As we had a planning day the other week, the question came up of how do we get students to understand surface area in this way, without just giving them the formula?
Leave it to Pinterest to be the first thing to pop up on Google and to provide an awesome activity!
Students had to design their own tin man with their group and figure out how much tin foil they needed to cover him. Once they came to an agreement, I gave them however much aluminum foil they calculated, no more and no less. Their goal was to completely cover their tin man with no excess foil.
Despite the crazy week of snow, ice, and funerals, we slowly progressed through this project. I was really impressed with how well the groups worked together. It was a lot of work!
There were several groups who did not finish, but most groups got to the point of getting their tin foil and wrapping their tin man before I had to just say, "We have to stop working on these projects and move on!" This weather is crazy!
I think this helped students understand what surface area is and the general concept of how to find it. However, it was not easy for them to take what they learned and apply it to an image of a cylinder or a rectangular prism to find the surface area.
This year, the only introduction I gave them was by showing them a box and asking them how I would figure out how much paint I needed. In every class, I was able to get to the point where someone realized we needed to know the area of the outsides. Next year I think I'll do more of an introduction to surface area and then set them off on their own!
Didn't they turn out cute?!?
PS: Brownie points to whoever remembers the surface area formula for a cylinder WITHOUT having to use Google! :)
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