Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

There are five basic entities that elementary children measure in science: Length, volume, weight or mass, temperature, and time. Length is the distance between two points. Examples of length would be the height of a person, the length of a desk, or the distance between two buildings such as the distance between Westlake Hall and the library. Length is the measurement that is necessary for finding area. Length can be measured in metric units or conventional units. The basic metric unit of length is the meter. A meter is defined today as the distance light travels in 1/299,792,458 of a second. The basic unit of length in the conventional system is the foot. Children should be encouraged to measure objects within the classroom using a variety of instruments. It is very important that children gain the idea that length can be quantified and things can be measured. The volume of something is how much space it takes up. Volume can be measured in terms of length or in terms of its own units.