Conclusion on Teaching of Liquid Measurement

Conclusion:

            As a conclusion, different level of students are both having misconception on liquid measurement where basically size/shape of container, height of water lever, measurement unit and scale reading skill are always affecting their judgments.

            Luckily, different level of students can both be tough to solve the misconception by different type of teach methods and teaching aids. After applying the above mentioned method and aids, the student’s misconceptions are significantly resolved where student clearly understood their misconception after comparing the final result and their initial estimation.

            The last thing to emphasize here is, regardless the level of student, misconception of liquid measurement among different level of student can be resolved as long as the teachers are using the correct method and aids.

Teaching activity B (for high achiever students)

Teaching activity B (for high achiever students)

Date    :           28 September 2010

Time    :           10:00 am ~ 10:30 am

Class    :           2G

Learning outcome:      At the end of the lesson, the students are able to measure volumes of liquid using uniform non-standard units.

Materials         :           Five containers with different sizes and few pieces of plastic cups

Procedures:

1.      Divide the class into groups of five students and have them work in their cooperative groups.

2.      Appoint one student in the group to be the recorder.

3.      Give each group a set of containers.

4.      Have the students fill the container A, B, C, D and E with any amount of water.

5.      Have the student estimate the number of cups of water contained in container A.

6.      Have the student pour out and fill the plastic cup to check their estimation.
7.      Repeat step 5 and 6 for container B, C, D and E to continue for the water measurement.
8.      Have the student record their findings in the following table.

Container	Estimate	Measurement
A	5 cups	6 cups
B
C
D
E

9.      Have the students write their findings in the statement below.
 10.      Have the students discussed on the five containers, which have the smallest capacity and which have the largest capacity.
11.      Instruct the students to arrange the five containers in ascending order of their capacities.
12.      Instruct the students to arrange the five containers in descending order of their capacities.

The water in the container A can fill         6      cups.

The water in the container B can fill                 cups.

The water in the container C can fill                 cups.

The water in the container D can fill                 cups.

The water in the container E can fill                 cups.

Teaching Activity A (for low achiever students)

Teaching Activity A (for low achiever students)

Date    :           28 August 2010

Time    :           10:00 am ~ 10:30 am

Class    :           2G

Learning outcome       : Compare the volume of liquids by direct comparison.

Materials         : Five Plastic Bottles with different sizes and five glasses of same size

Procedures:

1.      Divide the class into groups of five students and have them work in their cooperative groups.

2.      Label the five different sizes bottles with A,B,C,D,E

3.      The bottles are fills in different volume of water.

4.      Ask students to compare and estimate the volume of the water in the bottle.

5.      Students are asked to estimate and arrange the five bottles in ascending order with the volume of water.

6.      Appoint one student in the group to record their estimation.

7.      Ask student to pour the water into five large glasses which have the same sizes.

8.      Students now can compare the volume of water in the large glasses.

9.      Students arrange the five glasses in ascending order with the volume of water.

10.      Students are then asked to record their estimation of volume and actual measurement. The comparison will make them understand the concept of liquid behaviour in different container and thus make them understand more about liquid measurement.

Container	Ascending order
Estimate (Bottles)	E,D,B,A,C
Measurement (Glasses)	E,B,D,A,C

 





Teaching Aids for Liquid Measurement

Teaching Aids

Uses of kitchen utilities as Aids

Some of the suggested kitchen utilities are food container and drinking glasses. I would like to choose these materials as my teaching aids due to several reasons:

·         Food container and drinking glasses are necessary in every kitchen utilities list thus there is no problem of availability. Besides, they are available in plastic or paper-made form that reduces the risk of harm due to the fragility of glasses or bowls made of glass or ceramic.

·         It does not create burden to teacher or parents since it is already available in each houses.

·         They are available in various dimensions for a certain volume. This inadvertently enables the students to understand the concept of volume measurement in different types of similar containers.

·         Students can easily associate with such aids since they are common use item in households.

Food Container

Tea Cup

     Uses of Commercially-available Plastic-based Bottles as Aids

Some of the suggested commercially available plastic based bottles are bottled fruit juices or mineral water. I would like to choose these materials as my teaching aids due to several reasons:

·         Plastic-based bottled juices or mineral water are easily available from a mini market to large supermarket and even vendor machines.

·         They are easily available at reasonably low price and thus making it affordable as a classroom teaching aids without creating burdens for teacher or parents.

·         They are available in various dimensions for a certain volume. This inadvertently enables the student to understand the concept of volume measurement in different types of similar containers.

·         They can be recycled which is in support of government policy and at the same time create awareness among student’s regards of recycling.

PVC Bottles

Introduction to Misconception of Liquid Measurement

Introduction

Misconception on capacity may arise among the students while teaching Volume of liquid especially when comparing capacity of two containers that can hold more. Students often make the comparison on height rather than capacity. According to the article of National Centre for Excellent in The Teaching of Mathematics, children often believe that the amount of liquid will be changed when the same amount has been poured from one container to another of a different size. They believe that there is more liquid in the one that has the highest level.

The common misconceptions in volume and capacity of liquid are as follow:

Misconception 1: Mathematical language

The students are basically having confusion between liquid volume and capacity. Only containers have capacity. The capacity of a container is the maximum volume of liquid that it can hold. Hence capacity is measured in the same units as liquid volume. Thus, a wine glass may have a capacity to hold 250ml, but the liquid volume of the wine may only be 150ml.

Misconception 2: Conservation of liquid

Students often believe that the amount of liquid has changed when a set amount has been poured from one container to another of a different size. They believe that there is more liquid in the one that has the highest level.

Misconception 3   : Reading Scales 

Some students pick the container up and fail to keep it vertical when reading the scale. Some students read the scale by looking at the value at the top of the meniscus (curve in the surface of a liquid, produced in response to the surface of the container or another object. It can be either concave or convex). Some students read the scale from different heights so that parallax (difference of orientation of an object viewed along two different lines of sight) occurs. Some students do not understand the measurement between marked divisions on a scale. Teachers need to ensure that students have the opportunity to use and read a range of measuring scales on real containers with different scales in different orientations. Encourage students to make sure that they have the container on a flat surface and are looking at the liquid at the same level. They must ensure that they are looking at the base of the meniscus. Encouraging students to estimate liquid volume before measuring will support some of these activities.

Liquid practice can be messy, so use water, and practice in an area that you can easily clean. Before teaching the child to measure with liquids, pour some water into a container, such as a clean milk jug so they will be able to practice pouring from one container into another. Ask them pour the water carefully into a measuring cup.

The overriding message for enhancing children’s learning in capacity as with all measures is that children should be engaged in practical activities not paper-based ones.

Teaching Volume of Liquid - The Video

Video 1

Video 2