Measuring Mass of an Object

Saturday, 23 May 2015

Mavi and I started some activities for Applied Science.  Here, math and science works together to solve problems.  Applied Science enables the child to do critical thinking. 

Experimenting and predicting Mass (Weight)

I chose this lesson because I’ve always wanted to use our bucket balance which I got from Learning Resources.  I had this since last year but Mavi has been using it for play and have not used it as an educational toy yet.

Materials needed:

MassofObject

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Objective:

  • To develop skills in predicting and estimating the mass of the an object.
  • To use knowledge in science and math to come up with a mathematical conclusion based on the experiment.

Mavi will predict the weight of the materials without putting it in the scale.  The prediction of how heavy it is will be based on the unit material we are using.  For example, how many unit trains does the rugby ball weighs?  Then we will determine if his predictions are correct by testing it in the balance against the number of units he predicted.

DSC_0049  As you can see we keep a notebook here to record his data.  There should be three columns with label: [object] [prediction] [actual]

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Once he has tested all the materials, we will then come up with a conclusion if his prediction are correct or not.  Then compare each object, from the lightest to heaviest using the number of units each has.

Data:

Objects

Prediction

Actual

Rugby ball 17 trains 25 trains
Book 20 pebbles 33 pebbles
Box 10 pebbles 11 pebbles

We concluded that the heaviest item was the rugby ball and the lightest was the Jenga box.

This was an exciting activity for Mavi.  After our lesson he continued playing with the balance in his room, with his brother.  He’s trying to test how will two different objects balance. Of course, he has a little helper.

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Mass

3 comments:

  1. We have that same scale and I've been wanting to set up a measurements/math corner with it and some other manipulatives -- pinning this for inspiration!

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  2. This is so much fun! I love all the creative objects you have for weighing! :)

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  3. Mavi was 6 when we did this. But Vito who's 2yrs old loves playing with the scale. I think the little ones would love to play with this especially if you use water instead of counters.

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