Virginia Department of Education
Surface Area and Volume
Partners use materials to wrap three-dimensional objects to determine the formula for surface area. The groups use an orange to calculate the amount of peel it takes to completely cover the fruit. Using manipulatives, individuals then...
National Security Agency
Awesome Area - Geometry and Measurement
Break out those math manipulatives, it's time to teach about area! Capturing the engagement of young mathematicians, this three-lesson plan series supports children with learning how to measure the area of squares, rectangles, and...
Teach Engineering
Discovering Relationships Between Side Length and Area
Consider the relationship between side length and area as an input-output function. Scholars create input-output tables for the area of squares to determine an equation in the first installment of a three-part unit. Ditto for the area of...
Curated OER
Estimating the Mean State Area
Seventh grade statisticians randomly select five states and then determine the mean area. The class then works together to create a dot plot of their results.
Virginia Department of Education
Arc Length and Area of a Sector
What do skateboarding and baked goods have in common with math? You can use them to connect half-pipe ramps and cakes to arcs and sectors. Pupils compare the lengths of three different ramp options of a skate park. They calculate the...
Curated OER
Finding the Area of Shapes
In this area of shapes unit, upper graders participate in hands-on problem solving activities to find the formulas for the area of a parallelogram, a triangle, and a trapezoid. They manipulate the geoboard to explore relationships among...
Purdue University
Plastic Water Bottle Design – What’s the Best Shape?
Join the fight to reduce plastic waste. A hands-on STEM activity first teaches scholars about the scourge of plastic waste. They then measure the dimensions of water bottles to calculate surface areas and volumes before using the surface...
Illustrative Mathematics
How Thick Is a Soda Can I?
The humble soda can gets the geometric treatment in an activity that links math and science calculations. After a few basic assumptions are made and discussed, surface area calculations combine with density information to develop an...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Sugar Crystal Challenge
Blow your learners' minds with a sweet lesson on nanotechnology that uses sugar to demonstrate the difference nanoscale surface area makes in dissolving and crystal formation. Plenty of supportive background information is read to...
Teach Engineering
Boxed In and Wrapped Up
If cubes have the smallest surface area, why aren't there more cube-shaped packages? Scholars take a box in the shape of a rectangular prism, cut it up, and make new boxes in the shape of cubes with the same volume. They then brainstorm...
Illustrative Mathematics
How Many Leaves on a Tree? (Version 2)
A second attack at figuring out the number of leaves on a tree, this activity makes both an excellent follow-up to version 1 and a stand-alone activity. Learners practice setting parameters and deciding acceptable estimate precision, and...
PBS
Arguing over Area
With the help of the Area Officers and Perimeter Patrol, you learners will develop a better understanding of area and its relationship to perimeter. First, they view a video clip from Cyberchase, and then they visit a website to...
Shodor Education Foundation
InteGreat
Hands-on investigation of Riemann sums becomes possible without intensive arithmetic gymnastics with this interactive lesson plan. Learners manipulate online graphing tools to develop and test theories about right, left, and...
Curated OER
Measurement: Finding Areas of Rectangles
Gardening geometers construct the formula for the area of a rectangle by viewing a video revolving around two young people, their lawn mowing business, and their need to charge by the square meter. A relevant real-life application lesson!
Curated OER
TE Activity: Bubbling Plants
Students study a way to quantify the process of photosynthesis during a given time using the Elodea plant. They design a hypothesis that they test in the hands on activity. They compare the amounts of photosynthesis that occur during low...
Teach Engineering
Processes on Complex Networks
Introduces your class to random processes in networks with an activity that uses information about disease spread using the susceptible, infectious, resistant (SIR) model. Participants determine whether a susceptible person becomes...
Curated OER
Area: It's What's on the INSIDE That Counts!
Second graders participate in a series of hands-on, online and multimedia activities that examine the concept of area. They view clips from the animated series Math Monsters and discuss the purpose of area and how it is used in the real...
Curated OER
Area and Volume
What is the difference between area and volume? Have your charges build models of square centimeters, square inches, square feet, square meters, etc. It's definitely challenging, but there is no better way to learn than by trying...
Curated OER
An Uncomfortable Situation
If shapes have the same area, do they always have the same perimeter? Learners explore the relationship between the area of square units and their perimeters in a hands-on activity. Observations are recorded, and they begin to recognize...
Curated OER
Pythagorean Theorem by Graphic Manipulation
There are many different ways to show a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem. Here is a nice hands-on paper cutting activity that shows a graphic representation. You can even challenge your young Pythagoreans to come up with their own...
Virginia Department of Education
Going the Distance
Estimate the value of one of the most famous irrational numbers. The hands-on lesson instructs classmates to measure the circumference and diameters of circles using yarn. The ratio of these quantities defines pi.
Curated OER
Volume and Surface Area: Which Is More?
Learners explore the volume and surface area of three dimensional figures. Through the use of video, students discover three dimensional shapes, their uses in real-life applications, and methods used to calculate their volume and surface...
Curated OER
Area, Arithmetic and Algebra
Explore the concept of this perfect square trinomial and difference of squares lesson. A hands-on activity that uses paper rectangles and squares to illustrate the perfect-square trinomial and difference of squares formulas.
Teach Engineering
Things That Matter to Flocculants
How does the dirt get out of your drinking water? A hands-on activity introduces the use of flocculants to help clear solid particles out of water. The plan walks learners through the process of setting up an experiment that...