Properties of Water Inquiry Lab Stations Differentiated Inquiry-Based NGSS

Dive into the unique properties of water with these inquiry lab stations designed for middle and high school science classrooms. This lab gives students a hands-on and inquiry-based approach to teaching key scientific concepts, including cohesion, adhesion, capillary action, surface tension, solubility, specific heat, and why ice floats. Students will summarize their learning by constructing a model to explain the structure of water and how its structure is responsible for its unique properties observed in the lab.

Students will observe water's behavior at five different lab stations, make predictions about its behavior, and collect data. I do this lab (just observations and data collection) in one 45 minutes period! I've used this lab in ALL levels of my high school biology class but it can be used at the middle school level too. Your purchase will include FIVE versions of the lab handout to over all levels and needs: honors, academic, scaffolded, virtual, and a Spanish translation.

Give students practice making qualitative and quantitative observations, calculating averages, using data to support claims, developing models, and constructing explanations. The lab can be used as an anchoring phenomenon to start a unit on the structure of water and the unique properties that support life on Earth or as a summative assessment after students learn about water.

What’s Included:

• Detailed Lesson Plan: A structured three-day lesson plan with clear objectives and agendas for lab activities, analysis, and sketch note model creation.
• Implementation Teacher Notes: Two pages of detailed materials lists, setup notes, and different ways to adapt the lab to your unique class and available materials.
• Student Handouts: Five versions of the student lab handouts for differentiated learning and easy implementation.
• Interactive Lab Stations: Five engaging exercises, including "Walking Water," "Penny for Your Thoughts," and "Dissolvable Me," that bring water’s unique properties to life.
• Sketchnote Templates: Creative options for visual learning with blank, labeled, and image-supported templates.
• Sentence Stems and Rubrics: Support for student writing and assessments to help students articulate their understanding clearly.

Why Teachers Love It:

• Aligned with Science Standards: Perfect for biology, chemistry, and general science lessons.
• Flexible Implementation: Use as a multi-day lab or adapt individual activities for stand-alone lessons.
• Engaging and Visual: Students love the mix of experiments and creative assignments, like sketch notes.
• Bilingual Support: Includes sentence stems in English and Spanish to support multilingual classrooms.

Need more info? Check out the full preview of the lab and all the included resources here.