Scott P. Raffone
The next two lesson plans have an emphasis on volume and surface area. The four shapes that we will use are cube, rectangular prism, cylinder and sphere. The sphere will only be used for the advanced students. The students will be introduced to the formulas and expected to solve problems using them. In the lesson, Playing with Dough, students will be asked to manipulate dough into the solids above. They will need to measure the dimensions, plug them into the formulas and solve for the volume.
The volume of an object is the measurement of the space an object occupies. To describe volume, it is the measurement "inside of the figure." The formulas for volume are listed below:
1.
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Volume of a cube = side x side x side. (side is the length of any edge of the cube)
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2.
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Volume of a cylinder = Π x radius squared x height
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3.
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Volume of a rectangular prism = length x width x height
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4.
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Volume of a sphere = 4/3 Π x radius cubed
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The Surface area of an object is the planar measurement of the shape. The surface area is considered the measurement of the area of "the exterior of the shape." There are two methods of finding surface area. One method is effective when working with pyramids and prisms, while the other method is always effective. The first method is to find the area of the planar sides of the solid and add them together. The second method is to utilize the formulas listed below.
1.
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Surface area of a cube = 6 x side x side
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2.
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Surface area of a cylinder = 2Π( radius squared + radius x height)
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3.
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Surface area of a rectangular prism = 2(length x width + length x height +width x height)
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4.
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Surface area of a circle = 4Π x radius squared
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