In this activity, students will find surface area and volume of objects the teacher provides or students bring in.

Materials required: ruler, string, objects to measure

Objects to measure- Compile a collection of different shaped items (rectangular prisms, cubes, triangular prisms, cylinders, pyramids, cones, spheres). You may have your students bring in items from home.

Surface Area and Volume Activity:

Instructions for Teacher:

1) Split class up into groups of 2 - 3 students.

2) Distribute lab activity and materials (ruler and string) to each group.

3) Each group should select objects to measure that are a prism, a cylinder, and an object that has a different shape than the first two. Note: Teacher can either bring in an assortment of objects or have students bring in objects to measure.

4) Each group should measure and calculate the surface area and volume of one of their objects. Once a group has this done, they should find a group to check their answers and have that group sign off on the lab sheet.

5) Continue Step #4 until all three objects have been corrected measured and verified.

Optional:

6) Have each group write a paragraph explaining the process that they went through in calculating surface area and volume. Which shape was the easiest to calculate? The hardest to calculate?