Volume of Rectangular Prisms

Are your students in need of additional practice on how to find the volume of a regular rectangular prism? While students may be able to apply the volume formula (l × w × h), maybe they are ready for some practice that requires a bit of critical thinking.

Teach Starter has created an interactive resource for your students to use during your volume unit. Students will be challenged to complete each of the seven interactive activities. Throughout this resource, students will:

• match figures with different dimensions but the same volume
• determine missing side lengths,
• calculate volume and sort from least to greatest
• explain with words why two different prisms have the same or different volumes.

Through this activity, students will practise solving problems where they must determine the volume of rectangular prisms.

Tips for Differentiation + Scaffolding 

A team of dedicated, experienced educators created this resource to support your maths lessons.

In addition to individual student work time, use this activity to enhance learning through guided math groups, whole class lessons, or remote learning assignments. 

If you have a mixture of above and below-level learners, we have a few suggestions for keeping students on track with these concepts: 

🆘 Support Struggling Students

For students who need additional support, allow the use of a calculator. Provide students with notes and completed examples. Additionally, numbers can be modified, or the number of slides can be reduced. Students can also work in a small group, one-on-one, or with a peer tutor.

➕ Challenge Fast Finishers

Challenge students to convert the dimensions to different units and then solve them again. Ask probing questions such as, “What patterns do you notice in the volume when the dimensions are changed?” For example, converting the dimensions 3 m by 2 m by 4 m = 24 m³ to cm would be 300 cm by 200 cm by 400 cm = 24 000 000 cm³. Is that the same as just multiplying the volume 24 by 100? Why or why not? What could you multiply the volume by to convert cubic metres to cubic centimetres?

Easily Prepare This Resource for Your Students

Use the Download button’s drop-down menu to access the interactive PowerPoint or Google Slides version of this resource.

Be sure to remove the answer slides from the document before you assign this interactive activity in Google Classroom or give a copy to your students.

Students will complete activities by dragging and dropping items, drawing lines, typing in responses using the editing tools of the software.

This resource was created by Lorin Davies, a Teach Starter Collaborator.