Liz Slusher- Student Work #2

During one of the math centers the kindergarten students were exploring the concepts of “lighter” and “heavier” by using a balance scale and various objects. Below is the transcription of a conversation between two children who were trying to find out “Which is lighter, 1 domino or 3 pencil-top erasers?”

Child A: “It’s my turn to put things in the scale!”

Child B: “I know. Three erasers are heavier because 3 is way more than 1.”

Child A: “Yeah but dominoes are really hard so they’re probly real heavy too.”

Child B: “It doesn’t matter about hardness, how many only matters.”

Child A put the 3 erasers in one side, and the domino into the other side of the balance scale.

Child A: “Yeah! The hard domino went down so erasers really are harder!”

Child B: “Yeah erasers are lighter because they’re higher in the air even though there’s three. Weird!”

Both of the children understand that when using a balance scale, the lighter objects with rise, and the heavier objects will lower. However, both of the children also have some misconceptions on what makes objects heavier or lighter. Child A was convinced that they “hardness” of an object always affect its weight. Setting up an experience where this child could explore weighing a softer object such as play dough and a harder object such as a pen, the child would be able to explore and understand that how hard or soft an object is, may not always determine how heavy it is. Child B has the misconception that more of an object will always make it heavier than a lower quantity of another object. Allowing this child to weigh 5 feathers and 1 quarter would show him that the 5 feathers are lighter than the single coin. Setting up exploratory experiences like these, along with discussions as the children explore, would create meaningful experiences to help them further develop concepts of weight, while decreasing their misconceptions and current misunderstandings.