Fill It First

The object of the game is to predict the volume of marbles as they are added to a graduated cylinder containing water. The winner is the team with the highest number of points after each team has added a total of 20 cc of marbles. This is a game for two teams of two students each.

Materials

Directions

1. Fill your graduated cylinder with water to the 50-cc mark using the following steps.
• Add water to the cylinder until it almost reaches the 50-cc mark.
• Use an eyedropper to add the last few drops carefully.
• To read the water level correctly, put your eyes at the level of the water.
• When water creeps up the sides of a cylinder, it forms a meniscus which makes it look as though there are two lines. Read the lower line of the meniscus.
2. Team 1 spins the spinner to find out whether to add one, two, three, or four marbles to the water in their graduated cylinder.
3. Before adding the marbles, Team 1 predicts the volume of the marbles and records the prediction on the Fill It First Score Sheet.
4. Team 1 carefully slides the marble(s) into the water and calculates the volume of the marbles. If their prediction is correct, the team scores one point for each marble added. Both teams must agree on the actual volume of the marbles.
5. Then Team 2 takes a turn using Steps 2–4.
6. When it is Team 1's turn again, they spin to find the number of marbles they will add to their cylinder. Before adding the marbles, team members predict the total volume of all the marbles in the cylinder after the new marbles are added. Then they slide the marbles into the cylinder. If they predicted correctly, they earn a point for each new marble added.
7. The first team to have a total of 20 cc of marbles in their cylinder scores an extra three points. The team then waits for the other team to have a total of 20 cc of marbles.
8. The team with the highest number of points wins.

Game Variations