|
Connected Mathematics
Project :
Designing Packages
Content Strand:
Measurement
Teacher:
Jim Mamer
School:
Rockway Middle School
Springfield, OH
Grade 7
Project Director:
Yvonne Grant
40 minutes
|
 |
Designing Packages: Students learn
about and experiment with surface area and volume in this lesson
from the Connected Math Project. They begin by reviewing previously
learned concepts of base, height, width, and length. As employees
of the ABC Toy Company, their task is to design a package to house
24 blocks. They are supplied with 24 stacking cubes to explore the
different ways the cubes can be put together and packaged. For each
package built, they record the dimensions and determine surface
area corresponding to that box. Students experience collecting data
using manipulatives and devise creative solutions. The concepts
of surface area and volume are repeated with each new investigation
for each shape. Once students have finished, the class reviews and
defines the different methods individual groups used to find surface
area. The lesson culminates with the student discovery that as the
smaller cubes are put together forming different rectangular shapes,
if they are arranged to form a larger cube, the surface area is
minimized.
|
