Measuring the Volume of Water (2).

 TEACHING ACTIVITY (FOR HIGH ACHIEVER STUDENTS)

Measuring the volume of liquid can be done by using any small container to fill a larger one. It could be anything that will hold liquids.

In their daily activity at home, the students might be could see their mother measuring water by using teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, bowls, glass, jugs, and gallons. This is not wrong, as the volume of water is measured by using those as a unit. For an example; a teaspoon of salt, 2 glasses of milk, etc.

For a high achiever students, they could imagine something more that can be used to measure volume. 

The activity could be started by ask the students to collect some different kinds of containers that will hold liquids. A teacup, paper cup, drinking glasses, coffee mug, jug, and bottle.

Then, ask the students to arrange all the containers in order of the amount of water they think will hold; have the smallest container on the left, and the largest one on the right.

That jug is much taller than the drinking glass, let's the student to put it to the right of the glass. Also, since some people use paper cup to drink, and they are the same height, they must be the same size, then put those next to each other.

The next step needs a pail of water. It could be nice if the water is coloured with food colouring, such as blue which it will be easier the students to see the volume of the water.

The first test will show us how good the students are at estimating the volume of an amount of water. First, let the students to fill the drinking glass, with the blue water until full. Look at it closely, and decide how high the water would be if it were poured into some of the other containers.

Some students might think that the water would reach half-way to the top of the bottle, because the bottle is twice as tall as the glass. But then, let them to pour the water first. 

After pouring the water, let the student to see the result. Does the result same as what they think? The bottle is full, even though they only poured out half the water from the glass. Let the students to identify the reason, it could be because the bottle is skinny and the glass is fat? 

This time, get a small container and estimate how many times they could fill it from the glass. They can try a teacup. Teacup is a lot shorter than the drinking glass, so it could fill the water three times from the full glass. 

For the rest of containers, ask the other students to try those. Let them to compare the volume of the water in each container.

What the students can see from this activity is that the volume of the water is sometime hard to estimate. Many aspects need to be considered in measuring the volume of the liquid, such as the height, width, and thickness of the containers.

The liquids have no shape of their own, but take on the shape of their containers. The containers used for measuring might be not really accurate, as the further measurement must be by using graduated cylinder.

After all the measurement by using those containers, students must then measure the exact volume of the water by using this graduated cylinder. There they will get the exact answer for their measurement of the volume of the water and differentiate which containers are containing more water. There, they will get the accurate answer for their experiment!

Measuring the Volume of Water.

TEACHING ACTIVITY (FOR LOW ACHIEVER STUDENT) 

Measuring liquid is quiet difficult for students. For low achiever students, the process could be complicated for them. They might need more practices to make them more proficient. A simple but easy to understand practices would help this low achiever students much.

One activity can be shared here for a low achiever students. 

We can start by having bowl and glass, together with a graduated cylinder. The bowl and the glass could be different in size. I can suggest you to have a big glass and the small bowl. The size of the graduated cylinder must be enough to measure the water from the glass and the bowl.

First, put 100 ml of water into the big glass, and 200 ml into the small bowl. Put those glass and bowl aside, and let the students to guess which one of the glass and the bowl contain more water. 

For a high achiever students, they could answer this easily with the correct answer without confusion. But for the low achiever students, this process will make them confuse. The size of the glass and the bowl would be a matter for them to identify the amount of the water. 

They could make a mistake in doing a comparison. The comparison must be measured on their capacity instead of their height. For the low achiever students, they might measure the water based on the tools that contain the water. 

As the glass is bigger than the bowl, they could choose the water in the glass as the answer, without further measurement of the capacity of the water in that small bowl.

So, the next step is to have a graduated cylinder. This cylinder functions to measure the exact volume of water in the glass and the bowl.

Pour the water from the glass into the cylinder. Ask the students to measure the volume of water in the cylinder,  and write it on a piece of paper. After that, pour the water back into the glass, and repeat the same way to the water in the bowl. Pour the water from the bowl into the cylinder and measure the volume of the water. Don't forget to remind the students to write their answer onto the paper. 

In this activity, teacher could assist the low achiever students to read the volume of the water in the cylinder.

After the students come with the answer, the teacher let the students to make a comparison of between the answers. Which one of the big glass and the small bowl has more water. Students should use their answer from their activity just now to make comparison and find the answer.

For a correct answer, the small bowl contain more water (200ml) than the big glass (100 ml).

This activity is simple and suitable for a low achiever student. It is easy for them to understand and do the process of measuring the water, moreover with the assistance from the teacher.

How to measure a volume of liquid?

Measuring Volume with Various Glassware

Here is the video of how the volume of liquid are measured. The liquid are measured by using various glasswares, which are Beakers, Volumetric Flasks, Graduated Cylinders, Pipets, and Burets. All the glasswares are different in shape and size.