MEASUREMENT
Lesson 4

PHYSICAL SCIENCES – MEASUREMENT

LESSON 4.  Measuring Volume (Lab)

Objective:  Determining if actual measurement or mathematical calculation is more precise.

Materials:

Geometric Solids

Ruler

Caliper

Teacher Notes:

This lesson provides students materials to get a sense of volume both hands-volume and exercises to calculate volume.  You might want to start the lesson with a short lecture on volume and capacity, and have them start with Part I, to learn how to “feel” volume. If you only have one set of the Geometric Solids, you can have students work on the mathematical portion and take turns with the ranking of which is the largest to smallest. 

Students should round off their measurements to nearest millimeter.  Remind students they are measuring the inside volume.  You might review for students that the altitude or height of a triangle is the shortest segment from the vertex to opposite side and should be perpendicular.

ANSWERS:

Part I.  large cube, large cylinder, hexagonal prism, sphere, large rectangular prism, large triangular prism, square pyramid, hemisphere, cone, small rectangular prism, small cylinder, triangular prism, small cube, small triangular prism

Part II.