because water is adhesive, it sticks to the sides of the inside of the plant stem, helping the
water move up the plant!

Station 2: Cohesion
Because water is polar (has positive and negative sides), water is cohesive.
Cohesion means that water likes to stick to itself. Positively-charged hydrogen atoms of
one water molecule will stick to negatively charged oxygen atoms of another water
molecule. These attractions are called hydrogen bonds.
Cohesion is important for plants. Plants have to transport water from the group up
to their leaves against the force of gravity. Because water molecules like to stick together,
it is easier for the plant to move large amounts of water up its stem at one time.

Station 3: Ice
Most solids sink when they are placed in water. But ice (solid water) is special
when ice is placed on water it floats! This is because solid water is less dense than liquid
water! Because water is polar (has positive and negative sides), when water freezes it
forms a crystal. The structure of this crystal has more empty spaces than liquid water, so
it is less dense and can float.

Solid Water (Ice)

Liquid Water

Station 4: Solute and Solvents

A solute is the substance that gets dissolved. A solvent is the substance that does
the dissolving. For example, when you dissolve salt in water, salt is the solute, and water
is the solvent.
Water is known as the universal solvent because it is really good at dissolving
stuff. Water is the universal solvent because it is polar (has positive and negative sides).
Because water is polar it is sticky, and can pull other substances apart into small pieces,
dissolving them.
Waters ability to dissolve stuff is really important for living things because it can
break apart big molecules into small pieces and transport them. Water can be used to
transport substances into our cells, and around our body (our blood is mostly water).
Without water, your cells and body parts wouldnt be able to get the nutrients they need
to survive!

Station 5: Surface Tension

Because water is polar, water molecules are cohesive they like to stick together.
When water molecules of the surface of lakes and ponds stick together, we call it surface
tension. The water molecules form a surface that insects and some animals can walk on.
Some insects such as the water strider and water spider pictured below live entirely
on the surface of the water. Without surface tension, these insects couldnt survive. The
Jesus lizard can run on the surface of water to escape predators.

Water strider

Water spider

Jesus Lizard