Unit cubes and volume

Original lesson by Andrea Palmer

Objective
In this lesson we will:

• define volume
• use a unit cube to find the volume of rectangular prisms and cubes
• use a formula to find the volume of rectangular prisms and cubes.

Big idea
What is volume? How many unit cubes would it take to fill this box? Students work to develop formulas
for finding the area of rectangular prisms and cubes.

Do now
7 MINUTES
Often, I create ‘do now’s that have problems that connect to the task that students will be working on
that day. Today I want students to review the difference between surface area and area. I want students
to recognise that area is covering a two-dimensional figure while surface area is covering a three-
dimensional figure. I also want students to start using their spatial reasoning to determine the number of
cubes that make up a figure. Some students may struggle to count the cubes that they cannot see. Other
students may count the faces of the cubes without realising that some cubes have multiple exposed faces.
If students struggle, I encourage them to think about the solid as several layers.
I ask students what strategies they are thinking about to answer the questions. I call on students to share
what they think and why. If there is disagreement, build the first cube out of connecting cubes. Students
construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

© 2020 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.
How many cubes will it take to fill up the box?
8 MINUTES
For this lesson I have collected 12 open boxes that can be filled with unit cubes. I use place value cubes
and wooden cubes depending on the size of the box. I only give students a few unit cubes, not enough to
fill a complete layer of the box.
If you don’t have boxes, you can use inch grid paper to create boxes. I show students that we can create
a net for the rectangular prism. Some students struggle to use the three labelled dimensions to label the
other sides of the net. I explain that each rectangular prism is composed of three matching faces. Two
faces that fold together to make one edge must share the same measurement.

© 2020 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.
I explain the task to the students and review expectations. I pass out materials. As students work, I walk
around to monitor student progress and behaviour. Students use appropriate tools strategically, attend
to precision, and look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning/
If students are struggling, I may ask them one or more of the following questions:
• What is your job?
• How many unit cubes do you have?
• How many unit cubes would it take to fill the bottom of the box? How do you know?
• Is there another way to find the number of unit cubes it would take to fill the box?
If students complete the problem and explain their thinking on their paper I may ask them:
• How many unit cubes would it take to fill half of the box?
• How many unit cubes would it take fill 1/3 of the box?
• Another box takes up 75% of the space of your box. How many cubes would it take to fill it?

Volume
8 MINUTES
We fill in the notes and complete the examples together. I want students to look for patterns when finding
the volume of the boxes. Some students may notice that if you multiply the length, width, and height the
result is the total number of cubes it takes to fill the box. Other students may notice that if you multiply
the number of cubes it takes to fill the bottom of the box by the height the result is the total number of
unit cubes that it takes to fill the box. I push students to see whether these ideas work for each of the
different boxes. Students look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

© 2020 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.
Guided practice
5 MINUTES
We work on these questions together. I ask students, “How can we apply the work we just did to answer
these questions?” I call students up to the front to show their ideas and explain their thinking under the
document camera.

© 2020 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.
Practice
12 MINUTES
Note:
• I Post a Key for these problems around the room.
We go over directions and expectations. As students work I walk around to monitor student progress and
behavior. Students are engaging in MP6: Attend to precision and MP8: Look for and make sense of
repeated reasoning.
If students are struggling, I may ask them one or more of the following questions:
• What do you know? What are you trying to figure out?
• Make an estimate for your answer.
• What strategies do you have for finding volume?
• Does your answer make sense?
When students complete their work, they raise their hands. I quickly scan their work. If they are on track,
I send them to check with the key. If there are problems, I tell students what they need to revise. If
students successfully complete the problems they can move onto the challenge problems.

© 2020 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.
© 2020 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.
© 2020 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.
Closure and ticket to go
10 MINUTES
For the Closure, I have students turn to the first challenge problem. Students participate in a Think Pair
Share. I call on students to share their answer and explain their thinking. I want students to apply their
knowledge of triangles to this situation. Some students may mistakenly think that they can multiply the
base of the triangle by the height of the triangle and then by the height of the prism. If this comes up I
ask, “How do we find the area of a triangle?” I want students to see that we can find the area of the
triangle base and then multiply it by 25 cm. This connects to the V = Bh method for a rectangular prism.
Students are engaging with MP3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others and
MP8: Look for and make sense of repeated reasoning.
I pass out the Ticket to Go and the Homework.

© 2020 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.
© 2020 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.
© 2020 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.
Acknowledgement
© Andrea Palmer. Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0.
https://betterlesson.com/lesson/560468/unit-cubes-and-volume?from=breadcrumb_lesson

© 2020 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.