2 of 12

The Miniature Grocery Store ow Do I Make This Mouse Do What I want?ow Do I Make This Mouse Do What I want?

How Do I Make This Mouse Do What I want?

A 6th-10th Grade STEM Lesson Plan

Alaina Rowitsch

The Arizona STEM Acceleration Project

3 of 12

Notes for teachers

List of Materials

Various cardboard boxes
Ruler
Graph paper
Coloring utensils

This activity could be appropriate for a middle school classroom as well since the standard is introduced in 6th grade. Students may need more frequent check ins and scaffolds.

4 of 12

Standards

G.G-GMD.A

Explain volume formulas and

use them to solve problems.

G.G-SRT.A

Understand similarity in

terms of similarity

transformations.

Standards

6.E2U1.7 Crosscutting Concepts and Background Information for Educators

Use ratios and proportions to analyze and interpret data related to scale, properties, and relationships among objects.

Science and Engineering Practices

develop and use models
use mathematical and computational thinking
construct explanations and design solutions

5 of 12

Objective:

Students will be able to apply knowledge of surface area, volume and scale factors to create a miniature version of an object with 70% accuracy.

6 of 12

Agenda

Day 1 (60minutes)

Introduce the project and take measurements of original object.

Day 2 (60 minutes)

Create miniature version of the object.

7 of 12

Intro/Driving Question/Opening

How do food production companies design packaging for their products?

Is there a reason for all that air?

How can something like scale factor help a company keep consistent branding while limiting the amount of materials necessary to package it?

8 of 12

Hands-on Activity Instructions

Groups of 2
Start by collecting various cardboard boxes from food products. It helps to have many shapes and sizes. For advanced students I like to give circular or triangular shaped containers.
Have each pair of students choose one box to be theirs for the entire project.

9 of 12

Hands-on Activity Instructions

Have students open their box to reveal the net.
Using a ruler have students measure each side length of their box.
After they have found the side lengths, have them calculate the surface area and volume of the box.

10 of 12

Hands-on Activity Instructions

Students will then use their knowledge of scale factors to reduce all of their measurements by ½.
They will then sketch their reduced net onto graph paper.
Using the new net, have students find the surface area and volume of their reduced net.
Have students decorate their new boxes to match the originals and glue them back together.
I like to display all of these boxes as a miniature grocery store shelf.

11 of 12

Assessment

Category	Exceeds	Meets	Approaches	Falls Below
Surface Area 20pts 10pts for original and 10pts for new	Student can accurately calculate the surface area of a 3 dimensional object.	Student can accurately calculate the surface area of at least 70% of a 3 dimensional object.	Student can accurately calculate the surface area of at least 50% of a 3 dimensional object.	Student can not accurately calculate the surface area of a 3 dimensional object.
Volume 20pts 10pts for original and 10pts for new	Student can accurately calculate the volume of a 3 dimensional object.	Student can accurately calculate the volume of at least 70% of a 3 dimensional object.	Student can accurately calculate the volume of at least 50% of a 3 dimensional object.	Student can not accurately calculate the volume of a 3 dimensional object.
Scale Factor 10pts	Student can accurately apply scale factor to reduce the measurements of an object.			Student can not accurately apply scale factor to reduce the measurements of an object.
Appearance 30pts	New object is well constructed, is approximately ½ the size of the original and matches appearance to the original.	New object is well constructed, and is approximately ½ the size of the original.	New object is approximately ½ the size of the original.	There is no new object.

12 of 12

Differentiation

A simpler version can be done by only having students calculate the surface area and volume of the original box without making it miniature.

Remediation

Extension/Enrichment

Allow students to use spare cardboard to create more accurate versions of their original products. Oddly shaped boxes can become an an enrichment for advanced students.

You can also have students identify the different types of quadrilaterals present in their box and prove using side lengths and angles why a piece is a rectangle, trapezoid, etc.