“Painted cube” problem

Today we modelled what we would find if we painted cubes made from different numbers of blocks. We looked at how many blocks would be painted on 3 sides, 2 sides, 1 side and not at all.

Some of us made lots of cubes. Others made models to show various parts of the question.

We saw patterns in the data, and determined equations to predict the number of blocks in each group given the dimensions of the original cube.