Digital Lesson
Cereal Box Surface Area
How much math can your learners pour out of a cereal box? Your middle schoolers will explore their favorite cereal and calculate the surface area, volume, and weight ratios and log this information on the provided worksheet. They get to...
Virginia Department of Education
Surface Area of a Rectangular Prism
Wrap up a lesson on surface area with a resource that asks scholars to use the idea of wrapping paper to investigate surface area. They draw representations of rectangular prisms on graph paper to find the areas of the respective...
Curated OER
Surface Area, Who Needs it?
In this geometry activity on cylinders, geometers explore how to find the smallest surface area for a given volume. They use their knowledge to relate it to the real world by making a model of a livestock tank.
Curated OER
Surface Area of Prisms
Students compute surface area and volume of prisms. In this surface area lesson, students find the surface area and volume of rectangular and triangular prisms. Independently, students use their computers to determine the volume,...
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...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Nano Waterproofing
This lesson will make an impact, especially on scientist-athletes who may have an interest in waterproof clothing! Acting as materials engineers, they work collaboratively on waterproofing pieces of cotton fabric. This challenge is...
TryEngineering
Exploring at the Nanoscale
Discover a world too small to see. In the lesson, young scientists learn about nanotechnology and brainstorm ideas for new applications of it. They perform an activity to determine how surface area changes when objects are made smaller...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Insides and Outsides
Give small groups handfuls of unit cubes and then dare them to build as many rectangular prisms as possible using only 12 cubes. This engaging activity serves as an introduction to the volume of solid figures. In addition to volume,...
Curated OER
Surface Area and Volume
Students are introduced to the notion of surface area and volume, learn the terminology used with surface area and volume and have experimented with the surface area and volume of different prisms.
Curated OER
Surface area of a cylinder
Students construct a cylinder made of paper with detachable bases. Then they are taught the formulas for finding the area of a curved surface and the total surface area of a cylinder. A great hands-on approach!
TryEngineering
Sugar Crystal Challenge
Be sure to use this sweet resource. Scholars perform an experiment using sugar to investigate how surface area relates to the coarseness of sugar. They consider how this concept connects to nanotechnology.
California Academy of Science
Dry My Laundry!
Meant to be a pre-field trip lesson, this can also serve as a cute and simple activity to use when your little ones are learning about evaporation or surface area. The children cut tiny t-shirts out of paper towel material, wet them, and...
Shodor Education Foundation
Triangle Area
While the lesson focuses on right triangles, this activity offers a great way to practice the area of all triangles through an interactive webpage. The activity begins with the class taking a square paper and cutting in in half; can they...
Curated OER
Volume of Solids: Algebra/Geometry Institute
Use this volume of solids lesson to have learners find the surface area and volume of cylinders, pyramids, and prisms. They place cubes inside three-dimensional figures to determine the volume. Worksheets and answers are provided.
Curated OER
Sphere Dressing
Geometric design makes a fashion statement! Challenge learners to design a hat to fit a Styrofoam model. Specifications are clear and pupils use concepts related to three-dimensional objects including volume of irregular shapes and...
Curated OER
Volume and Surface Area: Which Is More?
Young scholars 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...
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...
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 cone,...
Curated OER
Sizing Cells
Students examine how living cells reproduce to make new cells. In this cell reproduction lesson 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 last day of...