At the end of March, Mrs. Loredana Parker's students tried flipping water bottles such that the bottles would land in a standing position. Lately, it seems kids are flipping all kinds of objects, trying to get them to land upright. Most times, the item being flipped lands on its side or bounces away. Every once in a while, the item lands upright. Some items are easier to flip and have them land well, and water bottles are one of the easier items to flip.
The third graders flipped their water bottles repeatedly. They tested the different weights of bottles that were empty, quarter-full, half-full, and full. As they worked, they kept tally tables and some of the kids became quite good a flipping their water bottles to a successful landing. Adding some water to the bottle, seems to help it "stick the landing." Once they were done collecting their data sample in the tally chart, the students created bar graphs, which represented their bottle-flipping statistics.
What a fun way to learn about repetitive experimentation, tallying, and creating graphs!