ure of children's abilities I went into an elementary school where I tested some children in grades 1,3,5 using the examples listed below.Examples of experiments done by Jean Piaget from 1896 to 1980 established the notion of conservation of number and demonstrated that children mostly lack it up to the age of 7. There are a couple of different types of conservation's such as the conservation of area; this when you have a square in one picture and a rectangle in another and ask the kids what one is bigger, they usually guess the rectangle instead of saying that they both are the same. Children are usually able to do this by age 5 or 6. Another example would be conservation of liquid; this is when you have two glasses of the same size with the same amount of liquid in them, then you pour one of the cups of liquid into a taller glass asking the child which has more. Children usually find this one tricky especially younger kids but children between 7 and 8 seem to be able to handle it. Another example would be the number conservation where you show the kids two pictures, one with a row of ten cows and another with two rows of five. The children usually say that there are more cows on the top because it is longer. Children usually are able to get this one right by the age of 5 or 6. These are just a few types of examples; there are many more, which could have been used.The idea has had a formative influence on the instruction of mathematics. Place two rows of different objects in front of a six-year-old. Ask the child whether there are more circles, more squares, or the same number of each kind. The expected answer is "The same." Rearrange one row as shown and ask the same question again. This time around a child would say "More squares." Another example would be if you had two balls of clay that were the same size, then you flattened one; the children would say the flat one is bigger. The example that was really neat to see was; wh...
