Math Stars
Math Stars: a Problem-Solving Newsletter Grade 8
You've just hit the jackpot of integrating math problems and riddles with this jumbo-sized resource! Written as a newsletter, scroll through 35 pages of puzzles and quality problems to engage and encourage your learners to inquire and...
Virginia Department of Education
Exploring 3-D Geometry
Take young mathematicians on an exploration of the world of 3-D geometry with this seven-lesson unit. After first defining the terms perimeter, area, and volume and how they apply to the real world, students continue on to learn the...
Digital Lesson
Cereal Box Surface Area
How much math can your learners pour out of a cereal box? Your middle schoolers will explore their favorite cereal and calculate the surface area, volume, and weight ratios and log this information on the provided worksheet. They get to...
Curated OER
“I Can” Common Core! 6th Grade Math
Help your sixth graders reach their Common Core math standards by providing them with a checklist of "I can" statements for each standard. As each concept is covered, kids can check it off, as long as they can do what it states.
Discovery Education
Exploring Geometry
Middle schoolers construct a three-dimensional model of a city using both similar and congruent figures and geometric transformations. City must have at least ten buildings with each building labeled and may be constructed out of paper...
Workforce Solutions
Evacuate!
After a hurricane touches down on an area, locals begin the clean-up process. The Cynergy Plant requires cleaning, a blood drive is underway, temporary homes are needed for those that evacuated, and toiletries are rationed. Five lessons...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Geometry
Shape one's understanding of geometry using the resource. The sixth of seven chapters in 6th Grade Math focuses on geometry principles. Future mathematicians learn to find the area of parallelograms, trapezoids, triangles, and other...
Bowland
Sports Bag
Lay it out using the least amount of material. Learners use the dimensions of a cylindrical sports bag to find out the size of pieces of material needed to sew them. The pupils find the best placement of the pieces to use the least...
Bowland
Smoothie Box
Make it a tight fit. Given drawings of a smoothie bottle, pupils need to determine the size of a box to hold 12 bottles. Scholars draw a net to show the dimensions needed to create a closed box that would not allow the bottles to move...
Bowland
Candle Box
Shine some light on nets. Using a creative assessment task, pupils create a net that would fold up into a hexagonal box and include the tabs needed for gluing the box together. Scholars then draw candles on each of the sides and the top...
Radford University
Surface Area of Boxes
Explore surface area out of the box. Pairs investigate surface area by measuring two boxes and calculating the area of each side. Classmates trace one of the boxes onto butcher paper and create a net with the same area. Groups then...
Purdue University
Plastic Water Bottle Design – What’s the Best Shape?
Join the fight to reduce plastic waste. A hands-on STEM activity first teaches scholars about the scourge of plastic waste. They then measure the dimensions of water bottles to calculate surface areas and volumes before using the surface...
CCSS Math Activities
Smarter Balanced Sample Items: 6th Grade Math – Target H
Knowing the surface area certainly helps when deciding how much paint to buy before a project. Scholars solve for surface area, as well as volume and area, as part of the presentation from Grade 6 Claim 1 Item Slide Shows. Geometric...
Mathed Up!
Surface Area
Surface area is the sum of the parts. Given the measurements of different prisms, pupils determine their surface areas. Individuals find the area of each surface and figure out the surface area by finding the sum. The video, part of a...
Mascil Project
Packaging
Wrap up an engineering lesson plan with a worthwhile project. An engineering design task challenges groups to develop a package for a pharmaceutical company given constraints on the volume. Learners then create a presentation to...
Teach Engineering
Boxed In and Wrapped Up
If cubes have the smallest surface area, why aren't there more cube-shaped packages? Scholars take a box in the shape of a rectangular prism, cut it up, and make new boxes in the shape of cubes with the same volume. They then brainstorm...
101 Questions
Super Bear
Bear with your classes as they explore unit rate and proportions using gummies! Gummy bears come in many different sizes, including a 2,250-gram super bear! The task asks learners to determine how many regular bears and how many mini...
101 Questions
Dandy Candies
Package design is an economic necessity. Young scholars assume the role in an interesting inquiry-based lesson. Given 24 cubic shaped candies to package, they must determine the arrangement that uses the least amount of cardboard to...
101 Questions
File Cabinet
Take the resource out of the file cabinet. Young mathematicians estimate the number of sticky notes it would take to cover the surface area of a file cabinet. They answer a set of questions on how the number of sticky notes would change...
Teach Engineering
Buoyant Boats
Eureka! Using the clay boats made in the previous lesson, learners investigate the idea of buoyancy and water displacement to finish the last installment of five in a Floaters and Sinkers unit. Their observations during the activity...
Teach Engineering
What Floats Your Boat?
Clay's as good a material as any to build a boat, right? An introductory activity sets the stage for two activities associated with buoyancy. The first involves building boats out of clay, while the second uses these boats to measure the...
Indiana Department of Education
Amusement of the Future
Take your class on the ride of their lives! Physical science scholars get an in-depth look at potential and kinetic energies in an amusement park-themed unit. Students research, design, and promote their own amusement parks, complete...
Virginia Department of Education
Out of the Box
There's no need to think outside the box for this one! Scholars measure the length, width, and height of various boxes. Results help develop the formulas for the surface area and volume of rectangular prisms.
Virginia Department of Education
Surface Area of a Rectangular Prism
Wrap up a lesson on surface area with a resource that asks scholars to use the idea of wrapping paper to investigate surface area. They draw representations of rectangular prisms on graph paper to find the areas of the respective...