1.

Pre-class: Pressure exerted in a fluid 

 
Experience Overview 

 
Aim:​ Understand the effect of pressure inside a fluid
Suggested time:​ 30 minutes at home and 10 minutes in class
Activity reference:​ ​Rising air bubble in water​ (Watch video, perform experiments, share & 
debrief in class)
 
Note: This activity is done at home independently by each student and is debriefed 
during the class  
 

Instructions to be shared with the students (before class) 

 
● Watch the video: ​Rising air bubble in water
● After watching the video, make your own 2 videos 
a. Take 2 identical glasses.  
b. Fill one with oil and one with water at equal levels.  
c. Use a straw to gently blow bubbles through the glasses by placing the 
open end at the bottom of the glass.  
d. Record the motion of the bubble as it rises through each liquid in an 
observation sheet. 
e. Try this multiple times and observe the motion to get a good general 
understanding and rule out anomalies.  
f. Try different variations of the experiment by changing  
■ the level of the straw 
■ the volume of liquid 
■ the type of liquid 
■ the shape of the glass 
■ the force of the blow 
■ Or whatever else you can think of! The weirder, the better! 
● Choose the videos that you think display your understanding of the process the 
best and fill in your observation sheet accordingly. 
● Add any other things you might have noticed or we might have missed in the 
observation sheet under a section called ‘comments’.  
● Use the guiding questions to help you analyse your observations.  
● You will have to summarise your thoughts and learnings in 30 seconds in the class 
so keep them organised! 
● Upload your chosen videos and observation sheet in a common folder or share the 
same with your teacher on whatsapp. 
 
 
 In class Debrief (10 minutes) 

 
1. Pinwheel activity 
● Students are chosen at random based on the wheel. 
● Each person is given 30s to summarise their experiences. 
● Feel free to ask questions at any point! 
 
2. Think Pair Share 
● In groups of 2 each set of students is given a set of WHAT IF questions.  
1. What if we did this bubble experiment at Mt. Everest? 
2. What if we did this experiment under different seasons? 
3. What if we did it on a different planet altogether? 
4. What if we used a different liquid in place of water, say oil? 
5. What if you were in place of the bubble, how would you feel? 
 
● Post discussion time, one person in each group shares their answer and 
tags a person in another group 
 
● Students hear each other's answers and observe similarities & differences. 
a. What did someone else say that surprised you the most? 
b. What did someone else say that you disagreed with & why? 
c. What do you think about how pressure behaves in fluids now? 
● Teacher consolidates the discussion points and leads into the next part of 
the lesson. 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2. Relationship between Pressure and area 
 
Experience Overview 

Aim​: Understand that pressure and area are inversely related.

Suggested time​: 10 minutes
Activity reference​: ​Watch this video from 1:00 to 1:30
 
Note: This activity and debrief is to be done during the class.  
 

Instructions to be given: 

 
Ask the students to keep a pencil (or a pen with the cap open) using the index finger and 
the thumb as shown in the reference video for about a minute. The students will observe 
the depression in the finger that was holding the pointed end of the pencil (or pen) than 
on the other finger.  
 

Questions you can ask post the activity: 

 
1. Which finger had a deeper depression and why? (more open-ended…?) 
2. Why do you think there was a deeper depression in one of the fingers and not the 
other? 
3. Do you think the force was constant on both the fingers? Why or why not? 
4. What do you think is the relationship between pressure and surface area? Why 
would you say that? Can you justify this with another example? 
 

 
How to introduce this in the classroom: 
 
1. Give instructions and ask the students to follow it with you 
2. Use a set of questions from the options to debrief the experience with them. As 
they share, ask “​what makes you say that​” to get them to justify their responses 
with concrete evidence. 
3. As the students respond, get a gauge on how many students have understood the 
relationship between pressure and area 
4. Clarify if there are any misconceptions 
5. You can share another example that reinforces the same concept. You could also 
ask the students to share examples that they can think of.  
 3. Factors affecting pressure in a fluid 
 
Experience Overview 

 
Aim:​ Understand that pressure increases with depth
Suggested time:​ 10 minutes
Activity reference:​ ​Watch this video
 
Note: This activity and debrief is to be done during the class.  
 

How to facilitate this in class? 

 
1. Get the students to ​Watch this video​ in class
2. Debrief using the questions: (You can ask the students to tag each other 
and share responses or pick students in any order)  
a. What did you observe in the video? 
b. What did you understand from it and what are you confused about? 
c. What connections were you able to make with the bubble experiment you 
conducted at home? 
3. Clarify that pressure is directly proportional to depth - the pressure inside a liquid 
column increases with depth 
 

Other factors that influence pressure in a liquid column 

 
● Ask the students if they can guess the other factors that influence the pressure in a 
liquid column 
● If the students were to imagine a column of liquid, the pressure acting at the base 
is dependent on the weight of the liquid.  
● This can be seen in two parts - density of the liquid and the gravitational force 
(acceleration due to gravity).  
● Hence the pressure is also directly proportional to weight of the liquid and the 
acceleration due to gravity 
● Use this concept to arrive at:  
Pressure = density x acceleration due to gravity x height [P = ⍴​gh]
 

 
  
 
 
 2.Solving numericals 
 
Experience Overview 

Aim:​ Apply my understanding in numerical problems

Suggested time:​ 15 minutes
 
Note: This activity and debrief is to be done during the class.  

Numerical examples 

Problem 1: Guided problem solving - on whiteboard - led by teacher 

1. At what depth in water is the increased pressure five times greater than 
atmospheric pressure (101 kPa)? (Density of water = 10^3 kg/m^3) 
(Solution : 5 x 101 = 505 kPa, 505000 Pa,  
P = hρg, rearranging gives ​h = P/ρg​ = 505000/(1000 x 9.8) = ​51.5 m) 
 
Problem 2: Individual problem solving by the student:  
2. At a depth of 12.5 m of a chemical solvent the pressure at the bottom of 
the storage tank due to the solvent was 306 kPa. Calculate density of the 
solvent. (Solution : P = hρg, rearranging gives ​ρ = P/hg​ = 306000/(12.5 x 
9.8) = ​2498​ kg/m​3 

How to facilitate this in the classroom? 

 
Protocol:​ Think Pair Resolve Share
Students get into pairs and discuss how they reached these answers 
If they are different, students work together to get to the correct answer 
 
● Teacher to model one numerical for the students 
● Each of the students solve another numerical similar to how it was modeled 
● Total time for each numerical: ~2 minutes  
● Post individual practice: assign students into pairs and get them to discuss how 
they reached these answers 
● Students work together in pairs to get to the correct answer and clarify 
misconceptions 
 
Based on the observation during the lesson,  
● If the majority of the class has not understood the concept, the teacher ​re-teaches 
the concept with a different approach.
● If the majority of the class needs help in only a small part, the teacher takes help of 
a student to ​remediate​ that part for the rest of the class.
● If the majority of the class has understood it, the teacher takes help of a student to 
revise & summarize​ the topic.
 3.End of the class assessment 
 
Questions 

 
1) [Knowledge] The SI unit of pressure is _______ and the CGS unit is _____. (Ans : 
pascal dyne cm^-2) 
2) [Knowledge] How is the unit bar related to the S.I. unit of the quantity, ie, 1 bar = 
? ? (Ans : 10^5 pascal) 
3) [Knowledge] Total pressure in a liquid at a depth h = ____________ + pressure due 
to liquid column. (Ans : atmospheric pressure) 
4) [Understanding] There are 4 tubes attached to a horizontal tube. When you pour 
water in one tube, the water level remains the ______ in all the 4 tubes.  
(Ans : same ) 
5) [Understanding] If I were to create a dam, I would make the base thicker or 
narrower than the top of the dam? (Ans : thicker) 
6) [Application]At what depth below the surface of water will pressure be equal to 
twice the atmospheric pressure? The atmospheric pressure is 10 N cm-2, density 
of water is 103 kg m-3 and g = 9·8 m s-2. (Ans: 10.2 m) [OR, Calculate the 
pressure due to a water column of height 100 m, (Take g = 10 m s^-2 and density 
of water = 10^3 kg m^-3). (Ans: 10^6 N m^-2) ] 
 

Post class activity idea: Diwali mela game 

1. Bangle in bottom of the bucket (​BEST Evergreen Game- Bucket & Coin Game​)
2. Drop different objects in the centre.  
3. Set up at home, try it at home, practice and try to win.  
4. Invite people in your family to try it.  
5. Observe your results/score in a template similar to what is shown in ​this doc​. 
Record 2 min video of your attempts and share in a common folder. 

Based on your activity, answer the following questions briefly: 

1. What was your strategy to win and why? 

2. How can you make it more challenging for yourself?  
3. If you were to cheat, how would you do it? 

Be prepared to come listen to your classmates ideas - I wonder how different their 
answers will be, don’t you?