Monday, November 19, 2012

Surface Areas and Volumes

Today we did some activities involving the surface areas of different shapes. Some of the shapes included prisms, spheres, cylinders, and cones. We went over the formulas and then solved them based on the information given for each shape. Many of the formulas included Pythagorean theorems so find the missing sides of each shape. Some of the answers were solved in base squares. Others had the pie symbols or were solved by incorporating the pie formula with the answers. We also went over the formulas for the volume of the shapes.

We did a class-group activity about the volumes of pyramids and cones. We had to find the relationship between the volume of a pyramid and a prism and then we had to find the relationship between a cone and a cylinder. We used scissors and tapes to cut out and put together the shapes. We then filled the pyramid-shape with rice and compared its volume with the square-prism. We did the same thing with the cone and cylinder. The results were mostly the same. The pyramid and the cone were both 1/3 the volume of the square-prism and the cylinder. Students will enjoy this activity and find it easier to understand the concepts of different volumes.

Here is a very helpful video on evaluating formulas of volume of different shapes:


Students can refer to this website for volume formulas of different shapes:

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