6-8
In this lesson, students will use formulas they have explored for the volume of a cylinder and convert them into the same volume for rectangular prisms while trying to minimize the surface area. Various real world cylindrical objects will be measured and converted into a prism to hold the same volume. As an extension, students may design and create a rectangular prism container according to their dimensions to compare and contrast with the cylinder.
6-8, 9-12
In this lesson, students use polydrons to create nets of rectangular prisms. They discover that there are many configurations for rectangular prisms with the same volume, and determine that certain configurations minimize surface area. The lesson continues in a discovery activity related to building the most cost-efficient and appealing fish tank.
3-5, 6-8
Students identify patterns in a geometrical figure (based on triangles) and build a foundation for the understanding of fractals.
6-8, 9-12
This lesson can be used for students to discover the relationship between dimension and volume. Students create two rectangular prisms and two cylinders to determine which holds more popcorn. Students then justify their observation by analyzing the formulas and identifying the dimension(s) with the largest impact on the volume.
3-5, 6-8
Students hear geometry terminology around them every day. By playing the games in this lesson, students use their knowledge regarding regular and irregular polygons to explore the properties of the shapes and learn new vocabulary when identifying characteristics of shapes.
6-8
In this lesson, students use geoboards to explore the relationships between the area of a square and its side length. They also gain a numeric and geometric understanding of squaring a number and envision what the square root of a number looks like.
6-8
In this lesson, students use geoboards to construct non-traditional, "tilted" squares whose side lengths are irrational numbers. This lesson addresses standards in both Number Sense and Measurement.
6-8
In this lesson, students explore regular and semi-regular tessellations. Students use manipulatives to discover which regular polygons will tessellate and which will not. Students will use geometry and measurement to investigate the three regular and eight semi-regular tessellations.
6-8, 9-12
In this lesson, students use proportions and similar figures to adjust
the size of the New York City Subway Map so that it is drawn to scale.
Students are asked to evaluate whether these changes are necessary
improvements.
3-5, 6-8
Who can build the best boat? In this lesson, students are challenged to create aluminum foil boats that are then tested by filling them with plastic bears until they sink. The lesson serves as a fun, hands-on way to collect data. The data from two attempts is collected and used to make two class box-and-whisker plots with some surprising results.
