One Volume….and So Many Prisms!

Grade 9s made a lot of rectangular prisms today.  Each one had a volume of 300 cubic centimetres.

Calculations were made, and shapes were mapped out.

We cut out our nets, and formed the prisms.

There were so many different prisms!  Each one had the same volume….but quite different surface areas.

We classified them from biggest surface area to smallest surface area.

Some groups took this to an extreme….and made very long skinny prisms.

Period C’s prisms were infiltraded by an imposter…..(one of these things is not like the other!)

We talked a bit about how surface area and volume are very important in biology.  We have lungs that maximize surface area….our cells divide when they get too much volume compared to surface area….and worms (much like our long prisms) have a big area compared to volume, and they take advantage of this and breathe through their skin!