Conservation
knowing the amount of substance remains the same despite a change in shape / form.

Operations = joining objects / separating / classifying; ordering in a series; counting; subtracting; measuring.

• Operations are the essence of knowledge because they allow the learner to examine the mental structure of concepts. Since 2-7ish year old children have trouble doing these operations they are call pre-operations.

• reversibility is the key to concrete operational thought since the child can 'mentally reverse' a clay hot dog and make it back into its original spherical shape and see nothing has changed.

• after several interviews you'll find your own words and won't have to follow this prescribed protocol.

• Justification: ask the child to 'justify' their response; why do they give the answers they do? Say, "Another boy told me that the water was the same ... what would you say to him..."

• learn to listen to the child. It is difficult. What do their words reveal about their thinking skills? That's what the Piaget interview is all about.

• Centering: children often get the "wrong answer" because they "center" on a variable that is not important ( e.g. the color of the objects they are counting ). Or, they center on a variable that is important ( the width of a rolled piece of clay ) but don't realize the length of the clay simultaneously changes with the width -- so that all is equal ).

CONSERVATION OF NUMBER

materials: l4 pennies

Place 7 objects end to end in a straight line. Make another line with the other 7 and have spaces between the objects.

Ask: "Are there the same number of pennies in each line?"

CONSERVATION OF LENGTH

materials: 8 straws; 2 identical strings

Give the child two straws. Ask: "Are they the same size?"

If an ant crawled thru one straw and another ant crawled thru the other, would they have to go just as far as the other?"

Move one straw ahead of the other & repeat the question.

Place four straws end to end to form a straight line. Zig-zag the other four.

Ask: "If you had to go down the straight road to get a piece of candy or the zig-zag road to get a piece of candy, which road would you take?"

CONSERVATION OF LIQUID AMOUNT

materials: 2 identical containers; a dish; a narrow-topped bottle

Fill the 2 containers to the same level and ask the child to verify they are equal.

Pour one container of water into the dish.

Ask: "Is there the same amount of water in the vial as the bowl?"

Ask the child to observe the water in the bottle. Tip it upside down and ask if there is the same amount of water in the bottle.

CONCEPTUALIZATION OF WATER LEVEL

materials: ditto bottle diagram

Tell the child the jar has water in it and a cork at the top.

Ask: "Where would the water be in this tipped bottle? Draw a line that would show how the water would look in the bottle.

CONSERVATION OF MATTER

materials: two identical clay balls Ask the child if the balls are the same size. Roll one ball into a hot dog or flatten into a pancake. "Do they still have the same amount of clay in them."

CONSERVATION OF WEIGHT

materials: two identical clay balls

Repeat what you did above but ask if they still weigh the same.

CONSERVATION OF AREA

materials: two identical pieces of paper; six coins/blocks

Ask the child to pretend the papers are lawns.

Ask: "Are the lawns the same size."

Put a block in the middle of her lawn to represent her house.

Put a block on the corner of your property for your house.

Ask: "Do we still have the same amount of grass on each lawn?"

Add a second room next to her first block, and a second block anywhere on your property for a second room. Repeat the question.

You might put a third room on his house UPSTAIRS, and then throw a third block anywhere on your lawn. Repeat question.

BUILDING A HOUSE

materials: 60 (sugar) cubes; paper whose area is 2 x 3 cubes; another paper whose area is 2 x 2 cubes

Build a 'house' that is 3 x 2 x 2. Ask the child to count the number of "rooms" in the house. "Build me a house that has the same number of rooms as this one, but on this little (2 x 2) piece of paper."

If the child can do this, repeat the procedure building a 3 x 3 x 3 house but having her build it on the 3 x 2 piece of paper.

ORDERING OF EVENTS

materials: 6 pencils/straws pasted to cards; 1 other pencil/straw

Let a pencil fall over from an upright position.

Say: "What does the pencil look like when it falls over?

On these cards I have pencils taped so they will tell the story of how the pencil falls down. Arrange them in order to tell the story of how the pencil fell."

SERIATION

materials: nine soda straws cut in different lengths

Give six straws to the child and ask him to arrange them in order from the shortest to the longest (in a series).

When he does this show him the other three and say .. "I forgot to give you these three. Can you put these where they should belong so we have nine straws all in order from the shortest to the longest?"

When the child responds to your questions, ask them to defend or justify their ideas. You might score the children on a simple 0-1-2 point system.

(0) = pre-operational logic

(l) right answer; no justification

(2) gives answer and justifies their reasoning.

name/age in yrs/mo:______________________________

number ____________________________________________________

length-straws ______________________________________________

length-zig/zag ______________________________________________

water: tray ________________________________________________

water: flask ________________________________________________

water: diagram ______________________________________________

clay: amount ________________________________________________

clay: weight ________________________________________________

area: lawns _________________________________________________

build house: l2 _______________________________________________

build house: 27 _______________________________________________

pencil falling ________________________________________________

seriation: length ______________________________________________

2nd child

ame/age in yrs/mo:______________________________

number ____________________________________________________

length-straws ______________________________________________

length-zig/zag ______________________________________________

water: tray ________________________________________________

water: flask ________________________________________________

water: diagram ______________________________________________

clay: amount ________________________________________________

clay: weight ________________________________________________

area: lawns _________________________________________________

build house: l2 _______________________________________________

build house: 27 _______________________________________________

pencil falling ________________________________________________

seriation: length ______________________________________________