Activity (Hands-On)Grades 6 - 8
New Boxes from Old
Students find the volume and surface area of a rectangular cardboard box (such as a cereal box), and then figure out how to convert that box into a new, cubical box having the same volume as the original. As students construct new, cube-shaped boxes from the original box material, they discover that the cubical box has less surface area than the original, and thus, a cube is a more efficient way to package things.
A cube seems like a very simple geometrical form, until you try to make one out of a cereal box.Copyright NIST
Engineers design product packaging to protect the products and efficiently utilize materials. Students think like engineers when they determine that a cube is a more efficient use of material.
- Students will be able to determine the dimensions of a cube when given its volume.
- Students will be able to assert that a cube has less surface area than a rectangular prism of the same volume, and then prove this assertion with examples.