Conservation - Piaget
The ability to recognize that two equal quantities remain equal even if one is changed in some way--as long as nothing has been added or taken away. Is not evident all at once, but emerges gradually over three stages. [A child] gradually acquires the ability to conserve number, length, mass, area, weight, and volume of objects and substances--although not all the properties of objects and substances at one time, because these abilities emerge in sequence. [Zigler, Edward F. and Matia Finn-Stevensen, Yale University. CHILDREN, Development and Social Issues. Lexington, MA & Toronto: D.C. Heath and Company, 1987. See the chapter Cognitive Development During Middle Childhood 7 - 12.]
R E F E R E N C E S
Conservation n [ME, fr. MF, fr. L conservation-, conservatio, fr. conservare] [14c] 1: a careful preservation and protection of something; esp: planned management of a natural resource to prevent exploitation, destruction, or neglect 2: the preservation of a physical quantity during transformations or reactions
Conservation of energy [1853]: a principle in physics: the total energy of an isolated system remains constant irrespective of whatever internal changes may take place with energy disappearing in one form reappearing in another.
Conservation of mass [1884]: a principle in classical physics: the total mass of any material system is neither increased nor diminished by reactions between the parts--called also conservation of matter.
[Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition. Springfield, MA, USA: Merriam-Webster, Inc. 1995.]
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