Lesson 1 What Is Volume?

    • Let’s build and compare objects made of cubes.

Warm-up Which One Doesn’t Belong: Objects Made of Cubes

Which one doesn’t belong?

  1. Rectangular prism. 2 cubes wide. 2 cubes long. 2 cubes high. 
  2. Two rows of cubes. Bottom row, 5 cubes. Top row, 3 cubes. 
  3. Rectangular prism. 2 cubes by 1 cube by 4 cubes. 
  4. Rectangular prism. 5 cubes by 1 cube by 2 cubes. 

Activity 1 Build Objects with Cubes

Problem 1

  1. Which is bigger?

    1. Rectangular prism. 2 cubes wide. 2 cubes long. 2 cubes high. 
    2. Two rows of cubes. Bottom row, 5 cubes. Top row, 3 cubes. 

  2. Explain or show your reasoning.

Problem 2

  1. Which is bigger?

    1. Rectangular prism. 2 cubes by 2 cubes by 2 cubes. 
    2. Figure. Base is 2 cubes by 2 cubes square. 4 more cubes are stacked on top. 

  2. Explain or show your reasoning.

Problem 3

What does it mean for an object to be “bigger”?

Activity 2 Build and Order

Problem 1

Dog made of multicolored cubes 

Each group member:

  1. Take a handful of connecting cubes and build an object.

  2. Order the objects by volume.

  3. Repeat.

Problem 2

Each group member:

  1. Take 9 connecting cubes and build an object.

  2. Order the objects by volume

Practice Problem

Problem 1

Which has greater volume? Explain or show your reasoning.

A
Figure made of 3 rows of cubes. First row, 4 cubes. Second row, 2 cubes. Third row, 1 cube.
B
Rectangular prism. 2 cubes by 2 cubes by 2 cubes.