Virginia Department of Education
Out of the Box
There's no need to think outside the box for this one! Scholars measure the length, width, and height of various boxes. Results help develop the formulas for the surface area and volume of rectangular prisms.
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...
Discovery Education
Discovering Math: Exploring Geometry
Apply geometric properties and formulae for surface area and volume by constructing a three-dimensional model of a city. Learners use similar and congruent figures and transformations to create a city of at least 10 buildings. They trade...
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
Fish Tanks: Volume and Surface Area
Given a very realistic challenge, your young geometers design residential fish tanks in rectangular and triangular prism shapes. They compute the volume of water each will hold. They also determine the size of plastic covers for each...
Radford University
How Do I Design a Raised Bed Garden to Accommodate My Plants?
Give plants the best place to grow. Given constraints on plant spacing, pupils design a raised bed garden using graph paper, then calculate the perimeter, surface area, and volume. They use the provided costs of lumber and soil to...
Curated OER
Surface Area and Volume of Similar Solids
Students explore similar figures. In this surface area and volume lesson, students identify the relationship between the surface area and volume of similar figures.
Curated OER
Surface Area and Volume
Students are introduced to the notion of surface area and volume. Students review surface area and volume by finding the area of a two-dimensional shape. They practice using the computer to create different surface area shapes.
Concord Consortium
Swimming Pool I
Take a dive into a three-dimensional task. Given a specific surface area, individuals must maximize the volume of a cylindrical swimming pool. They combine their understanding of surface area and volume to create a cubic function that...
Curated OER
Volume and Surface Area
For this volume and surface area worksheet, 10th graders solve and complete 10 different problems that include using spheres to examine changes in volume and surface area. First, they complete the chart shown using the formulas given....
Curated OER
Volume and Surface Area of Right Rectangular Prisms
Learners identify the formulas for three-dimensional figures. They use manipulatives to model problems. Students create foldables and explain volume and surface area. Learners complete worksheets and classify solids. Students sing a...
Curated OER
Family Activity: Gift Wrapping - Surface Area
In this surface area worksheet, students solve 6 short answer problems. Students determine the amount of gift wrap paper needed to cover a rectangular box using surface area formulas.
California Education Partners
Yum Yum Cereal
Design an efficient cereal box. Scholars use set volume criteria to design a cereal box by applying their knowledge of surface area to determine the cost to create the box. They then determine whether their designs will fit on shelves,...
Purdue University
Plastic Water Bottle Design – What’s the Best Shape?
Join the fight to reduce plastic waste. A hands-on STEM activity first teaches scholars about the scourge of plastic waste. They then measure the dimensions of water bottles to calculate surface areas and volumes before using the surface...
Curated OER
Formulas for Volume and Surface Area
Students calculate the volume and surface area of each shape. In this geometry lesson, students use nets and other three dimensional polygons to create visuals of the volume of a shape. They define important vocabulary words relevant to...
Curated OER
Perimeter, Area, Volume, and Surface Area
For this geometry activity students solve problems involving perimeter, area, volume, and surface area for various geometric shapes. The four page activity contains twenty-five problems. Answers key is provided.
Curated OER
Perimeter, Area, Volume and Surface Area
In this perimeter of shapes learning exercise, 10th graders find the perimeter of the shapes illustrated. Then, they find the volume of each shape shown. Students also match the shape with its correct name on the left and find the...
Curated OER
Volume and Surface Area of Polyhedrea
In this volume and surface area learning exercise, students use given formulas to determine the volume and area of polyhedrea. This four-page learning exercise contains examples, explanations and 32 problems. Answers are provided on...
Curated OER
Surface Areas of Prisms, Pyramids and Cylinders
Young scholars identify and use appropriate formulas to find surface areas of solid figures, practice using formula sheet to solve textbook problems, construct solid figures of given surface area using TABS+ software program, and use...
Curated OER
Scale Factor- Surface Area and Volume
Students calculate the surface area and volume of shapes. For this geometry lesson, students create different scales and calculate the volume and area for each shape. They compare and contrast between the different scales and shapes.
Curated OER
Nets, Surface Area and Volume
Students calculate the surface area and volume of a sphere. In this geometry lesson, students define nets, surface areas and volume of prisms, pyramids, cylinders and cones. They use the computer to create nets and analyze shapes.
Curated OER
Surface Area and Measuring
Tenth graders explore volume and surface area through percentages. In this geometry lesson, 10th graders analyze the surface area of two and three dimensional shapes, then use percents and ratio to compare the two.
Curated OER
Volume and Surface Area: Which Is More?
Students 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 surface...
Discovery Education
Weathering Cubes
Weathering is not necessarily a result of the weather. Scholars conduct an experiment to explore the effect of surface area and volume on the weathering process. They create their own sugar cube rocks using the same number of cubes—but...