Creator: Annenberg Media | visit site
Grade Range: 4 - 8
This website offers motivational and interactive class activities to learn more about 3D shapes. It also shows how to calculate surface area and volume, as well as other mathematical properties about the 3D shapes. Specific topics include surface area and volume, platonic solids, Euler’s Theorem, and several others. The <i> Test Your Skills </i> link provides an interactive quiz complete with photos, illustrations, and animations. The <i>About This Interactive</i> link provides standards, goals, lesson ideas, and more.
In the Classroom
Get your interactive whiteboards (or projectors) ready for this intriguing website. The website introduction page activates students’ schema by explaining how we live in a three-dimensional world. Have your students add to the website’s list of 3D shapes in their classroom. Complete the web activities as a class (on a projection screen), or have your students team up and research the website in pairs. At the conclusion of the activity, have your students divide into two teams to complete the interactive quiz. Project the questions on the screen, and have the teams discuss the math problem and determine the best answers.
At Home
If your child is struggling in geometry class or learning about 3D shapes, use this free resource to help simplify the complexities of this challenging topic. Sit down together and test your own knowledge.