Thursday, November 11, 2010

Measuring The Volume of Liquid

1.0       Introduction

            Volume if defined as how much three dimensional space a substance (solid, liquid and gas) occupies, often quantified numerically using SI derived unit, such as cubic meters and milliliters. The volume of a container is generally understood to be the capacity of the container, which is the amount of fluid that the container could hold, rather than the amount of space the container itself displaces.

            Three dimensional mathematical shapes are also assigned volumes, where volumes of simple shapes such as regular, straight edged and circular shapes can be easily calculated using arithmetic formulas. However, there is always a misconception between capacity and volume, where volume is measured in milliliters and liters while only containers that contain the liquid have capacity. The liquid itself do not have any capacity. The capacity of the container is the maximum volume of liquid that it can hold.

            Another misconception among students is the conservation of liquid, where students always believed that the volume of liquid will change when it is being poured from one container to another. This is because the liquid in different size and shape of container is confusing to these students and they will have this wrong misconception. Therefore, it is hoped that this teaching aids will give a clearer picture to these students on the volume of liquid, which is the same regardless of the shape and height of the container.

2.0       Video

            The video that shows the way to measure liquid is been shown below.

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPkZlce84ag


3.0       Measure Volume of Liquid using non-standard units and standard units

Activity 1:

Learning Outcome:
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to measure and compare volume of liquids by using standard and non-standard units correctly

Prior Knowledge:
Students should have learnt on how to measure volume of liquid using non-standard units and standard units.

Teaching Aids:
(i)         Different sizes of containers
(ii)        Two measuring cylinders
(iii)       A pail of water

Keywords:
More, less, empty, half full, full

Working Procedures:
1.         Divide students into a group of four to do work in their cooperative learning.
2.         Appoint one student to be the recorder in the group.
3.         Give each group three sets of containers of different sizes, a pail of water, and two measuring cylinders (one for milliliter (ml) and one for liter (l)).
4.         Each group will fill every container with water and state which is more or less.
5.         Then, they will measure the volume of liquid in each container in liter and milliliter by pouring the water from the containers into these measuring cylinders.
6.         A group member will then record the results in the form given (Table 1).
7.         Students will then be given exercise according to low and high achiever students.

Exercise 1: Low achiever students

Fill in the blank with ‘more’ or ‘less’ keywords.




Exercise 2: High Achiever students





Activity 2:

Learning Outcome:
By the end of the lesson, pupils will be able to measure volume of liquids by using standard units correctly.
Prior Knowledge:
Pupils had learnt that the content of water will be determined based on their containers. The bigger containers show more volume of liquid while the smaller containers give us less volume of liquid.
Teaching Aids:
(i)         Different sizes of containers
 (iii)      A pail of water

Keywords:
More, less, empty, half full, full,

Working Procedures:
1.         Divide students into a group of four to do work in their cooperative learning.
2.         Appoint one student to be the recorder in the group.
3.         Give each group four sets of containers of different sizes, a pail of water, and two measuring cylinders (one for milliliter (ml) and one for liter (l)).
4.         Each group will fill every container with water.
5.         They will measure the volume of liquid in each container by pouring the water from the containers into the measuring cylinders.
6.         A group member will then record the results in the form given (Table 2).
7.         Be remember to introduce to the students that 1 liter = 1000 milliliter and 1 liter x 1000 milliliter = 1000 milliliter.





Exercise 1: Low achiever students

Instructions: Match with the correct answers.


Exercise 2: High Achiever students

Instructions:

1.         What is the volume of the liquid shown in graduated cylinder 1-4 below?
2.         What about the total volume in graduated cylinder 5?
3.         If the diagrams for Question 4 and 5 shows the same graduated cylinders before and after the rock
            were added, what can you infer about the volume of the rock?
4.         Describe how you can use a graduated cylinder to measure the volume of an irregular object.



Conclusion:

1.         From this activity, students will be able to understand that it is important to measure the volume of liquid correctly.
2.         The measurement of liquid volume can be done by using standard units such as milliliter and liter.


             As a conclusion, we can say that the volume of liquid is defined as the capacity of the liquids inside a space, for example, in a container. It is the space that is been occupied by a liquid; hence it is defined as the volume of the liquid. In this experiment, students is been given an opportunity to learn more about volume of liquid by exposing them to the learning activities to measure the volume using non-standard and standard units. In non-standard units, there are no measurements involved, and the high and low of the liquid volume is determined by using visual experiences only. However, in standard measurements, students are been taught of how to measure volume of liquid using metric units such as milliliters (ml) and liter (l). In learning activity 2, students are also been taught of the relationship between milliliter (ml) and liter (l). Through these learning activities, students will be able to really understand the relationship between volume and standard measurements involved.