Lesson plan
Archived
Determine the volume of a right rectangular prism by packing it with fewer unit cubes than would fill the solid
teaches
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.Math.Content.5.MD.C.5a
http://corestandards.org/Math/Content/5/MD/C/5/a
teaches
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.Math.Practice.MP1
http://corestandards.org/Math/Practice/MP1
teaches
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.Math.Practice.MP2
http://corestandards.org/Math/Practice/MP2
teaches
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.Math.Practice.MP3
http://corestandards.org/Math/Practice/MP3
teaches
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.Math.Practice.MP4
http://corestandards.org/Math/Practice/MP4
teaches
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.Math.Practice.MP5
http://corestandards.org/Math/Practice/MP5
teaches
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.Math.Practice.MP6
http://corestandards.org/Math/Practice/MP6
teaches
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.Math.Practice.MP7
http://corestandards.org/Math/Practice/MP7
teaches
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.Math.Practice.MP8
http://corestandards.org/Math/Practice/MP8
Big Ideas:
The volume of a right rectangular prism can be found by packing it with fewer unit cubes than needed to fill the space because we can use our knowledge of length, width and height to estimate the volume.
Volume can be measured by finding the total number of same side units of volume required to fill the space without gaps or overlaps.
This lesson builds on students' work with finding volume using unit cubes. The task uses a real-world problem to contextualize the idea of determining the volume of a space by packing it with fewer cubes than will fill the entire space. Students are asked to persevere in solving a problem with unknowns, by using what they know about finding volume using cubes. The mathematical content in this lesson builds towards students' future work with applying formulas to calculate volume.
Vocabulary:
cube, cubic unit, space, gaps, overlap, length, width, height, base, layers