In class we did an activity called Pyramids and Cones. It was a hands on activity which was fun. The purpose was to develope and understand the realtionship between the colume of a pyramid and how that is related to the volume of a prism. Aswell as the relationship between a cone and it's related cylinder. We constructed a cone, open box, a square pyramid, and a circular prism. We filled the pyramid with rice and poured it into the open box. It took three to fill it up.
We did the same for the cone and circular prism. And again it took three to fill it up. Based on that we can calculate that the volume of a pyramid is 1/3rd(b)(h)(l) and the volume of a cone is 1/3rd(Pi squared)(h).
Here is a video I found that demonstrates this.
I loved this activity! I had so much fun creating our little boxes and cones in class. The best part was filling them with the rice. It got a little messy but my partner and I worked through it. It was even more interesting to find that cube could be filled with 3 square triangles. I was certain that only 2 would fit. What a great way to help us understand volume. Awesome post!
ReplyDeleteI realized, after using tape to make the nets into a shape, that the rice would still fall out of the sides and we had to fix it so the rice didn't fall out, and get a more accurate measurement. But I had never seen the correlation between the cone and the cylinder, or the pyramid and the prism! This was a fun way to get children, or college students, to see the difference!
ReplyDeleteThis activity is amazing! I am definitely going to incorporate this into my classroom if and when I teach in an appropriate grade level! I had never made the connection between the figures and the formulas until I participated in this activity. I wish I would have had this knowledge throughout high school or had an activity like this throughout grade school in general. Love your blog! Love Mrs. Klassen and her activities!
ReplyDeleteHello Kysa, I really enjoyed this activity. I really like the pictures you used. I like the video link you added also. Your blog is cute :)
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