Curated OER
Box It Up
Students calculate the surface area of prisms. In this geometry lesson, students investigate the properties of prisms and analyze ways to calculate the are of a rectangular prism. They derive the formula for surface area.
PBS
Surface Area and Volume
You and your class will like this lesson on using visual models to relate the volume and surface area of solid shapes. Learners construct three-dimensional forms using nets. They calculate the surface area and volume for each and then...
Curated OER
Maximize It!
Pupils design a rectangular box without a lid that has the largest possible volume using the supplied sheet of centimeter graph paper. They work in groups to construct different size boxes to determine the largest possible volume and...
Curated OER
Fill and Wrap It Up
Middle schoolers find the surface area and volume of the solid figures by measuring the length and the height of each face and base. They use concrete models to derive formulas for finding perimeter, circumference, area, surface area,...
Curated OER
What is Happening?
Review area, perimeter and volume using this lesson. After reviewing key vocabulary relating to these concepts and answering story problems, learners compute the perimeter, area, surface area, and volume of five storage boxes.
Curated OER
Surface Area and Volume of Similar Solids
Students explore similar figures. In this surface area and volume lesson, students identify the relationship between the surface area and volume of similar figures.
Curated OER
Identifying and Explaining Reactions
Introduce high schoolers to chemical reactions with this series of activities. In a little over an hour, scientists observe four gas-producing reactions: the combination of hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide, placing pasta in...
Teach Engineering
Measuring Surface Tension
How do you measure surface tension? The fifth installment of a nine-part series is an experiment where young scientists use tubes of different sizes to measure surface tension. They calculate the average and standard deviation of the...
Shodor Education Foundation
Surface Area of Rectangular Prism
With this interactive lesson, learners compute the surface area of rectangular prisms. They visit an online investigation applet and record data on the provided handout. Pair this lesson with the volume lesson by the same publisher as an...
Curated OER
Antacid Tablet Race
Young scholars complete experiments to determine how rocket fuel is affected by surface area and temperature. They compare the reaction rates of antacid tablets. They discuss their results to complete the lesson.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Exploring at the Nanoscale
Nano-nano! Nanotechnology can seem like it's from another planet! After learning about this tiny technology, collaborative groups experiment with how smaller particles affect chemical reactions. They do this by immersing a whole and a...
Cord Online
Pyramids and Cones
Young mathematicians find the surface area and volume of a square pyramid and a cone. In what looks like a typical activity out of a textbook, you'll find an activity where learners find an unknown measurement of a pyramid or...
Curated OER
Sizing Cells
Students examine how living cells reproduce to make new cells. In this cell reproduction lesson plan students complete a lab activity and answer questions.
Curated OER
Cover Up: Tools for Integrating Math and Engineering
Blend art, adolescent snacking habits, and math to create new cereal boxes. Secondary learners review scale drawings. They use this information to construct cereal boxes to scale and will compare their creation to the original product to...
Cornell University
Atomic Bonding
Explore the connection of surface area to bonding within atoms. Learners complete lab investigations to model changing surface area with different sizes and concentrations of atoms. A flour fireball demonstration follows the labs to...
Kentucky Educational Television
The Road to Proportional Reasoning
Just how big would it really be? Young mathematicians determine if different toys are proportional and if their scale is accurate. They solve problems relating scale along with volume and surface area using manipulatives. The...
University of Utah
Geometry Part 2: Measurement in 2- and 3-Dimensions, Plane Sections of Solids
What kind of tree does a math teacher climb? A geometry! Here is a lesson that includes all the geometry resources you could ever wish for in one comprehensive workbook. Class members demonstrate what they have learned by...
Indian Institute of Technology
Could King Kong Exist?
The title says it all: Could King Kong exist? Investigate how increasing the dimensions of an object affects its surface area and volume to mathematically conclude whether a creature with the weight and height of King Kong could actually...
Discovery Education
Weathering Cubes
Weathering is not necessarily a result of the weather. Scholars conduct an experiment to explore the effect of surface area and volume on the weathering process. They create their own sugar cube rocks using the same number of cubes—but...
DiscoverE
Pipe Maze
Here's a lesson that is simply a-MAZE-ing! Introduce science scholars to pipeline systems through a hands-on project. Partnered pupils participate in the design, construct, and test a PVC pipeline maze. Reusable materials and clear...
Curated OER
The Surface Area of a Cylinder
Learners measure the circumference of a cylinder. In this cylinder lesson plan, students use round container lids and flexible rectangles to measure the circumference of the cylinder. They put the shapes together to make their own...
Virginia Department of Education
Similar Solids and Proportional Reasoning
Double the dimensions, quadruple the surface area. Pairs build similar prisms and compare the ratios of their surface areas and volumes to the ratio of the heights. Given two similar cones, partners determine the ratios of the lateral...
Curated OER
How To Measure Area
Geometers learn how to measure the area in square units. They use the floor in the classroom as a visual to measure a square foot area. They use classmates to fill the space and expand the measured area square foot by square foot until...
Curated OER
Aqua-Thrusters!
Students construct their own rocket-powered boat called an "aqua-thruster." These aqua-thrusters will be made from a film canister and will use carbon dioxide gas - produced from a chemical reaction between an antacid tablet and water -...