Volume You Can Eat

When trolling through Twitter recently, I was reminded of a time when I taught Geometry... two decades ago. Back then, I would do an activity where I would assign students a 3D shape and they would have to create an edible dish with it- almost always cake. Because of the changing times, we are no longer allowed to have students make food to bring to class (a while back, a student actually brought laced cookies to school and gave one to her teachers; it was terrible). Plus, I only taught Geometry my first 2 years of teaching- so no need for this activity... until now.

Because we are integrating Algebra 1/Geometry/Algebra 2, I teach volume and surface area again. So why not bring back "Volume You Can Eat"? It's quite simple, stock up on Little Debbie snacks (they're pretty cheap)- or anything else that works for you. I like Little Debbie because it's easy to find cylinders and rectangular prisms. I used chocolate balls for spheres but could not think of a triangular prism that's edible and individually wrapped. Next, make assorted bags with different shapes of food, hand them to groups with this student sheet, and it's like magic... they immediately start working (of course, it helps that they aren't allowed to eat until they've found the volume for all items).

My students were very appreciative and I was a little surprised the food didn't give them a sugar high- they stayed pretty chill for the duration of class.

~SSB

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