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🧪 Science with Sarah: Floating sharks at the San Antonio Zoo! 🦈

Sharks weigh a ton...literally! How do they stay afloat??

👉 Watch the video of Sarah’s school science experiment here!

Hello parents, teachers and students! We’re starting a new and exciting partnership with the San Antonio Zoo ahead of the 2023-2024 school year. While Sarah and David will be back in classrooms in the fall, this summer they’re at the San Antonio Zoo. Today’s experiment is all about the biology of nature’s most misunderstood fish...the shark!

Be sure to check out GMSA@9 on Wednesdays when Meteorologist Sarah Spivey does the demonstrations and explains the science behind it.

Science with Sarah in partnership with the San Antonio Zoo (Copyright KSAT 2023 - All rights reserved)

HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL NEED

  • Oil
  • Dish soap
  • A bucket or large bowl of water
  • 2 balloons
  • A funnel
  • Sharpies (optional)

DO THE EXPERIMENT

  • Using the funnel, fill one balloon with oil and the other with dish soap. The balloons will only barely be filled. Try to get as much air as possible out of the balloon
  • Decorate your balloons to look like sharks!
  • Before placing the “sharks” in the water, try to guess which one will float and which one will sink
  • Place the balloons in the water and watch as one floats to the top.

HOW IT WORKS

Sharks can weigh thousands of pounds, so why don’t they sink?? The answer is because they have oil inside of their bodies...specifically in their livers! The oil helps them stay afloat because oil is lighter than water.

In this experiment, you can clearly see that the balloon with oil in it floats to the top...just like a shark!

SCIENCE WITH SARAH

If you’d like Sarah and David to come to your school and conduct a science experiment live on KSAT, fill out this form. “Winners” are selected at random.

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About the Authors
Sarah Spivey headshot

Sarah Spivey is a San Antonio native who grew up watching KSAT. She has been a proud member of the KSAT Weather Authority Team since 2017. Sarah is a Clark High School and Texas A&M University graduate. She previously worked at KTEN News. When Sarah is not busy forecasting, she enjoys hanging out with her husband and cat, and playing music.

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