Young learners tends to make misconception on capacity of volume of liquid as they are in the stage of pre-operational stage as in Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development ( Karen Huffman, 2004) whereby they are unable to differentiate the capacity of volume when two different size of glasses or containers are shown to them although the capacity are equal. This is due to the process known as conservation. Conservation refers to understanding that certain physical characteristic (such as volume of liquid) remain unchanged, even when their outward appearance changes. Many researchers have implemented the test of conservation to young learners and the link below shows a video how misconception on capacity can be tested.
Click on the link below to view the video.
Click on the link below to view the video.
Because of this limitation, Year 2 pupils need to be taught with careful attention as the teacher's role is to avoid misconception on capacity. Through the video we can observe that both the children being tested indicates that the taller glass holds more liquid compare to the shorter glass although in the beginning they were shown equal amount of liquid in two same size glasses. We need to guide the young learners to understand the concept and at the same time teach them how to measure volume of liquid.
In the Curriculum Specification of Mathematics Year 2 published by Curriculum Development Centre, Ministry of Education (2003), emphasises the acquisition of basic concepts and skills. The learning of mathematics at all levels involves more than just the basic acquisition of concepts and skills. It involves, more importantly, an understanding of the underlying mathematical thinking, general strategies of problem solving, communicating mathematically and inculcating positive attitudes towards an appreciation of mathematics as an important and powerful tools in everyday life.
For Year 2 pupils, the introduction to the topic of Volume of Liquid begins with understanding and use the vocabulary related to volume of liquid such as below:
full
half full
empty
fill up
more
less
muchCurriculum Specification
Once the pupils have mastered the terms they will be taught to measure and compare volumes of liquids by direct comparison and by using uniform nonstandard units. Nonstandard units could be any containers that are available such as cups, carbonated drink can, mineral water bottles, jugs, and glasses. Hands on activity will be a little bit messy and difficult to control the class but with careful planning the teacher might overcome the situation by dividing the class into several station with every station monitored by one of the pupils themselves. Actual juices, water or drinks can be use in the classroom because at the end of the lesson the teacher allow the pupils to drink the juices as to established the children long term memory as well as a part of motivation to the children to learn more. Stages of learning objectives and learning outcomes enables the pupils to acheive them in such a manner from something simple to something a bit complex suitable for their mental development.
TEACHING AIDS
Helping young learners to understand better the learning objectives and learning outcomes, the following teaching aids have been created:
1. PowerPoint Slides
The teaching slides comprises of 13 slides which enables teachers to teach the concept of empty, half full and full concept to the pupils. Some of the slides have been inserted with hyperlink and sound to attract pupils attention to learn more. By clicking at the right or wrong answer, the pupils will get immediate response and thus enhance their learning. The slides are suitable for classroom teaching, group work or even individual work. It is up to the teacher on how to implement the slides in the classrom. The slides will help the pupils understand better the terms empty, half full and full as the pictures show actual object such as glasses, water and juices.
Click on the link below to view the slides.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/42389221/Teaching-Volume-of-Liquid
2. Fun Liquid Station
Real object such as plastic bottles, plastic containers, milk carton, milk, juice, or water.
Using real object will help the pupils to deal with real life situation. The teacher must first label the objects such as plastic cups or mineral water bottles with marks which indicates half. Using plastic objects are better because they are translucent and this will enable the pupils to observe the capacity easily. The teacher divides the class into a few groups which will be name station. Station 1, the pupils observe the liquid which already being poured into bottles. They need to answers questions at Station 1 which relates to the liquid in the bottles. Examples of questions:
a. Which bottles holds half of the water?
b. Which bottle is full?
c. Which bottle holds more water?
At station 2, the pupils match the correct glasses with the terms empty, full and half full. The glasses have been poured with juices. The teacher prepares word cards (empty, full and half full) and the pupils match the correct terms to the correct glasses. The glasses will be label A, B and C. The pupils' findings will be recorded in their task sheet prepared by the teacher.
Pupils will enjoy hands on activity at Station 3 as they themselves experience the pouring activity. The pupils will fill the mineral water bottles with juice according to the instruction in the task sheet. They need to recap the bottles and bring the bottles back to their tables for the teacher to check. At this point the bottles will not be marked with half full marker to enhanced the pupils understanding.
Station 4 is the most exciting station above all as at this station the pupils do role play with the dialog prepared by the teacher. Examples of dialog:
a: Please pour me half full of juice.
b: Here you are.
a: Thank you.
c: I would like to have a full bottle of milk please.
d: Oh..sorry. I dont have a full bottle of milk because my bottle is empty.
e: Here you are. A full glass of mango juice.
f: Oh thank you. I will drink the juice until the glass is empty
Here, the pupils drinks the water or juices as stated in the dialog and they take turn to do the role play.
TEACHING ACTIVITIES
Based on the above teaching aids, varrious teaching activities could be implemented in the classroom and it is up to the teacher herself on how to manipulate the aids to suit the level of thinking of the pupils.
1. PowerPoint Slides
For high achiever pupils, teacher could manipulate the slides by using inquiry learning styles. The pupils themselves explore the slides and at the end the teacher concludes the lesson by testing the pupils' understanding towards the lesson. Since the pupils are high achiever pupils, they managed to click, navigate and go through the slides themselves as the slides are user frriendly. The teacher might need to put extra effort on preparing extra slides (more than 13) to these type of learners as they are learning fast. The pupils are reminded to record their finding in their exercise book of what they have experienced through the slides as an enforcement and enrichment.
For low achiever student, teacher will be guiding them through the slides, one by one until they mastered the terms being taught. Once they understand the terms, the pupils will be permitted to go through the slides in pairs. Although at the first time, the teacher shows the slides and then the pupils themselves need to repeat the process, the pupils will remember the concept better as repetition will help them to memorise and understand better. They need to draw and colour according to the slides and copy them in their exercise book. Since they are low achiever pupils, they will be a little bit slow in their learning progress thus teacher do not need to prepare more slides.
2. Fun Liquid Station
In this activities, the teaching aids earlier mention in detail above are very interesting activities. The pupils go about station by station to explore the concept especially for high achiever pupils. Pupils will work in groups and they will record everything they experience in the task sheet. The guidance will be minimal as they are excellent pupils.
For low achiever pupils, the teacher will guide them if any problem occured. The pupils will be working in groups but the number of members in the groups will be less compare to the high achiever pupils. The teacher need to set up another station, namely Check Point where the low acheiver pupils could check and re-check their answers with the teacher.
3. Ms Excel Worksheet
For both type of learners, to reinforce the learning process, the Excel worksheet have been created. This is an interesting worksheet as the response will pop-up instantly when the pupils key in the answer. The worksheet can be viewed as the link below.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/42700934/Volume-of-Liquid-Teaching-Aids
Conclusion
As a teacher we need to be creative to create interesting activities that involved the pupils. Pupils actually can easily learn something when they involved with something new. So, teaching volume of liquid based on experience in realistic situations is the better way to introduce pupils to understand the concepts. Concepts of volume of liquid can be easily to understand if teacher can create some teaching aids that useful and can attract pupils to learn about this topic. Hope with these teaching activities and teaching aids, can give some ideas especially to the teachers to create some interesting activities to their pupils.
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