View video clips Students learn about and experiment with surface area and volume in this lesson from the Connected Math Project. They begin by reviewing previously learned concepts of base, height, width, and length. As employees of the ABC Toy Company, their task is to design a package to house 24 blocks. They are supplied with 24 stacking cubes to explore the different ways the cubes can be put together and packaged. For each package built, they record the dimensions and determine surface area corresponding to that box.

Students experience collecting data using manipulatives and devise creative solutions. The concepts of surface area and volume are repeated with each new investigation for each shape. Once students have finished, the class reviews and defines the different methods individual groups used to find surface area. The lesson culminates with the student discovery that as the smaller cubes are put together forming different rectangular shapes, if they are arranged to form a larger cube, the surface area is minimized.