IN THE CLASSROOM:

For 8-year-olds at Kaiser Elementary, the hour and 15 minutes of science class they engage in every week is their time to play scientist.

The third-graders are learning metric units in measurement, weight, volume and temperature in science teacher Tricia Lamb’s class.

Each week presents another chance for them to use different tools to get practical experience in the way the world around them measures up.

This is the first year Kaiser Elementary has offered a science class once a week.

The county’s passage of Measure F funded the school’s new science lab and an anonymous donation last year by a Kaiser Elementary parent brought on a second science teacher.

Homeroom teacher Dorothy Hickson could only smile when her students gasped with wide-open eyes, grins from ear to ear, at the idea of getting to use their very own scales.

“They love it because it’s all hands-on projects,” Hickson said. “At the end of the year this is one of the things they always say they liked.”

Tuesday the kids were learning about weight in metric units (grams). They are taught standard units, ounces and pounds in their regular class.

With a rock in one hand and a sponge in the other, the children were asked to estimate the objects’ weight. Then the balance scales came out.

Using their math skills, the students put different objects on one side, a pencil, eraser, rock or sponge, and added weights on the other until they were level. Then they recorded the actual weight.

“It’s fun because we’re not really working like we are in class,” said Fiona Gray, 8. “It’s like we’re playing.”

Fiona’s partner, 8-year-old Jordyn Sparks, enjoyed comparing her weight estimates to their real ones.

“We get to find the measurement out and it’s shocking because you think it’s one thing and it’s really not,” Jordyn said.

The students could just as easily read about the metric system in a book, but what fun is that?

“It’s hands-on and [what they learn] is much more concrete,” Lamb said.

The Kaiser third-graders are currently in the earth science unit.

Last week they learned metric length (meters); next week they’ll be using water to learn about volume (liters), and they’ll conclude metrics with temperatures (Celsius).

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.