I want to show you a little about the Area Explorer applet first. Teacher Input You may choose to lead the students in a short discussion about how to find the area of irregular figures. Explain to the students how to do the assignment. You should model or demonstrate it for the students, especially if they are not familiar with how to use our computer applets. Open your browser to Area Explorer in order to demonstrate this activity to the students.
Area is the amount of space inside the figure.
So imagine the grid lines mark off floor tiles like the ones we have here at school. Now floor tiles are one-foot squares. So to find the amount of space in the object we just need to count the floor tiles. Once we have calculated the area we will put our answer in the textfield and click the check answer button. Independent Practice Allow the students to work on their own and to complete the worksheet, should you choose to provide one.