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All Activities

Mensuration

On the other pages in this section we have divided our activities in to sub-topics. This page has them all together in one place for browsing

Area and Perimeter of 2D shapes

Rectangular Relations

Time 1-2 hrs  Students are given A3 templates of parallelograms and trapeziums to cut out, fold, rotate, reflect, paste in an attempt to fit them inside a template rectangle. No dimensions are given. Students have to decide what dimensions of the original parallelogram and trapezium correspond to the length and width of the rectangle - the activity's emphasis is on mathematical process. 

Area of Parallelogram

Body Surface Area

Time 40mn - 1 hr. Working in small groups students are asked to find an approximation for the surface area of their bodies. This is a great practical investigation using surface area of prisms and spheres, etc. with real life applications. It encourages students to think critically about area.  Which 3D shapes will best approximate the shapes of the different parts of the body?

The formulae required are not included and students are expected to find them out for them for themselves. To help verify the ‘accuracy’ of their estimate a formula used in the pharmaceutical industry that estimates their body surface area from their mass and height is provided.

Circle Circumference

Time 40mins+  This investigation enables students to discover pi for themselves through a practical activity.  The classic method of measuring the circumference of a circle with string is enhanced with a lovely applet and a chance to use dynamic geometry to make very accurate measurements.  This activity is best attempted before the students have any knowledge of pi.  It is an alternative to the  Discovering Pi

Discovering Pi

Piece of Cake

Time: 1 hr Which is the biggest piece? Give students this selection of parts of circles and ask them to put them in order of size. The result is an intuitive need to work out the area of sectors of circles!

Prism People

Time 2 hrs Exploring prisms by making them! Students are asked to build model robots from different types of prisms. The practical element of building a prism is used to help students discover the related features of these shapes. Following this, students areasked to look in more detail at the structure and surface area of prisms and test out what they have learned on some examples and challenges. 

There is nothing quite like having to build a triangular prism for helping to understand the structure of the shape. If the pairs of equal length sides are not correct then the shape doesn't work. This practical is fun and the learning objectives are an inherent part of the task. The follow up task leads nicely on by asking students to correctly identify the equal side lengths on the nets of prisms and this is key to working out the various surface areas! Its fun and takes advantage of students natural intuition. I particularly like the challenge of designing prisms whose surface area is 100cm², because of its apparent ease at the outset and creeping complexity.

Prism Volumes

Time: 1-2hrs This is a very practical activity to help students develop a sense of volume/capacity and how to calculate it for prisms. Through pouring sand or water into and between a range of millimetre precise relational prisms, students discover that the volumes of prisms are proportional to the areas of their cross-sections! Plenty of hands-on challenge for all abilities.

Spherical Cylinders

Time: 1h This activity uses a useful interactive website animation to help students work out for themselves the relationship between the volume of a sphere and the volume of a surrounding cylinder of equal height and diameter to that of the sphere's. Once they understand where the formula comes from, they then apply it, in pairs or small groups, to a series of interesting, if unusual, problems!

Pyramid Model

Time 2 hrs This is a lovely practical activity to help students visualise and derive the formula for the volume of a pyramid.  By constructing square based pyramids (10cm by 10cm) with height 5cm then fitting six of them together to make a cube of edge 10cm they realise the volume of the pyramid is 1000/6cm².  The activity is supported with videos and practice questions.

Making Cones
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