Students work to build a rectangular prism using 1 cm. grid paper.
Let's just say that on Day 1, very few prisms were looking like a shape!
By Day 2, students were beginning to see the difference between area and volume and how they are related. Students reviewed the formula for area (thanks to the measurements on the paper towel wrapper). Then, the we looked at the rectangular prisms from day 1 and noticed that we made a three-dimensional shape. How could we determine its volume? Using the formula L X W X H=Volume.
Students devised their own rules on Day 1.
Many suggestions were: Area X Height= Volume
We talked about how Area= L X W and that sometimes people define the
Volume as Base X Height= Volume.
But for our purposes, we are going to stick with L X W X H = V.
(Thanks to Mrs. Rucker for the chart idea!)
Ta-Da! We did it! We made some rectangular prisms. We also found the area and volume!
Whew!
