Surface Area and Volume
Strand: Shape and Space (Measurement)
Outcomes: 3, 4
Step 1: Identify Outcomes to Address
Guiding Questions
- What do I want my students to learn?
- What can my students currently understand and do?
- What do I want my students to understand and be able to do, based on the Big Ideas and specific outcomes in the program of studies?
See Sequence of Outcomes from the Program of Studies
Big Ideas
- Measurement is a number comparing an item that is being measured with a unit that has the same attribute (length, volume, weight and so on) (Van de Walle 2001, p. 277).
- Area is the measure of the surface of a two-dimensional object and is expressed in square units. Surface area is the sum of the area of the faces of a three-dimensional object and is also expressed in square units.
- The surface area of a three-dimensional object is calculated by analyzing the two-dimensional faces that make up the three-dimensional object. For example, the surface area of a rectangular prism is calculated by finding the area of each of the six rectangles that make up the faces of the object and adding them together.
- Volume refers to the amount of space filled by three-dimensional objects, for example a prism. Prisms have two congruent polygons as the bases and the lines joining corresponding points on the two bases are always parallel.
- The space filled by a 3-D object is compared by using the attribute of the measure of length. Volume is measured in cubic units, such as cubic centimetres or cubic inches.
- Volume formulas can be developed and applied using the attribute of length.
- The relationship between volume and surface area is similar to the relationship between area and perimeter. Prisms that are more cubelike have less surface area than those prisms with the same volume that are less cubelike (Van de Walle and Lovin 2006, p. 246).
Grade 8
