Area and Volume Module Overview

Introduction

Have you ever looked down at the square tiles on the floor in your kitchen, bathroom, or classroom? Did you know that the area of your classroom is found by adding up all the tiles? Area, volume, and surface area are used often in our society. Businesses want to make the most money that they can so they try to figure out the least amount of surface area needed to make packages. This means they will spend less money making those packages. By the end of this unit, you will be able to find the area, volume, and surface area of many different shapes by using what you already know about triangles, squares, and rectangles.

Essential Questions

How can we calculate the area of a figure?
How can we find the area of a rectangle?
How can we find the area of a parallelogram?
How can we find the area of a triangle or other polygons?
How do we calculate the volume of different figures?
What is surface area and what is it used for?

Key Terms

The following key terms will help you understand the content in this module.

2-Dimensional: A shape that only has two dimensions (such as width and height) and no thickness.
3-Dimensional: An object that has height, width, and depth (thickness), like any object in the real world.
Area: The number of square units it takes to completely fill a space or surface.
Bases of a Prism: The two faces formed by congruent polygons that lie in parallel planes, all of the other faces being parallelograms.
Cubic Units: Volume of the solids is measured in Cubic Units.
Edge: The intersection of a pair of faces in a three-dimensional figure.
Equilateral Triangle: A triangle that has all three of its sides equal in length.
Face: One of the polygons that makes up a polyhedron.
Fractional Edge Length: The length of each edge of the cube is a fraction.
Isosceles Triangle: A triangle that has two of its sides equal in length.
Kite: A quadrilateral with two distinct pairs of equal adjacent sides. A kite-shaped figure.
Lateral Faces: In a prism, a face that is not a base of the figure.
Net: A two-dimensional figure that, when folded, forms the surfaces of a three-dimensional object.
Parallelogram: A quadrilateral with both pairs of opposite sides parallel.
Polygon: A number of coplanar line segments, each connected end to end to form a closed shape. A regular polygon has all sides equal and all interior angles equal. Irregular polygon sides are not all the same length nor do the interior angles have the same measure.
Polyhedron: A 3-dimensional figure that has polygons as faces.
Prism: A polyhedron with two parallel and congruent faces, called bases, and all other faces that are parallelograms.
Quadrilaterals: Four coplanar line segments linked end to end to create a closed figure. A 4-sided polygon.
Rectangle: A 4-sided polygon where all interior angles are 90°.
Rectangular Prism: A solid (3-dimensional) object which has six faces that are rectangles.
Rhombus: A quadrilateral with all four sides equal in length.
Right Triangle: A triangle where one of its interior angles is a right angle (90 degrees).
Right Rectangular Prism: In a right prism, the lateral faces are each perpendicular to the bases.
Scalene Triangle: A triangle where all three sides are different in length.
Square: A quadrilateral that has four right angles and four equal sides.
Surface Area: The total area of the 2-dimensional surfaces that make up a 3-dimensional object.
Trapezoid: A quadrilateral that has one pair of parallel sides.
Triangles: A closed figure consisting of three line segments linked end-to-end. A 3-sided polygon.
Triangular Prism: A prism whose bases are triangles. A solid 3-dimensional object what has five faces: three rectangles and two bases.
Vertices: The common endpoint of two or more rays or line segments.
Volume: The amount of space occupied by an object.

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