Lesson Portfolio Entry Template

Task What is the main activity that students will be working on in this lesson?
The main activity the students will be working on is an investigation into the relationship between the volume of a prism and the volume of a pyramid. The students will create a polyhedron that is a prism and a polyhedron that is a pyramid. The two polyhedrons will have the same base and the students will investigate the relationship of the volume by seeing how many times you can fill up the pyramid before you have filled up the prism. They should discover the prism is 3 times the volume of the pyramid. To make sure the students reach this understanding before we go on and actually write down the formulas for volume of a pyramid, I will have the student respond to a writing prompt. The prompt the students will respond to is In your own words explain the relationship between the volume of the prism and the volume of a pyramid. Why do you think this relationship exists?

Instructional Support What tools or resources will students have to use in their work that will give them entry to, and help them reason through, the activity?
To help my students complete the writing activity, they will have the paper we used in class to guide our discovery of the relationship between the volume of the prism and the volume of the pyramid. The students will also be able to hold and look at the nets they created to help them better figure out why they think the relationship of 1/3 exists. Before we do the writing too, the students will have a class discussion about the discoveries they made. Hopefully this will help the students who struggled with the constructions to access the writing prompt.

Learning Goals (Residue) What understandings will students take away from this activity?
From this activity, the students should understand the relationship of the volume of a prism and the volume of a pyramid. They should also better understand how the formula to find the volume of the pyramid is derived from the volume of the prism. The students also should identify that a pyramid with the same base and the same height is very similar to the prism with that base and height and explain how these two shapes are related. They should also be able to explain how those shapes contribute to the formulas and relationship of the volumes. On the writing aspect, I expect the students to become even more comfortable to expressing themselves mathematically. They should continue to work towards understanding that in math it is just as important to express your ideas through writing as it is in other topics.

What questions might you ask students that will support their exploration of the activity and bridge between what they did and what you want them to learn (the two green boxes)?
To be clear on what students actually did, begin by asking a set of assessing questions such as: What did you do? How did you get that? What does this mean? Once you have a clearer sense of what the student understands, move on to appropriate set of questions below. How many times could you dump the unpopped popcorn from the pyramid into the prism without it overflowing or breaking the prism? Think about the shapes of the two polyhedrons, what was similar about the pyramid and prism and what was different? How do you think the shape of the two polyhedrons contributes to the relationship between the volume of the pyramid and the volume of the prism?

What are the various ways that students might complete the activity?
The student may complete the writing prompt by saying something to the effect that you can fill up the pyramid three times before you fill up the prism once. They also may say that the pyramid is a third of the volume of the prism. I expect students to struggle with the second part more. Some may ignore the second part of the question, but I expect most will answer with something about how the pyramid is missing parts of the prism. Referring to the fact the pyramid has the same base and height, but it cuts off some of the side part of the prism to form a point.

Evidence What will students say, do, produce, etc. that will provide evidence of their understandings?
The students will be able to identify that the volume of the pyramid is 1/3 the volume of the prism. The students will be able to explain in writing how the pyramid is similar to the prism because it has the same base and height, but it is missing part of it, so that creates the difference in volume.